TV

Judy Greer on playing a real person on The Thing About Pam and those stressful courtroom scenes

And she has a message for Sam Waterston: "He's a hero."

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Published on March 22, 2022 11:00PM EDT

Warning: This post contains spoilers from episode 3 of The Thing About Pam.

Leah Askey (Judy Greer) is winning. At least for now.

In The Thing About Pam's third episode, the prosecutor went head-to-head with Josh Duhamel's defense attorney in the trial of Russ Faria (Glenn Fleshler). And, by the end of the episode, the jury had found Russ guilty of killing his wife, leaving both Pam Hupp (Renée Zellweger) and Leah feeling victorious. But of course, there's more to the story.

EW spoke with Greer about embodying the real-life lawyer, those courtroom scenes, and what comes next.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Were you aware of this story before you got this project?

JUDY GREER: The podcast, yes. I heard the podcast, but then of course once I knew they were making it and then once I got attached, I really dove in and gave it a real listen and did real research about it. It was just so unbelievable. I think that's what people really couldn't wrap their minds around was how insane this case was.

You mentioned your research process. How did you prepare? Could you meet the real Leah? Was that something you wanted to do?

No, I didn't end up meeting her. This is the first time I've played someone real, but this isn't a biopic, you know what I mean? This was a take on an event. So I felt like it would've been harder to play this role having met her. Because I really needed to be true to the tone of this story that we were telling and our interpretation of it. We were all given access to all the Dateline reporting. The scripts were so wonderful. But it's not a reenactment ... it's a version of the story, so it felt like the right decision not to meet her.

The Thing About Pam- Judy Greer — Judy Greer on 'The Thing About Pam'. Skip Bolen/NBC

What has the reaction been to your look on this show? It took me a moment to recognize you.

I know! I couldn't share pictures or what I was looking like with anyone. So it was fun when the first sneak peek trailer came out, and I was like, "Finally!" Because I had this crazy look. It was a real departure for me.

Let's dive into episode 3, which takes place almost entirely in the courtroom, so it's a lot of you versus Josh Duhamel and there are so many great looks and big speeches. What was the filming of that like for you?

I was scared. I was scared of not getting all of the lines right, which sounds so dumb probably because that's like the basic thing that we do as actors is memorize our lines, but I just wanted it to be so perfect. And I'm not used to legal jargon, so that was something. I'd never played a prosecuting attorney before and I'm like, "Are people going to buy it?" I was nervous for this one. And then early on, when I met Josh Duhamel and we first started working together, he was like, "I'm already memorizing. I pretty much have the whole courtroom stuff memorized." And this was day two. And I was like, "F--k really?" So he and I worked on it a lot, just getting our timing and the lines right.

I really didn't understand how hard those types of scenes are when you're not acting with anyone. You're not reacting to anyone. You're selling something. And I was like, "Wow you really have to have chops for this kind of work." I was always a Sam Waterston fan, but man, after doing that courtroom stuff, I was like, "He's a hero." [Laughs]

I have to say, it's really weird for me to root against you in something!

Thank you! That was my goal. I remember when 13 Going On 30 came out, I would get stopped on the street and people would be like, "You're mean!" And I'm like, "No, I'm an actor." I know we all love Jennifer Garner. I get it. You know it's a movie, right? I mean, I can't totally say that in this case, but it's fun. That's one of the cool things about my career is that I get to play all different kinds of characters. I get to play characters that have different stories and motivations. This one was really, really fun. It was a real departure for me. And I just feel so lucky that I got this chance. The longer you do this, you sometimes get typecast, so to be able to break out of it in something that's not like a small, independent, movie's always a good opportunity to do something different.

In real life, there was an alleged affair between Leah and one of the cops on the case. There are a couple moments between you and some of the cop characters — I imagine for legal reasons you couldn't include it, but were those flirty moments scripted as a potential wink to it?

This is all based on Dateline reporting and we had an incredible team of legal professionals who were making sure that we were always telling the right story. And so anything that can't be proven really is not there for us to necessarily convey. There's a lot of alleged things in the story. And that was one of them. But no, there was nothing that was proven. So there wasn't really that story to tell necessarily.

What can you say about what's to come for the back three episodes?

Well, in my opinion, it gets a little bit crazier and, for me as an audience member, a little bit more heartbreaking. This is an absurd story and we are trying to highlight that and be very respectful to the families that lost their loved ones. We see more things unfolding in the back three episodes that are unbelievable. People ask me, "What is it about true crime?" I don't have an answer. I could also say, "Why do people slow down when there's a car accident?" We just can't help ourselves. And this is, to me, is one of the ultimate car accidents.

The Thing About Pam airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

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