True crime transformations
the true crime that's worth your time
As true crime continues to gain the respect of the mainstream public, more and more highly recognizable stars are making themselves…less recognizable to play folks we all recognize from their mug shots. We’ve got Renee Zellweger in a fat suit (The Thing About Pam), Sarah Paulson in a fat suit (American Crime Story: Impeachment), Naveen Andrews in a fat suit (The Dropout), and I could honestly do a whole separate discussion thread on fat suits, couldn’t I?
I’ve always been impressed with how completely Powers Boothe disappeared into Jim Jones in the 1980 CBS movie on the mass slaying, for example (take a peek below), but I am less impressed (as I have already mentioned) with Colin Firth as Michael Peterson. And then there’s the whole cast of House of Gucci. What do we even do with that whole set of shenanigans?
So that’s what we’re talking about today: the best and worst of true-crime transformations. What actors surprised you with how well they turned into these real life figures of trouble and tragedy? Whose star turn is overrated (opinions seem divided on how well Monster holds up, for example)? And who should never have taken that role in the first place? Let’s dish. — EB