‘The Act’: AnnaSophia Robb Opens Up About Acting Opposite Joey King’s Gypsy Rose

The Act has become something of a spring obsession for true crime nuts out there. The Hulu anthology series dramatizes the true story of Dee Dee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard into a tale of horror. Patricia Arquette stars as Dee Dee Blanchard, who had one of the most notorious cases of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, and Joey King is her daughter Gypsy Rose.

One way The Act frames the twisted nature of that mother-daughter relationship is by contrasting it with a more mainstream one, just across the street. AnnaSophia Robb plays the Blanchards’ neighbor, Lacey, and Chloe Sevingy is her mother Mel. While Lacey and Mel are loosely based on real people, they are fictional creations of producers Nick Antosca and Michelle Dean. Nevertheless, their relationship, fraught with in-fighting and dysfunction, feels all-too-real.

Decider spoke to AnnaSophia Robb during Winter TCA about working on The Act, true crime, and, of course, her cult hit show The Carrie Diaries.

DECIDER: How did you first learn about the story?

AnnaSophia Robb: I didn’t actually know the story from the news, so I was stunned by the sides and the script. I read it and I was just like, “What is going on?!” Then, when I finished it, I was like, “I have to read the next episode!” Then I watched the documentaries and spoke with Nick and Michelle and [director] Laure [de Clermont-Tonnerre]. Then obviously learned a lot about it and did a lot of research.

What’s it like working with Chloe Sevigny and building that relationship? It feels like a real, authentic mother-daughter relationship.

I had such phenomenal time working with Chloe, I have so much respect for her as an artist and for the way she’s constructed her career. She’s really stuck to her guns and made interesting choices and never turned down a certain type of role. So I was super excited to work with her. We spent a lot of time on the script together, talking about it, and working out the deeper dynamic between them and how to layer. Thinking about the scene and the arc over time, because it bounces back and forth over time. Charting that relationship, what I’m imagining and what she’s imagining for this role and speaking with Nick and Michelle and Laure and all of our directors. Also, just spending time together. We filmed in a small town, she stayed a couple blocks away from me. So, it was fun, we’d go get dinner, go get drinks, ask for fashion advice.

Your characters are obviously composites of real neighbors. It was really important to be the voice of the community or the viewer at home, like “How could this happen? How could you not notice it?” So how did you approach that?

What I love about this story is that it’s true crime, but I don’t feel like it’s about the detectives finding this body and, “Who dunnit?” It’s about these real relationships. Mel and Lacey embraced Dee Dee and Gypsy and thought that they knew them, ran errands with them, became friends with them, had barbecues. You think you know somebody, then the rug is literally ripped out from them.

For me, it was important to establish Lacey’s genuine friendship and genuine care for Gypsy, the place that she’s coming from. Why does she want to be friends with her? Does it make her feel better about herself? I think it’s also the truth of, she’s a do-gooder. What’s at the root of that? She thinks that she looks better because she’s helping people? Or does she really want to be her friends? I think that a lot of guilt she experiences at the end is because she asks herself, “Was that self-serving? Was that friendship? Or was she just lying to me?”

Your relationship with Gypsy…You’re kind of like this big sister or this role model, you epitomize everything she wants to be. You have this tender friendship developing. What was it like building that relationship with Joey King and what’s it like working with her when she’s doing this insane transformation on-screen?

So easy. I can’t speak highly enough about Joey. I can’t wait for people to see the show. She’s such a beautiful person, inside and out. She’s so intelligent. Then, to watch her transform and that little voice that comes out, boggles my mind. It felt pretty effortless.

We became really quick friends and I can’t wait to be friends with her for the rest of my life. I have so much respect for her in this role because she poured 100—150—200% of herself into it and I felt so safe doing scenes with her. Anytime that I got to do a scene with her, I felt suddenly in that world. She was so in it, it was like a black hole. It all existed within her.

Are you a true crime fan?

I am becoming a true crime fan. Before, it freaked me out, because I lived alone, so I was like, “I am not watching this!” But now, I think with Mindhunter and Escape from Dannemora, and I love Killing Eve so much. I know that’s not true crime, necessarily but true stories are endlessly fascinating. I think I find once the show finishes that with half of these characters afterwards I’m like, “Where are they now?”

I need to change the subject a little bit, because I love The Carrie Diaries.

Me, too.

I wanna know, has it stayed with you at all? Would you ever wanna do a revival of it with her in college or in her 20’s?

So many people ask that. They’re like “Is there gonna be a movie?”

What does it feel like to know that people still like the show?

It’s wonderful to be a part of something that people love. I’m so honored to be a part of a show that felt “safe” for so many people, where it was kind of like their comfort. They might’ve had a rough day, then they watched it at the end and they felt good. I have a lot more appreciation for that now, going through college, having a lot of college students be like, “That was my show! All my roommates and I watched it together.” I’m like, “Fuck yeah! That’s awesome!”

I wish I got to keep the clothes and the shoes, but I didn’t. It’s weird to think, I’m very grateful to have that part of my life, then I went to college. It ended and I stayed in New York to go to school. And here we are.

What’s next?

I’m doing a play. I’m doing Macbeth in New York. I love theatre and I’m absolutely thrilled, it’s an all-female cast. Talk about psychosis.

An all-new episode of The Act is now streaming on Hulu.

Watch The Act on Hulu