

Her mother has taught her to control how others see her, and she's learned well from her years as both an accomplice of fraud - Dee Dee took thousands of dollars in charitable donations for her "sick" daughter - and its victim. With the help of Google, Gypsy makes an effortless transition from cosplaying as Disney princesses to cosplaying as comic-book vixens. Featuring multiple crimes, perpetrators and victims, "The Act" raises all sorts of questions about where love ends and abuse begins, what it means to feel safe and what it means to be innocent. Whatever the truth may be, however, this is one of those stories that seize the public imagination for good reason. The source material is classic tabloid fodder, and one could certainly argue that it's tasteless to pore over the disturbing details when we will never know everyone's side of the story. No doubt about it, "The Act" is guilty-pleasure viewing. When Gypsy goes online, the stage is set for the violent act that the series has teased from its opening. Far from being moribund, Gypsy strolls around the house when Mom isn't watching, and she's growing up a lot faster than Dee Dee wants to admit. Alone with her new neighbor (Chloë Sevigny), the mom confides that her daughter probably isn't long for this world.īut inside the pink house, in the Blanchards' wholesome world of plushies and pastel fabrics, all is not as it appears. Everyone knows her as the selfless mom to Gypsy Rose (Joey King), a chirpy, chronically ill child who likes to dress up as Disney princesses and uses a wheelchair and a feeding tube due to ailments about which Dee Dee is a bit vague. When Blanchard (Arquette) moves into a pink house built for her by Habitat for Humanity in Springfield, Mo., her reputation precedes her. This week, I caught up with Patricia Arquette's Primetime Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning performance in "The Act," Hulu's 2019 eight-episode drama series based on the stranger-than-fiction case of the 2015 murder of Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard. Our streaming entertainment options are overwhelming - and not always easy to sort through. SICK FIC Arquette and King give acclaimed performances as a mother-daughter duo that conned the public - and each other.
