Joey King Confesses That She Was ‘So Nervous’ To Play The Role Of Gypsy Rose Blanchard On Hulu’s ‘The Act’

It’s not always easy to portray a real-life person, just ask Joey King.

The 19-year-old plays the role of Gypsy Rose Blanchard on the upcoming Hulu series The Act. King stars alongside actress Patricia Arquette, who plays the role of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. The show follows the true and tragic story of the Blanchard family. Hollywood Life that the first season of the show will follow Gypsy as she tries to escape her mother, who is believed to have suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, making Gypsy think that she is sick with illnesses like leukemia, asthma, muscular dystrophy, and brain damage.

Eventually, the story ends with Gypsy and boyfriend Nick Godejohn murdering her mother. Looking back, actress Joey King says that the role was quite a daunting task. On March 14, Joey walked the red carpet at the New York City premiere of the show and chatted with reporters about her highly-anticipated role. For starters, King says that it took a lot of work to master Gypsy’s voice.

The actress says that she would listen to tapes of the real-life Gypsy Rose for hours and hours and oftentimes, she would fall asleep with her headphones in because she wanted to make sure that she nailed Blanchard’s high-pitched voice. But even just playing the role of the now infamous killer, King had a lot of mixed emotions, including nerves.

“I was so nervous to take on this role, but I was so excited,” she shared.

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“I did a lot of preparation and stepping onto set that first day… we had a lot of rehearsal time, but there’s nothing like getting into full character on that set and being fully immersed in your character,” King confessed. “It was a magical moment but it was really nerve-wracking.”

And King says that viewers will likely go through a roller coaster of emotions when they’re watching the show. King says that since she played the role of Gypsy, she got to see a different side of her and called her a “very complex” character. While King does admit that Blanchard was the victim in all of this, she did say that she still is very manipulative.

“When people watch the show, there are going to be moments where they sympathize with her and feel very bad for her, and then there will be moments where they don’t like her but they’re going to feel sorry for her all over again.”

The first two episodes of The Act premiere on Hulu on March 20.