Amanda Knox, inspiration behind 'Stillwater', says film profits off her story
- By Reuters -
- Aug 02, 2021
LOS ANGELES, July 30 (Reuters) – Amanda Knox, the American woman who was tried and acquitted of murder in Italy more than a decade ago, has hit out at a Hollywood movie that she said seeks to profit off her name without her consent.
Knox, who spent four years in jail in Perugia, Italy, before being acquitted of the 2007 murder of her roommate, expressed her frustration as Stillwater opened in US movie theatres this week.
Director Tom McCarthy has said the Amanda Knox case inspired the film about an American oil rig worker who travels to France to help his daughter who is in prison for a murder she says she didn’t commit.
The movie, starring Matt Damon, is seen as a potential Oscar contender.
“Does my name belong to me? My face? What about my life? My story? Why does my name refer to events I had no hand in? I return to these questions because others continue to profit off my name, face, & story without my consent. Most recently, the film #STILLWATER,” Knox wrote in a lengthy post on her Twitter account on Thursday.
Does my name belong to me? My face? What about my life? My story? Why does my name refer to events I had no hand in? I return to these questions because others continue to profit off my name, face, & story without my consent. Most recently, the film #STILLWATER.
/ a thread
— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox) July 29, 2021
The Stillwater filmmakers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Knox, now 34 and working as a criminal justice activist, said that the movie “reinforces an image of me as a guilty and untrustworthy person.”
“I have not been allowed to return to the relative anonymity I had before Perugia,” Knox said. “My only option is to sit idly by while others continue to distort my character, or fight to restore my good reputation that was wrongfully destroyed.”
I have not been allowed to return to the relative anonymity I had before Perugia. My only option is to sit idly by while others continue to distort my character, or fight to restore my good reputation that was wrongfully destroyed.
— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox) July 29, 2021
She invited McCarthy and Damon to hear her point of view by appearing on her Labyrinths podcast, which deals with issues ranging from justice to her personal life.
Rudy Guede, a local man, was found guilty of the murder in Perugia and was sentenced to 16 years in prison.