Getting into character. Renée Zellweger is fully committed to her role as convicted murderer Pam Hupp on NBC’s The Thing About Pam.
Photos taken on set of the upcoming TV series showed Zellweger, 52, sporting an outfit perfect for a snowy day in Hupp’s native Missouri. The Academy Award winner was also dressed in a fat suit with obvious prosthetics on her face, She finished up her look with a blonde bob.
Zellweger stars as Hupp, 62, in the scripted show based off a true crime podcast from Dateline. Josh Duhamel, Judy Greer, Katy Mixon and Gideon Adlon round out the cast.
Hupp is currently serving a life sentence in prison in Missouri for the murder of Louis Gumpenberger after entering an Alford plea, which means she entered a guilty plea because of the evidence but didn’t admit guilt to the crime. Earlier this year, Hupp was charged with first degree murder in connection to the death of Betsy Faria, who was fatally stabbed in 2011. Hupp has denied any involvement in Faria’s case.
Zellweger recently opened up about the obstacles that came with preparing to play Hupp on the small screen.
“She’s notorious, not famous,” the Bridget Jones’s Diary star shared during an interview at BlumFest on October 1, noting that she would be “trying to understand [the character] just based on the limited information that’s available,” which is challenging due to the lack of records.
The Texas native admitted that she has tried “not to think about” the fact that she is portraying a murderer.
“I’m just going to keep my head down and do my work, try to research different personality types and try to understand whether or not that psychosis or solipsism or combination of both, whatever it might be,” the Chicago actress explained. “Either way it’s going to be interesting and there’s a lot to learn.”
Zellweger was drawn to the project by the broad scope of Hupp’s case, adding, “It goes beyond just the peculiarity of the story or the audacity of the behavior of everybody involved. It’s sort of a glaring illustration of currently topical social issues.”
She continued: “It also speaks to, I guess you could call it, white lady privilege in America. And also it kind of has an interesting look at the sad invisibility of middle aged women in America and how in the most bizarre circumstances it can work to someone’s advantage, as is probably the case in Pam Hupp’s story.”
Scroll down to see photos of Zellweger as Hupp:
Source: Source: US MAGAZINE
