'The Act' star Joey King reacts to Gypsy Rose Blanchard's release from prison: 'I'm so happy for her'
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images; Brownie Harris/Hulu
- Joey King says that she's "happy" Gypsy Rose Blanchard was released from prison.
- King played Blanchard in the 2019 Hulu series "The Act."
- Blanchard said that she still hasn't seen "The Act," and that it negatively affected her life in prison.
Joey King says that she's "happy" for Gypsy Rose Blanchard-Anderson (née Blanchard) after her release from prison.
King played Blanchard-Anderson in the 2019 Hulu series "The Act," which adapted Blanchard-Anderson's life and the murder of her of mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, with then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn. The series earned King her first major awards show nods, with nominations at the Emmy awards, Golden Globes, SAG awards, and Critics Choice television awards.
In footage obtained by Splash News and published by Entertainment Tonight, King, 24, didn't respond when asked if she'd spoken with Blanchard-Anderson, 32, since her release or if she had plans to speak with her. But King stressed that she was "happy for her."
"I'm so happy that she's released," King said. "I'm so happy for her. She deserves freedom."
Blanchard-Anderson was released from prison on parole on December 28, 2023, having served eight and a half years of her 10-year sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the 2015 killing of her mother. Godejohn was convicted of first-degree murder, and received a life sentence without parole.
Prior to the murder, Blanchard-Anderson says that she was abused by her mother Dee Dee, who forced her into unnecessary medical treatments, shaved her head, and made her use a wheelchair, maintaining that she had been diagnosed with a variety of illnesses. Blanchard-Anderson, however, was perfectly healthy.
"The Act" aired while she was still in prison, and Blanchard-Anderson wrote in her ebook "Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom" that she still hasn't seen it. Furthermore, she wrote that the show's release negatively affected her life in prison, bringing increased attention from corrections officers, inmates, and members of the public who sent her emails.
"I was not consulted or compensated for a show that made actor Joey King a household name," Blanchard-Anderson wrote in the book.
Although she hasn't seen the show and didn't particularly enjoy the effect it had on her life, Blanchard-Anderson recently told Access Hollywood that she's sure King "did an amazing job" portraying her. She also said King was "spot on" in imitating her voice in an audio clip she heard.
Blanchard-Anderson has spent the weeks since her release spending time with her husband Ryan Anderson, whom she wed while she was in jail, and promoting her ebook and new Lifetime series "The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard."
Despite her experience with "The Act," she isn't opposed to seeing another actor playing her in the future.
"It's funny because I always wanted Millie Bobby Brown to play me," she told Access Hollywood. "I think she'd be good at playing me."