Renée Zellweger’s Incredible The Thing About Pam Transformation Took Four Hours

Renée Zellweger is generating so much buzz playing Pam Hupp in NBC's true-crime miniseries, The Thing About Pam. For the unfamiliar, Hupp is the real woman at the center of the 2011 murder of Betsy Faria. Hupp was charged with the crime in July 2021 by the Lincoln County Prosecuting Attorney, Mike Wood, and is currently awaiting trial. (She's pled not guilty.) The Thing About Pam covers this case in detail, chronicling how Hupp went from innocent friend to prime suspect number one. 

During a recent appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Zellweger got real about what it took to transform into the 63-year-old Missouri native. The actress had to sit in the makeup chair for a maximum of four hours every time she filmed.

"It was hot, but there was a lot of comedy involved because you have to laugh your way through stuff like that," Zellweger said to Clarkson. "But I'd never worked with full prosthetics like that before, and it's a skill that I did not know that I did not have." 

You may think that performing with hours-worth of prosthetics on would be distracting, but the Judy star said it was actually the opposite.

"I try to remove myself from the reality of it, which is that you're creating something that folks are gonna see," she said, "and I just kind of dive into it and do the work. So I just get really involved in the work, and it becomes about that, so I don't think about anything else."

In a chat with Jimmy Fallon, Zellweger further opened up about the experience, revealing one small detail that made her job slightly more difficult.

"I was so allergic to the adhesive, it was hilarious," she said. "Y'all, lots of Benadryl. Lots of Benadryl." 

The Thing About Pam airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.