Why Renee Zellweger chose prosthetics and padding for ‘Pam’
In her new NBC limited series, “The Thing About Pam,” Renee Zellweger wears prosthetics and padding to appear heavier in the role of a convicted killer. It’s a decision that some critics have questioned, arguing a larger actor could have filled the role.
Zellweger famously gained weight twice for “Bridget Jones’s Diary” in 2001 and “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason” in 2004. The character had settled into her goal weight (or Zellweger’s natural size) for “Bridget Jones’s Baby” in 2016.
The two-time Oscar winner chose prosthetics this time rather than to gain weight because her character is a real person whose looks, Zellweger believes, factored in to why she was initially not a suspect.
“We’re talking about a person who looks like somebody who we easily project our own beliefs onto about who she is: ‘Well, she’s clearly kind, and she’s clearly sweet and fun and funny and warm and thoughtful and a great friend because she’s always there and she’s always so generous.’ And we more easily dismiss anything that might be thought of in another circumstances, peculiar behavior.”
Zellweger says to match Hupp’s appearance this way left nothing to chance.
“I know the results of a ‘Bridget Jones’ experience and this is not a fictional character who’s up to my interpretation and just seeing what happens.”
The prosthetics process wasn’t an easier one because Zellweger also says she’s allergic to adhesive. “There’s a lot of chemicals involved in the application and removal of these prosthetics. You feel it.”
Zellweger portrays Pam Hupp, the best friend of Betsy Faria, a Missouri woman who was stabbed to death in her home in 2011. Police arrested Faria’s husband for the crime and he was found guilty after Hupp testified against him in court. He served three years and was exonerated in a second trial. Meantime, investigators circled around Hupp who was the last person to see Faria alive. She had convinced Faria to sign over a life insurance policy to her just days before she was killed.