Melissa McCarthy on Getting Serious for ‘JonBenét Ramsey,’ the Psychiatrist on Set and Hollywood’s ‘Bulls—’ Excuse for Why Comedies Don’t Work Anymore

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. […] Melissa McCarthy graces the cover of Variety's "Power of Women" issue to discuss the state of comedy movies, “The Murder of JonBenét Ramsey” and more. 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. Because of the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995, true crime had become a national obsession,