the tv series in which it is unrecognizable- Corriere.it

Manipulative and murderous, seemingly affable but in reality always moved by greed, a double personality: sunny outside, dark inside. Renée Zellweger enters the diabolical mind of Pamela Hupp, the psychopathic murderess convicted of a double murder and also suspected of killing her mother: The thrust of her? Money. A story that a few years ago had attracted the attention of the American media and which today has become a TV series (The Thing About Pam
episodes, every Tuesday on TopCrime, channel 39, and streaming on Mediaset Infinity).

“This case talks a lot about confirmatory bias and how we can all perceive what we have in front of us in a very different way – explained the actress -. Either because we look through the prism of our experiences or because we want what we see to tell a particular side of the story, to corroborate a conclusion ». Because at the beginning no one believes that the pseudo-mild Pam Hupp can be the ruthless and cunning woman that she really is her. A Machiavellian mind because she manages to get a man, Russ Faria, convicted of killing his wife Betsy. But when he, after four years in prison, is able to prove that he is not the culprit (he is cleared thanks to the interest aroused in the case by Nbc’s Dateline podcast because the investigators had worked very badly), she ends up in the dock and becomes the prime suspect in a new murder investigation, as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy held by her friend Betsy (stabbed 55 times, in the face of her friend). At that point “Terrible Pam” stages a fake kidnapping to divert attention from herself and kills the man she claimed she was trying to kidnap her. But lies and deceptions collapse like a house of cards. Pam is convicted as she gets away with the death of her mother, who fell – a little accidentally – from the balcony of her apartment.

“I was fascinated by this story, built on an escalation of growing absurdities: “How is it possible?” one wonders, at every turn, at every twist. Pam Hupp is a person who has learned very well to manipulate circumstances, she has a double personality, but she manages to disguise it perfectly. I think this is the most fascinating aspect of her: her self-presentation belies what is really going on in her mind. “

Two Oscars, the worldwide success with Bridget Jones’s diary

(2001), Renée Zellweger once again gave proof of her skills as a quick-change artist, after all she is an actress who has never feared to “get ugly” or change her appearance to get into the character of her scripts, here also thanks to a series of prostheses (two hours of work each time) to weigh down the face and body. But already at the time of Bridget Jones, the actress to give shape to the clumsy London single had undergone a high-calorie diet and then returned in super shape to wear the sequins of the 20s of Chicago. She disappeared from the scene for six years (“I was exhausted, I never gave myself the time to recover between projects. And, in the end, I paid for her. The sound of my voice made me feel bad”) for then reappear with much changed connotations due to excessive recourse to plastic surgery. Then another Oscar-worthy transformation as best actress in the biopic about Judy Garland (2019). One, none, one hundred thousand. Like her, Pam Hupp, a real estate agent with a helmet and a Martha Stewart-style suit, the television face of the made in USA lifestyle; diet based on sweets, glass of high-sugar drinks, toxic even in her business, driven by a mixture of passive aggression and greed from social climbing.

In America he did discuss the black comedy register of the series: The comic tone used to tell the story of a true double homicide was considered by many to be out of place and inappropriate. “It seemed important to me to bring lightness into the telling of this story – explained the actress who is also the executive producer of the project -. I find that the juxtaposition between the tragedy on the one hand and the sometimes comic absurdity of her behavior is an important aspect of this story. The narrative that she presents as her version of her story we ended up calling her Pam Visions. It’s absurd and funny if you allow yourself to see it that way. “

The Corriere della Sera and the Corriere.it website are out today and tomorrow without the signatures of journalists due to an agitation