

Does 'The Act' Portray Gypsy Rose Blanchard's Voice Accurately?

No, that's not actress Joey King's real voice.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard Voice

The Act just wrapped its first season, but people haven't stopped talking about the murder of Dee Dee Blanchard. At the center of it all is her daughter, Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who is portrayed by actress Joey King.

The whole real-life tale is surreal, but one of the many unusual details viewers of the Hulu true crime drama have picked up on is Gypsy’s distinct voice. Specifically, they've been taken back by its unusual high pitch. Many think it's actually King's real voice, but it's not.In fact, when they were casting for her role in The Act, King recalls "the voice" being a crucial part of getting into character.

"It’s just doing your research — watching videos, listening to her speak, and just really trying to get it in my brain as much as possible,” King told Vulture in March 2019, adding that they didn’t initially want her to put on a voice. “I’m very happy that I was able to do her voice and become her more completely.”

In 2009, when Gypsy was about 17, her voice had almost a squeaky element to it as she sat next to her mother for an interview (however, we later learned that Gypsy believed she was years younger than she actually was). It was also that way when she appeared before a court for the very first time in 2015.

Because it's so unique, people couldn't help but question if this was her real voice, or was it brought on by years of abuse?

"It is possible that Gypsy Rose presents with puberphonia (high-pitched voice after birth), a class of psychogenic voice disorders," says Jayne Latz, an executive communication coach and president and founder of Corporate Speech Solutions. "[This happens] typically after a traumatic or a stressful life event, or even as a result of difficulties in communication in significant relationships."

Brian Petty, a speech pathologist at the Emory Voice Center in Atlanta, also noted that this could be her real voice, or one brought on by the number of unnecessary surgeries she underwent.

"People's voices can respond in unusual ways to physical and emotional stressors, and frequent intubations for medical procedures," Petty says. "It's also possible this is her natural normal voice. She appears to be a comparatively small person, so it's possible that this is just her voice."

But Dr. Nick Morgan, president of Public Words and author of the book Can You Hear Me?, has a different theory.

"The high, squeaky voice she was putting on was almost certainly part of the ruse,” says Morgan. “The question I can’t answer is, ‘Was this deliberate?’ If I had to guess, I would lean toward imagining she did it unconsciously because it’s so hard to do consciously and involves constant vigilance.”

Latz also recommends considering that Dee Dee might have wanted to keep control of her daughter and "rewarded" her for having a child-like voice.

"Many times, people who have been infantilized by caregivers will continue immature speech patterns that match that persona," Latz says. "This can include articulation distortions, like lisps, as well as atypical pitch variation, reduced vocal power, and even simplified vocabulary usage."

Because The Act is only based on true events, it’s unclear whether the voice was brought on by trying to get sympathy from the public, her mother, or both.

“If she was afraid and a victim, that would have been a way of showing she was staying the victim, the infant, the sick person her mother wanted her to be,” Morgan says, adding that “there’s more emotion in a higher voice.”

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