Melissa McCarthy shares truth about JonBenét Ramsey's childhood after speaking to friends for new role
Melissa McCarthy has revealed what people close to the Ramsey family told her about JonBenét Ramsey's life away from the public image that came to define her.
The six-year-old was found dead in the basement of her family home in Boulder, Colorado, on December 26, 1996, hours after her parents reported her missing.
Her murder remains unsolved almost 30 years later, with the case becoming one of America's most infamous true crime mysteries.
McCarthy is now portraying JonBenét's mother, Patsy Ramsey, in Netflix's upcoming limited series The Murder of JonBenét Ramsey, alongside Clive Owen as her husband John.
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It turns out that preparing for the role led the Bridesmaids star to reconsider some of the assumptions she'd held about the family herself.
Speaking to Variety, McCarthy explained that she sought out people who had actually known Patsy as she attempted to understand the woman she was playing.
What she heard painted a very different picture of JonBenét's everyday childhood from the beauty pageant photographs that dominated newspaper and television coverage after her death.
McCarthy said: "And they were like, 'Those kids were in jeans riding their bikes. JonBenét wasn’t out in a pageant dress in her front yard.'"
JonBenét had taken part in child beauty pageants before her death, and photographs of her wearing makeup and elaborate costumes became some of the most widely circulated images associated with the case. McCarthy admitted she had been influenced by that coverage at the time.
She recalled: "In 1996, I was 26, and I have a very vivid memory of standing in a grocery store and looking at a tabloid and thinking, 'How could you dress a little girl like that?' Because that’s what we were being told."
Looking back, the 56-year-old said she had not initially recognised how much she had participated in judging the family.
She said: "I remember being obsessed.
"I had never put it together that I was a part of [judging them]. I went willingly. And that’s on me."
McCarthy initially had reservations about accepting the role of Patsy, who died from ovarian cancer in 2006.
She said: "Oh, no. I have no interest in that."
However, she decided she owed it to those involved to research the case before turning it down completely.
She explained: "The more I started to, I was really floored by the lack of humanity that had been shown to that family."
McCarthy has since said she feels protective of Patsy and hopes the series encourages people to reconsider the way the Ramsey family became part of a public spectacle.
She said: "This might sound nuts: I’m very fond of Patsy. I have so much compassion for them, what they went through, and go through currently."
The Murder of JonBenét Ramsey premieres on Netflix on December 10.
Topics: True crime, Netflix, Entertainment
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