The Act on Hulu has been getting a lot of buzz since its release on March 20, and rightly so-it tells the dramatized version of one of the craziest true crime dramas in history.
The show follows Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her mother Dee Dee, who Gypsy murdered in June 2015 with the help of her boyfriend Nick Godejohn. Dee Dee suffered from factitious disorder imposed on another (formerly and more commonly known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy), which led her to pretend Gypsy was severely ill and physically and mentally disabled, even though she was actually healthy, possibly to get attention and sympathy and maintain control over Gypsy.
Gypsy plead guilty to second-degree murder in 2016 and is currently serving ten years at Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri, where Gypsy and Dee Dee were living when Dee Dee was murdered. In 2023, after shes served about seven years of her sentence, shell be eligible for parole. Godejohn was convicted of first-degree murder in 2018 and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Gypsys age at the time of all these events (her mothers murder, her sentencing, and potential parole), are a big plot point in The Act, and led to a lot of confusion in the real-life story of Gypsy Rose.
Along with the fabrications about Gypsys health conditions, Dee Dee also lied multiple times about her age so that the world, and Gypsy, would think she was younger than she really was. According to the Buzzfeed article that The Act is based on, Gypsys father was told by Dee Dee not to address Gypsys age when he called on her 18 th birthday, because she still thought she was 14.
In the show, Gypsys confusion about her real age is illustrated several times. In the trailer, Dee Dee says Gypsy was born in 1995, to which Gypsy responds, I thought you said I was born in 1993? Later, Gypsy discovers she was actually born even earlier when she finds her insurance card that states her birthday as July 1991. According to an interview with Dr. Phil, Gypsy was 19 when she discovered her real age.
When Gypsy was found with Godejohn shortly after the murder of Dee Dee, authorities and her close friends were shocked to learn that she was actually 23. (So, she was 24 when she entered prison, is currently 27, and will be 32 when shes up for parole.) Gypsys father and stepmom are hoping for an earlier release as members of the community have signed petitions and pressured the Missouri governor to pardon her.
Either way, Gypsy is reportedly working toward her GED and thriving in jail. Despite everything, she still tells me that she's happier now than with her mom," Gypsys stepmom Kristy Blanchard told the Springfield News-Leader . "And that if she had a choice to either be in jail, or back with her mom, she would rather be in jail. For Gypsy, its a lot of freedom.