Updated July 31st, 2021 at 15:45 IST

Amanda Knox speaks out against Matt Damon's 'Stillwater' that's loosely based on her life

Amanda Knox recently spoke out about the Matt Damon-starrer Stillwater, which was released yesterday, that is loosely based on her life. See below -

Entertainment
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Matt Damon's recent film, Stillwater, has recently received some backlash from Amanda Knox, on whom the film is loosely based. Stillwater sees Matt Damon as an unemployed oil rig worker from Oklahoma who sets out alongside a French woman to prove his convicted daughter's innocence. Stillwater was released theatrically in the United States on July 30, 2021.

Amanda Knox speaks out against the Stillwater movie

Stillwater, which was released just yesterday, has received criticism from Amanda Knox who wrote about how her story was adapted without her consent. She also spoke about how the negative publicity she has constantly received, despite being innocent, has led to people forgetting about who actually committed the crime. Check out some of the tweets from her thread below -

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)

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)

I want to pause right here on that phrase: “the Amanda Knox saga.” What does that refer to? Does it refer to anything I did? No. It refers to the events that resulted from the murder of Meredith Kercher by a burglar named Rudy Guede.
— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox)

It refers to the shoddy police work, prosecutorial tunnel vision, and refusal to admit their mistakes that led the Italian authorities to wrongfully convict me, twice. In those four years of wrongful imprisonment and 8 years of trial, I had near-zero agency.
— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox)

Everyone else in that “saga” had more influence over events than I did. The erroneous focus on me by the authorities led to an erroneous focus on me by the press, which shaped how I was viewed. In prison, I had no control over my public image, no voice in my story.
— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox)

This focus on me led many to complain that Meredith had been forgotten. But of course, who did they blame for that? Not the Italian authorities. Not the press. Me! Somehow it was my fault that the police and media focused on me at Meredith’s expense.
— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox)

The result of this is that 15 years later, my name is the name associated with this tragic series of events, of which I had zero impact on. Meredith’s name is often left out, as is Rudy Guede’s. When he was released from prison recently, this was the NY Post headline. pic.twitter.com/5wgg0YUj59
— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox)

Who is Amanda Knox?

Amanda Knox is an American woman, who was wrongfully convicted of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher, 14 years ago. At the time, Knox was a student studying abroad in Perugia, Italy. Prosecutors claimed that Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito committed the crime during a "sex game run amok." However, there was no hard evidence linking them to the crime.

Though this was the case, the two were convicted for the murder. In 2011, four years after the sentencing, an appeals court acquitted them. However, the two were convicted once again in absentia in 2013, before being acquitted again in 2015. Rudy Guede, a drifter whose DNA was found at the scene, was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison in a separate trial.

Amanda in her recent tweets also states that neither, Rudy Guede nor Raffaele Sollecito's names were as publicized as hers. While promoting the Stillwater movie, Writer/director Tom McCarthy told Vanity Fair that he was simply "inspired" by the case, and it was only loosely based on her story. The director at the time said:

There were so many characters around the case that I really followed pretty closely. But really the first thing that I took away from it was, what would that be like as an American student to go over [to Europe] for what should be one of the most exciting moments in a young-adult life and to find yourself in that tragedy? There were just so many layers to that story that kept anyone who was following pretty riveted. … What's the story around the story?

The director also admittedly said:

We decided, 'Hey, let's leave the Amanda Knox case behind,' 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 in her recent rant also addressed these statements made previously by the director. She also spoke about how it has become the "Amanda Knox Saga" because of the negative publicity, even the story was about the murder of Meredith Kercher. Here are some more of Amanda Knox's tweets about the Stillwater Movie -

#STILLWATER was “directly inspired by the Amanda Knox saga.” Director Tom McCarthy tells Vanity Fair, “he couldn’t help but imagine how it would feel to be in Knox’s shoes.” ...But that didn’t inspire him to ask me how it felt to be in my shoes.
— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox)

He became interested in the family dynamics of the “Amanda Knox saga.” “Who are the people that are visiting [her], and what are those relationships? Like, what’s the story around the story?” I have a lot to say about that, & would have told McCarthy...if he’d ever reached out.
— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox)

“We decided, ‘Hey, let’s leave the Amanda Knox case behind,’” McCarthy tells Vanity Fair. “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.”
— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox)

Let me stop you right there. That story, my story, is not about an American woman studying abroad “involved in some kind of sensational crime.” It’s about an American woman NOT involved in a sensational crime, and yet wrongfully convicted.
— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox)

And if you’re going to “leave the Amanda Knox case behind,” and “fictionalize everything around it,” maybe don’t use my name to promote it. You’re not leaving the Amanda Knox case behind very well if every single review mentions me.
— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox)

You’re not leaving the Amanda Knox case behind when my face appears on profiles and articles about the film. pic.twitter.com/0JFFetAj1u
— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox)

IMAGE - AP

Published July 31st, 2021 at 15:45 IST