In a Surprising Twist, ‘The Act’s Joey King and Gypsy Rose Blanchard Still Haven’t Met
Joey King is up for an Emmy tonight for her work portraying Gypsy Rose Blanchard in The Act.
The Hulu show tells the true story of the murder of Dee Dee Blanchard and her relationship with her “gravely ill” daughter, Gypsy, who actually wasn’t sick.
The real Gypsy Rose has spoken about the show before, but Joey just told Cosmopolitan the two still haven’t met.
If you’re an actor playing a real-life person, you might be scared of pissing off the living, breathing human being you’re pretending to be, but at least you’ve got options on how to approach it. You could always (1) pull a Sarah Paulson in American Crime Story and become friendly enough with your IRL character to bring them as your Emmys date or (2) pull a Joey King in The Act and stay far away. (Both Joey and Sarah got Emmy nods for their work, so clearly there’s no “best way” to do it.)
It still might be surprising to hear that Joey hasn’t met Gypsy Rose Blanchard, since Joey’s up for an Emmy tonight for playing her. But Joey explained why she and Gypsy didn’t touch base to Cosmopolitan exclusively during Entertainment Weekly’s 2019 pre-Emmys bash.
“There were many reasons. I just wasn’t able to get in contact with her, number one, but number two, I don’t know…I was portraying the story of somebody and the story was based on a lot of truth, but there were a few creative liberties. But my important thing was being able to tell the story as truthfully and as correct to the public as possible,” Joey told Cosmopolitan.
“So what I got to see was what everyone else got to see. I saw the documentary and I got to see the Dr. Phil interview. I’ve seen everything else that the public has seen, and I don’t really know if it would have aided my performance to see something that the public didn’t get to see, because a lot of the time, Gypsy’s quieter moments were things that I had to interpret myself because we never got to see something like that. But I would love to meet her one day, and I would love the universe to correct the wrongs it did to her.”
For what it’s worth, Gypsy herself reportedly said Joey “nailed the role” but has zero interest in a meeting.
Much of The Act hinges on the dynamic between Gypsy Rose (Joey) and her mom, Dee Dee (Patricia Arquette), so it’s a good thing Joey and Patricia bonded. They got so close that Patricia was one of the first people Joey called when she found out about her Emmy nomination. Their characters’ strange mother-daughter bond was obviously crucial to the show’s success, and Joey said it wasn’t easy to pull off well.
“It was a lot of work. It was a lot, it was really hard. We loved each other so much, so being able to have that trust and compassion with somebody you’re working with, that undeniable support was so special,” Joey told Cosmopolitan. “We had to go through so much as those characters, so being able to rely on that person emotionally was so key and crucial to our performances. I can’t imagine doing the role with anybody else. Helping each other out was our main focus and our motto.”
Both Patricia and Joey are up for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie tonight, so clearly, that motto worked.
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