Melissa McCarthy, one of the most gifted comic actors working today, will soon be starring in a tragedy. In “The Murder of JonBenét Ramsey” — premiering on Netflix on Dec. 10 — McCarthy plays Patsy Ramsey, the mother of 6-year-old JonBenét, who was killed in the Ramseys’ Boulder, Colorado, home on Christmas night in 1996. Because JonBenét had won several child beauty pageants, images of her in makeup and garish costumes created a spectacle around the case (which is still unsolved), and around the Ramseys.
JonBenét’s father, John; her mother, and even her 9-year-old brother, Burke, all became suspects in her murder, and the series examines the fallout from her death. Simpson trial in 1995, true crime had become a national obsession, and with JonBenét’s murder, newsmagazines, talk shows and tabloids had a field day, inciting the public to rabidity: Today, McCarthy remembers being part of the “feeding frenzy” herself. Clive Owen, who plays John, says McCarthy’s involvement as both an actor and executive producer was a “big part” of the reason he agreed to take the role.
And honestly, after doing this project with her — she can do anything.” And she has. After playing chef Sookie St. James in the beloved dramedy “Gilmore Girls” from 2000 to 2007, McCarthy broke out in film in 2011’s Paul Feig-directed blockbuster “Bridesmaids” as the crude yet earnest Megan.
The scene-stealing role brought her a best supporting actress Oscar nomination, a rarity for comedy — especially given that in the film’s famously gruesome food poisoning set-piece, Megan uses a sink as a toilet. McCarthy was shocked when she learned of her nomination, saying to her husband, director Ben Falcone, “I don’t think that’s true,” when he told her. (McCarthy was nominated for an Oscar a second time, for her fearless lead performance in Marielle Heller’s 2018 “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”) Over her career, McCarthy has starred in hit comedies such as Feig’s “The Heat” and “Spy” and Falcone’s “Tammy” and “The Boss” — and as the villainous Ursula in Disney’s 2023 live-action version of “The Little Mermaid.” But with “The Murder of JonBenét Ramsey,” she returns to her earliest training in New York City, when she spent two years studying the Sanford Meisner method of acting. Back then, McCarthy was “carrying folding chairs up to a rehearsal space to do a show and just making enough money to hopefully pay for the space that night.” Despite the different scale of audience, the same passion and community spirit went into “The Murder of JonBenét Ramsey,” McCarthy says in her first interview about the series, with the cast and crew putting in “hardworking days” while suffering through “hard moments.” Wanting to do right by Patsy, who died of ovarian cancer in 2006, McCarthy found people who knew her.
JonBenét wasn’t out in a pageant dress in her front yard.’” I said, “Oh, no. I have no interest in that.” I didn’t think it was any of my business to do, I guess? But I spent a lot of years not working, and somebody took the time to ask me — I should take the time to look into it.
The more I started to, I was really floored by the lack of humanity that had been shown to that family. 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. I had never put it together that I was a part of [judging them].
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