In the off chance that Gone Girl readers missed the parallels between Ellen Abbott—the story’s prosecutor turned cable-news host who feasts on cases in which women are killed, kidnapped, and abused—and Nancy Grace, David Fincher really drove home the similarities between the two in his big-screen adaptation. He cast another big-haired blond with a Southern twang in the role, Missi Pyle, and instructed both Pyle and costume designer Trish Summerville to loosely base Abbott on the real-life HLN pundit. (Summerville reportedly relished the task, outfitting Pyle in leather and loud prints.) The resemblance was so clear that Grace herself picked up on it during a viewing with her family. And what did she think?
“I was very flattered most lately that Ben Affleck included me in Gone Girl,” Grace said to NPR (seemingly under the impression that Affleck had directed the film and/or written the book on which it was based). “I think my husband and I were the only people laughing at certain junctures of the movie.”
“I laugh[ed]—laugh[ed] out loud at it,” she continued. “And so [did] my family and so [did] my husband. Look, I didn't go into this to win a popularity contest. I do not expect to be crowned Miss Congeniality, O.K.? If that's what I was looking for, I would have gone into a different line of business.”
When the TV host spoke to USA Today several months back, she offered a similar reaction to the homage: “I got a huge kick out of it. I was totally lambasted and skewered. And that’s okay.” In fact, she thought that Abbott’s scenes, during which she eviscerated Affleck’s character Nick Dunne on-air, were modeled after one particular case she covered. “It was almost a redux of my analysis of (Scott) Peterson,” she said. “I have set myself up to be skewered. And I loved the movie. I’m just flattered that they portrayed me in it.”
And how did she rate Pyle’s performance?
“Well, I guess they kind of got the hair right,” said Grace. “I imagine the black leather jacket was right. The southern accent was a little over the top, but it was pretty good.”
She did have one playful critique with Pyle’s character though. “Her necklaces were way too tasteful.”
Related: Gone Girl, Fall’s Most Anticipated Thriller, Doesn’t Disappoint
