Gypsy-Rose Blanchard is making some surprising claims about the production of Hulu’s The Act six years after its release.
“There’s a lot behind The Act that nobody talked about,” Blanchard claimed on the Monday, June 30, episode of Tori Spelling‘s misSPELLING podcast. “Essentially, Hulu and the producers stole my story and made a huge successful show out of it. Didn’t pay me life rights. Didn’t come to talk to me. Didn’t have any conversations to know what was accurate, what was not accurate.”
She continued, “To this day, a lot of people are like, they will go off of the events that they’ve seen and the details that they’ve seen on The Act. And they are incorrect because it was filler. It was filled in by producers.”
The Act followed the real-life story of Gypsy-Rose, who suffered abuse caused by Munchausen syndrome by proxy from her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. The mother-daughter duo’s toxic relationship resulted in Gypsy-Rose’s then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, murdering Dee Dee in 2015. Godejohn received a life sentence for the crime, while Gypsy-Rose was sentenced to 10 years for second-degree murder.
Brownie Harris / ©Hulu / Courtesy: Everett Collection
She served eight years of her sentence before being released on parole in 2023. Gypsy-Rose completed her parole last year and has since welcomed her daughter, Aurora, with her boyfriend, Ken Urker.
On the podcast, Gypsy-Rose recalled expressing her disapproval of the show while serving time behind bars. “[I was like,] ‘I don’t support this. This is wrong. You’re taking a tragic event and you are Hollywood-ing it on up,’” she explained. “And now people, when they write me, they’re confused because they don’t know fact from fiction.”
Gypsy-Rose said that instead of The Act, she recommends people watch the 2017 HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest. “One is factual, and one is Hollywood,” she stated.
Despite the inaccuracies Gypsy-Rose noticed in The Act — such as herself owning guinea pigs instead of cats — she applauded Joey King‘s portrayal of herself, even though the actress was allegedly prohibited from visiting Gypsy-Rose in prison.
“I think Joey King did an amazing job playing me,” she shared. “I even DMed her last February — January, February — and I told her, ‘Congratulations. I think you got my stamp of approval. You did a wonderful job.’”
According to Gypsy-Rose, King said “that she hoped that she portrayed me to the fullest extent, that she hopes it met my approval.” She added, “It was a huge undertaking, but it was a great exchange. I really appreciate her courage for taking on such a complex role and story.”
King’s performance in The Act earned the actress Critics’ Choice, Emmy, and Golden Globe nominations in 2019. Her costar Patricia Arquette, meanwhile, scored Emmy and Golden Globe wins for her portrayal of Dee Dee.