Michelle Trachtenberg’s Performance in Final Project Before Death Left Crew ‘Teary-Eyed’: Producer (Exclusive)

Michelle Trachtenberg’s final performance in the upcoming documentary Spryal prior to her sudden death at age 39 was one to remember.

“The amount of energy she put into turning into Michelle Cody White, I mean, it was almost eerie how much she became her,” producer Jennifer Hutchins exclusively told Us Weekly. “I don’t think I’ve ever sat in a room with that amazing of acting where we were all just teary-eyed.”

Hutchins added, “She was taking breaks because it had taken her so much. The stuff she was reading was extremely personal and emotional and raw, and she really took that in.”

In Spryal, Trachtenberg voices the documentary’s main subject, White, a woman who navigated an undiagnosed bipolar disorder while self-medicating and struggling with addiction. Trachtenberg first joined the project in 2021.

“It didn’t take much thought to land on the idea of, ‘The perfect Michelle Cody White just walked into the door,’” Hutchins recalled. “Michelle had told me that she was really moved by this project and wanted to support mental health awareness. It was just when things are meant to be. It was just, like, the doors just opened right up for it.”

According to Hutchins, Spryal is a “unique project” all on its own.

“What attracted me to it is, this footage is over [the span of]13 years — it’s home video footage of one family who did not think that this was going to be a documentary when this footage was happening,” Hutchins told Us. “They were just filming their life — getting married, falling in love [and] having a baby. And then the wife in the story, Michelle Cody White, started changing. And her husband, Randall, was videotaping her to show her how she was acting. The way he described it was she would turn into the Incredible Hulk one night, and then wake up the next morning and not remember how she was acting. He was recording her and saying, ‘Look, this is not you. This is not normal.’”

As Trachtenberg got involved with the project, she would read aloud White’s personal diaries detailing her addiction struggles.

“[White] was one of those people who kept very exquisite diaries and letters to herself and her family. So, we had tons and tons and tons of stuff she’d handwritten [and] we did not change one word of what she said,” Hutchins added. “We put her handwriting actually up on the screen as Michelle Trachtenberg is saying in Michelle Cody White’s voice in her own writing.”

She continued, “It’s not like a typical narration. It’s, like, she became her.”

Spryal debuted at the Dances With Films festival in June 2024 at Los Angeles’ Chinese Theatre. Later this month, the documentary will be presented at a premiere screening during “Shattering the Silence: A Benefit Evening for Mental Health Awareness” in Austin, Texas. According to Hutchins, Trachtenberg was in talks to attend the event to raise awareness and funds for the National Alliance on Mental Illness and other mental health resources.

“We were definitely encouraged to believe that she might participate were she well enough,” Hutchins told Us. “We had left it off at, you know, it would probably be a last-minute decision sort of thing. It was relayed to me that she was still a giant supporter of the film and would attend any time that she could.”

Hutchins had not received another update about Trachtenberg’s potential attendance ahead of her death. News broke late last month that the former child star had been found dead at the age of 39. Her cause of death has been listed as “undetermined” as Trachtenberg’s family objected to an autopsy. (The Gossip Girl alum is survived by her parents, her sister and her boyfriend, Jay Cohen.)

“I’ve lived on this journey with this for so long and we were in a recording studio [together]. She’s one of those people that when you’re around her, it feels like an old friend,” Hutchins said of Trachtenberg’s passing. “She’s just so sweet and warm and gentle and just such a professional.”

Hutchins further shared that, when she envisions Trachtenberg, she sees “her being this very powerful voice” capable of “shattering the silence for a mental health movement where we can help relay the message that it’s not ‘them and me.’”

“It’s all of us,” she continued. “Mental health doesn’t discriminate.”

“Shattering the Silence: A Benefit Evening for Mental Health Awareness” will be held Saturday, March 15 and will be live-streamed via Rewarded.TV. Tickets are available for purchase here.

With reporting by Andrea Simpson