Renee Zellweger

OF ‘THE THING ABOUT PAM’ ON NBC

From where did you take your cues to play the real-life Pam Hupp in “The Thing About Pam”?

All that information, all those exchanges, the interviews, plus what’s on public record and court appearances and everything. Having all these materials to look at, and then reading, you know, some books about human behavior and what might motivate certain choices ... I think that the performance is sort of an amalgam of those things.

Does having so much information on a real person you’re playing limit you or free you as an artist?

I don’t know that that gives you more creative freedom – especially in the telling of this story, with the importance of representing or at least establishing an approximation of this kind of person who seems familiar to most people, that they feel like they recognize her.

That’s important, I think, in illuminating one of the topics that we are addressing subtly in telling this story, about our ability to sort of make assumptions about what we think about people. It seemed important that we were accurate in that way. I could see that people project their own life experiences in making assumptions about the character of this person, whom they think they know.

How was it to work so extensively with makeup and prosthetics in playing Pam Hupp?

You know, it’s funny because I’m new to it, with the exception of tiny bits and pieces I’ve used in performances before. This one was the most comprehensive and involved. And it’s so interesting. Every day, I learned something new, not just about how the pieces are built, but how they have minds of their own, and what they become during the day isn’t quite what they begin as in the morning.

Yeah, I learned a lot. It was fun creatively. I mean, that might make me a crazy person to find that fun, gluing stuff to your head every day. But I did find it fun.