Joey King, erstwhile star of the Dance Dance Revolution-adjacent movie The Kissing Booth has shaved her head for her next big role. King shared a video of herself getting shorn on Instagram, where she noted that she’s “very honored” to be playing Gypsy Rose Blanchard, a young woman who was a victim of Munchausen’s by proxy via her mother, in Hulu’s The Act.
“My name for the next 4 months, is Gypsy Rose Blanchard,” King wrote. She also gave an interview to Allure regarding her haircut. Speaking to the outlet, King called the ‘do “empowering.”
“I know this sounds crazy, and not a lot of people will agree with me, but I think every woman should shave her head at least once in her life,” she said.
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Note: this haircut is no “Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven” deal — King will be playing a real person who did, in fact, have no hair. Blanchard’s mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, reportedly kept her daughter’s head shaved to keep up the appearance that she had leukemia. Blanchard did not, it was later revealed, have cancer. In 2016, Buzzfeed News published an extensive report on the Blanchards, which later inspired the HBO documentary Mommie Dead and Dearest. After years of being “sick” for various doctors, Blanchard, who was much older than her mother Dee Dee said she was, plotted to kill her mother with a man she’d forged a romantic relationship with over the internet. Nicholas Godejohn, who is currently awaiting trial, was the one who actually killed Dee Dee, stabbing her in June of 2015. Blanchard eventually plead guilty to second degree murder and is currently serving a 10-year sentence.
In September, Hulu announced that it had picked up a scripted version of the story starring King as Blanchard. Patricia Arquette will be playing Dee Dee. Arquette and King are joined by Annasophia Robb and Chloe Sevigny, who will be playing neighbors who begin to suspect Dee Dee of foul play. Calum Worthy, who appeared in the first season of American Vandal, will portray Godejohn.
The Act does not yet have a release date, but will likely air in mid-2019.
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