Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox” Episode 2.
“The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox” plunges viewers into the “psychological nightmare” that befell Knox when she was accused of killing her roommate Meredith Kercher while studying abroad in Italy in 2007 and was subsequently wrongfully imprisoned for years.
While the first episode of the Hulu limited series sees Grace Van Patten’s Amanda alerting her boyfriend at the time, Raffaele Sollecito, and the authorities of a suspicious break in, Episode 2 sees become the Amanda is the primary target of the Italian police in Meredith’s murder.
After cooperating with the police for numerous interviews, the authorities lure her back to the station with Raffaele before undergoing an intense, and at times, abusive, hours-long interrogation that Amanda withstood for hours before crumbling to pressure and naming her employer, Patrick Lumumba, as the perpetrator in what Van Patten calls a “tragic” coerced confession.
“The fact that the police had convinced her that this was true is a psychological nightmare,” Van Patten told TheWrap. “Being already in a state of confusion and then not knowing what’s going on — I can’t imagine that fear and the fact that they didn’t record it — and that there’s no evidence of that coerced confession is tragic to me.”
If the scene weren’t intense enough, Van Patten felt another layer of emotion as she filmed the scene in the presence of Knox, who serves as an executive producer on the project, saying “I was reenacting one of the most traumatic moments for her.”
“Amanda had really walked me through how she was feeling in that moment — the confusion, the fatigue, the lack of sleep and lack of communication. I couldn’t believe that that people could go through something like this,” Van Patten said. “I wanted to portray those emotions as authentically as possible for her.”
Even as Van Patten portrayed one of the most painful moments of Knox’s life, the “Tell Me Lies” star applauded Knox for her collaboration, saying “we built a trust together so that we could both relax a little bit more into it and know that the other would would inquire or step in when when needed.”
Below, Van Patten reveals how early conversations with Knox influenced her performance and how she hoped to humanize the same eccentricities that stirred up speculation of Knox’s innocence.
TheWrap: You were cast as Amanda after Margaret Qualley exited the role. Why was this a role you we’re interested in and how long did you have to prepare?
Van Patten: I’ve been so intrigued by this story since I first watched the documentary on Netflix. I was so fascinated by Amanda and how individual she was, and couldn’t believe that someone was scrutinized so much from her behavior. So when this came around as an opportunity for her to reclaim her story, I was super passionate about hopefully helping her with that. I had about two months before we started filming, which consisted of strictly learning Italian and speaking to Amanda as much as I possibly could.
What were some of those early conversations with Amanda like and what parts of her did you especially want to come through in your portrayal?
Gosh, I asked her millions of questions, from from broad to specific, but mainly how she felt throughout this whole saga, which is still going on, and I played her present day, so I tried to ask as much as I could, purely just to understand her as best I could, so that hopefully the audience can understand her a little bit more and humanize some of the things that she was scrutinized for at the time.
When we first meet Amanda, she’s very bright-eyed and excited to explore the world. What qualities of Amanda did you want to come through when we first meet her?
I really wanted to show these qualities that I picked up right away from Amanda: her lust for life, her positivity, her curiosity, and of course, I didn’t know her then, but to show as much as possible that she was just a 20 year old girl, really, at the start of her life and in the middle of a very exciting adventure — going to Italy and falling in love and experiencing all these new things — to really show that sparkle in her eye was really important, and to show just how young and naive she was really, to show that anybody that age … I don’t know if there would be a right way to act in a situation like that.
Amanda was criticized for lots of her eccentricities. What conversations did you have with KJ and Amanda about those?
It was a lot about humanizing those little behaviorisms that were so frowned upon and seeing them within context, as opposed to taken out of context, which is what the media did with with a lot of her actions. They took them out of context without understanding her, and they fed it to the public, and they believed it. It’s really showing the perspective of what happened in real time, and so many of those things that, yes, might seem strange out of context, hopefully makes more sense when you watch the show.
Amanda and Raffaele seemed like they’ve been together for years when they’ve just been together a week. How do you understand their relationship?
I was shocked to hear that, too, I had thought they had been together forever as well. It had only been a week, and I really wanted to show that young in love feeling. And thankfully, I had somebody like Giuseppe [De Domenico], who was so present and so locked in that we were such a team throughout it all. He brought Raffaele to life and made him so specific, and it really felt like these two people came to life when we were when we were acting with each other. It was really about finding it with him and and showing a lot of what the heart of the story is, especially later … it’s the fact that these two young people went through this tragic thing together that created a bond between them … forever.
When Amanda is first with the police, she seems to trust them, and gets quickly taken advantage of. When does Amanda’s trust in the police crumble, is it in that awful interrogation or even later after that?
Throughout the show, it really seems like Amanda trusted the police for longer than she maybe should have, as I think any young person in that situation would. We’re told that we should trust the police, and Amanda really, truly just wanted to help in any way that she could. Even throughout prison, there was a hope. She maintained hope and faith that that the police would would turn themselves around and understand that Amanda was innocent. I think that hope lasted know up until present day, when she when she decided to take control and meet with the man who put her in prison in the first place.
Your sister, Anna Van Patten, plays your on-screen sister. What was it like working with her?
It was magical. She’s my best friend, so the fact that we we got to do this together, and be in these beautiful places together, especially when shooting can be really lonely sometimes, and the fact that I had my sister there with me, not only on set, but off set was such a blessing.
What can you tease for viewers about the rest of the show?
As surprised as I was, and I think the audience will be, too. The fact that the story does have a hopeful ending for Amanda is really inspiring to me. You see this young girl who had her narrative stolen from her on the path to regaining that control of her life, and to watch that all play out was really beautiful to see and to see someone really take control of their life … I couldn’t imagine maintaining the positivity after going through something like that.
We’re also excited for the next season of “Tell Me Lies.” What can you tell us about it?
[It’s] probably what you expect times 100 in terms of twists and and turns and drama. It feels like the peak of all of these people’s worst decisions.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
New episodes of “The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox” premieres Wednesdays on Hulu.
