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Renée Zellweger is opening up about her transformation into Pam Hupp.
In a new crime drama called The Thing About Pam, the 52-year-old actress portrays Pam Hupp, a convicted murderer and the central character of the new NBC limited series. For the show, Zellweger wore a body prosthetic to appear more like Hupp — a decision that has been highly criticized online.
At the show’s premiere in Los Angeles on Monday, Zellweger told Entertainment Tonight that the goal “is to be accurate” in depicting Hupp on-screen.
“I think, especially in the case of telling this story, it was really important to as closely resemble Pam Hupp as we possibly could, because she seems so familiar, she seems like someone that we recognize, and we know,” she said.
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“In order for you to better understand how possible it might be that people would project onto her who they are sure that she might be or what kind of person she might [be], it just seemed really important that we got as close to that as we could,” the actress added.
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Starring Josh Duhamel as defense attorney Joel Schwartz, Judy Greer as prosecutor Leah Askey and Katy Mixon as Elizabeth “Betsy” Faria, The Thing About Pam tells the tale of the real-life murder of Betsy in 2011 and the scheme concocted by Hupp.
Hupp, who is currently serving a life sentence for the 2016 murder of Louis Gumpenberger, was charged in July 2021 for the 2011 murder of her friend Elizabeth “Betsy” Faria, who made Hupp the beneficiary of a $150,000 life insurance policy in the days prior to her death.
Hupp is also accused of framing Betsy’s husband Russell Faria for the murder.
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When Zellweger saw herself in full costume as Hupp for the first time, the actress was admittedly “amazed,” telling ET on Monday, “You might achieve a couple of things, but I had no expectation it was gonna be as remarkable as that.”
Getting in costume was a lengthy process for Zellweger, who said she would sit in her makeup chair for hours as she was prepped. Filming in New Orleans, however, was its own challenge.
“It was hot. It was really hot,” the Judy star laughed, per ET. “But it’s amazing to watch. Arian, who builds these things and applies them every day, he creates them by hand and paints them down to the last freckle. His precision is remarkable. It’s part of the adventure, watching that happen every day, is pretty cool.”
The Thing About Pam premieres on Tuesday, March 8 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
