Jaime King on Why Lifetime's "Hoax: The Kidnapping of Sherri Papini" Was an Important Story to Tell

quotAt first I thought 39I should option the story for my production company as someone needs to tell her story39quot she continued quotBut again the way she was portrayed in the press didn39t seem accurate to me They weren39t getting to the truth of it It was just a headline Cut to less than 24 hours later I get an offer from our beloved Tanya Lopez at Lifetime for this film It was like kismet and totally meant to bequotAfter reading the news story King began a personal deep dive into the events and Papini39s story hit a nerve How could an apparently happily married mother and an inspiration to her friends fake her own kidnapping There had to be more to it quotWhen my manager explained the story I was like 39Wait Iamp8217ve already been doing the research on this for the past like 24 hours39quot she recalled quotI think what39s important about these movies and these stories is the opportunity to explore all the aspects and sides then let the audiences decide It also gives a voice to people that have had their voices taken awayquotSomeone like Sherri who is now a felon her likeness any rights she has her life we39re stricken from herquot King continued quotAs storytellers it39s our job to tell the best we can of all sides of things So yeah there39s something that resonated with me about her and ultimately I felt that the media was not really taking account of her mental health or other contributing factors The salaciousness to her story amp8230 I felt like she was being muffled and that some part of the story was missing meaning her voice The media has a way of taking stories and for better or for worse the person becomes obsolete yet they39re the star of it and that really upset mequotAs the film explores Papini seems consumed with painting the perfect picture of domestic bliss and in doing so somehow loses herself in it Feeling helpless she runs away with Chris Joshua Collins an exboyfriend only to feel the pull of motherhood which makes her realize it was a huge mistake After three weeks of quotconfinementquot Papini reappears regaling tales of abuse by two Hispanic women who had taken her while jogging That39s where the real ordeal begins As investigators uncover discrepancies in her story they discover a long history of selfabuse and pathological lying Only this time Papini hasn39t just hurt herself She has also divided a community and wasted a lot of law enforcement resourcesquotI39m like this is a mother and no one makes that choice for no reasonquot King asserted quotI went down that rabbit hole just as a human being because I was tired of so many voices that aren39t heard I watched every interview everything while doing this Again if you39re a felon you have no rights to your name and likeness Portraying her I had to connect to what I believe was the truth of her that met the truth in me and maybe give people an opportunity to take a look as there39s always something deeperquotYou can make fun of mental health issuesquot she added quotYou can deny abuse issues but I39m simply not willing to do that As a storyteller to be able to present it in a real way and then give it back to the audience amp8230 We39re just reflecting humanity back to humanity and they can decide what happened This project allowed that It was important to me to not have her humanity taken away just because it was decided it was a good press clipquotAccording to King the role was a hard one to shake off at the end of the day especially as Papini was literally in her head quotFor me it was hair extensionsquot she said quotThese long extensions that were down to like my waist I39d wake up at 6 am crying from the weight of these things That sounds traumatic but at the end of the day you do want to release from the character but I couldnamp8217t because they39re literally in your head You39re immersed in it and just surrender to that processquotUnlike a lot of her work King did watch Hoax As a producer it was her duty but on a greater level she needed to walk away feeling like she39d achieved her goal quotThis one was for her amp8230 as her advocatequot she offered in closing quotIt was so important to me to know I could rest easy that if ever Sherri sees it that through the studio I was allowed to give her some kind of a voice and make sure I did a decent jobquotHoax The Kidnapping of Sherri Papini will be telecast Saturday January 28 at 8 pm on Lifetime as a part of their Notorious Women programming eventClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Jaime King on Why Lifetime's "Hoax: The Kidnapping of Sherri Papini" Was an Important Story to Tell

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Jaime King on Why Lifetime's "Hoax: The Kidnapping of Sherri Papini" Was an Important Story to Tell

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