EXCLUSIVE: Gideon Adlon (American Crime), Sean Bridgers (The Underground Railroad), Glenn Fleshler (True Detective), Suanne Spoke (Station 19) and Mac Brandt (Lovecraft Country) have been cast opposite Renée Zellweger, Josh Duhamel, Judy Greer and Katy Mixon in NBC/Blumhouse’s limited series The Thing About Pam. The series, originally slated to begin filming Sept. 8, in late August paused pre-production in New Orleans on the eve of hurricane Ida. It has now set a new Oct. 7 start date.
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Based on a true-crime phenomenon — the real-life, stranger-than-fiction story behind the 2011 murder of Betsy Faria that was featured on Dateline NBC — The Thing About Pam is produced by Blumhouse Television, NBC News Studios and Zellweger’s Big Picture Co. The series is based on the murder of Faria (Mixon) that resulted in her husband Russ’ conviction, though he insisted he didn’t kill her. His conviction later was overturned. The brutal crime set off a chain of events that would expose a diabolical scheme deeply involving Pam Hupp (Zellweger).
Adlon will play Mariah Day, Betsy and Russ Faria’s daughter who was 17 years old at the time of Betsy’s murder. Bridgers will play Mark Hupp, the husband of Pam Hupp (Zellweger). Fleshler will play Russ Faria, Betsy Faria’s (Mixon) husband. Spoke will play Janet, Betsy Faria’s mother and grandmother to Betsy and Russ’ two daughters, including Mariah Day. Brandt will play Det. McCarrick, one of the detectives assigned to Betsy Faria’s murder case.
Betsy Faria had stage 4 cancer when she was found stabbed to death in her home in December 2011. The case was examined on several episodes of Dateline, becoming one of the most popular topics to ever air on the hit NBC newsmagazine. It also became the subject of NBC News’ popular 2019 Dateline podcast The Thing About Pam, which remains one of the most downloaded podcasts on iTunes.
The Thing About Pam is executive produced by Zellweger, Carmella Casinelli, Jenny Klein (who also serves as showrunner), Mary Margaret Kunze, Liz Cole, Noah Oppenheim, Jason Blum, Chris McCumber, Jeremy Gold and Jessika Borsiczky.
Adlon is repped by UTA, Main Title, and McKuin Frankel Whitehead. Bridgers, who will next be seen in ABC’s limited series Women of the Movement, is repped by Domain and L.T.A. Fleshler is repped by Gersh and Suskin Management Group. Spoke is repped by The Culbertson Group. Brandt is repped by AKA Talent Agency.
