Amanda Knox Speaks Up Against Movie 'Stillwater' Harmfully Using Her Name
Amanda Knox recently claimed on Twitter that the new Matt Damon film "Stillwater" profited off her life and struggles for a wrongful murder judgment back in 2007.
Tom McCarthy told Vanity Fair that he was directly inspired by "the Amanda Knox saga" that erupted in Italy, which became the movie's plot.
Knox released a lengthy statement on Thursday, referring to the movie by saying, "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."
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.
— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox) July 29, 2021
/ a thread
She also said, "would love nothing more than for people to refer to the events in Perugia as 'The murder of Meredith Kercher by Rudy Guede,' which would place me as the peripheral figure I should have been, the innocent roommate."
I would love nothing more than for people to refer to the events in Perugia as “The murder of Meredith Kercher by Rudy Guede,” which would place me as the peripheral figure I should have been, the innocent roommate.
— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox) July 29, 2021
Amanda Knox Calls Out Tom McCartney
The journalist also pointed to the interview of McCartney in which he said, "We decided, 'Hey, let's leave the Amanda Knox case behind' [for the film]. But let me take this piece of the story - an American woman studying abroad involved in some kind of sensational crime and she ends up in jail - and fictionalize everything around it."
Knox stated how McCarthy reinforced an image of her being guilty and untrustworthy as he "fictionalized away her innocence."
"I have not been allowed to return to the relative anonymity I had before Perugia," she added. "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."
In Italy, Knox, whose case was a media sensation, spent four years in prison before being fully exonerated.
'Stillwater' As 'The Amanda Knox Saga'?
Tom McCarthy directed "Stillwater," where it was starred by Matt Damon, who played Bill, an American worker from Oklahoma.
He was joined by his estranged daughter, Allison, played by Abigail Breslin, imprisoned in Marseille, France, for a murder case in which she was not involved.
The film then transitioned into a story about a father racing to absolve his daughter.
While on the other hand, Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were acquitted in an Italian court for the 2007 killing of Meredith Kercher, in Perugia, Italy, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Knox told her own story in a self-titled Netflix documentary in 2016, where she talked about the failures of the media and court system that smeared her.
She has also called out certain critics positioning "Stillwater" as a reimagining of "the Amanda Knox saga" and describing her as a convicted murderer.
This new film by director Tom McCarthy, starring Matt Damon, is “loosely based” or “directly inspired by” the “Amanda Knox saga,” as Vanity Fair put it in a for-profit article promoting a for-profit film, neither of which I am affiliated with.
— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox) July 29, 2021
