‘The Thing About Pam’ Finale: Ben Chase Teases ‘Reneé Unleashed’ – Hollywood Life

‘The Thing About Pam’s Ben Chase Teases ‘Emotional’ Finale With ‘Reneé Zellweger Unleashed’

Ben Chase, who stars as lawyer Nate Swanson in 'The Thing About Pam,' told HL to expect to see 'Reneé [Zellweger] unleashed' in the upcoming final episode.

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Image Credit: Skip Bolen/NBC

All season long we’ve been wondering what the thing about Pam is, and while actor Ben Chase can’t promise the finale will answer that question, he did say “this is as close are you’re going to get!” The actor, who plays young lawyer Nate Swanson, spoke to HollywoodLife in an EXCLUSIVE interview about the Reneé Zellweger-led drama series, which premieres its final episode tonight, April 12, at 10 PM ET on NBC. “I think you can expect everything that you guys have seen in the last five episodes just brought up to the nth degree,” Ben told HL. “We’re not going to leave you wanting more, like you’ve felt in the other one. This is the one that tops. It’s Reneé, unleashed and it’s all the characters coming back together to see how it all turns out.”

He continued, “There’s a lot of human emotion being wrapped up in it all, too. We can expect to find out what happened to Pam. I won’t go so far as to promise knowing the actual thing about Pam, but you’re going to get close.” The Thing About Pam follows the highly-publicized story following the bizarre circumstances that surrounded the murder of Betsy Faria (Katy Mixon) in Troy, Missouri in 2011. The brutal murder resulted in the incorrect conviction of Betsy’s husband Russ Faria (Glenn Fleshler), which has continued to haunt him and his family to this day. The crime set off a chain of events that would eventually come to unravel a scheme that would later expose the many indiscretions of Betsy’s friend Pam Hupp.

Ben Chase as Nate Swanson, Glenn Fleshler as Russ Faria. (Skip Bolen/NBC)

“One of the things that’s really interesting about the show, and I think one of the reason people like it and why they like true crime docs, is that there is a thing where, if the police department and a prosecutor decide you’re the person, it’s really hard to overcome that, which happened in this case,” Ben explained. “The judicial system has a lot of power, even a small little town like Troy, Missouri. Russ had good lawyers. He had the privilege of good lawyers, but the DA made a decision, and it just became about being right. From what I’ve been able to tell, it’s just about being right, and maybe some political aspirations.”

The shocking story told in The Thing About Pam is filled with numerous murders, affairs and diabolical schemes that one couldn’t believe actually happened. “This is all backed up. The crazier, the stranger the more absurd, which, unfortunately, climaxes even more in the finale, is all true,” Ben said. “It’s really an outrageous telling of what happened.”

Josh Duhamel as Joel Schwartz, Ben Chase as Nate Swanson. (Skip Bolen/NBC)

As for Reneé Zellweger’s remarkable transformation into Pam Hupp, Ben complimented the Oscar winner immensely on her artistic ability. “Watching her process for this role was something I admired, and was really looking forward to seeing. It was very light and jovial. She was often dancing, she became this person in a very creative, spontaneous way, which was really great to watch,” he revealed.

We certainly can’t wait to watch Ben, Reneé and the whole cast in action tonight for the finale at 10 PM ET on NBC. In the meantime, Ben has committed his time to a wonderful cause called GrowNYC, which is currently in the midst of their Spring Fundraising campaign. “GrowNYC is a food accessibility group and an environmental group in New York City — they famously run the Union Square Greenmarket — and one of the things that they’re doing now is raising money throughout April to help with food distribution centers,” Ben explained. “It’s super easy for New Yorkers to sign up for, you get fresh organic food from local farms. If you use food benefits, it’s $7, EBT, SNAP, whatever you use, it’s accepted. If you come in and pay cash, it’s $14. It’s a really amazing program for breaking down the barriers to how people get food.” Visit this link to learn more.