Oscar and Emmy winner Patricia Arquette has been tapped to star in the first season of The Act, Hulu’s character-based anthology series from writers Nick Antosca and Michelle Dean and Universal Cable Productions.
Written by Dean and Antosca and directed by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre (Mustang), The Act is a seasonal anthology series that tells startling, stranger-than-fiction true crime stories. The first season is based on Dean’s 2016 Buzzfeed article “Dee Dee Wanted Her Daughter To Be Sick, Gypsy Wanted Her Mom To Be Murdered.” It follows Gypsy Blanchard, a girl trying to escape the toxic relationship she has with her overprotective mother, Dee Dee (Arquette). Her quest for independence opens a Pandora’s box of secrets, one that ultimately leads to murder.
To everyone around her, Arquette’s Dee Dee Blanchard appears to be the perfect mom to her wheelchair-bound daughter, Gypsy Rose. She has guided and protected her daughter through a staggering number of hardships: severe illnesses, homelessness, and hurricane Katrina. To the people in her new neighborhood in Springfield, Missouri, she’s an admirable figure. But behind closed doors, her insecurities and need for control often get the better of her…
Antosca and Dean, along with Greg Shephard and Britton Rizzio, will executive produce. Universal Cable Productions, where Antosca is under an overall deal, is the studio.
