For Amanda Knox, trying to prove her innocence while being declared guilty resulted in the hardest battle of her life.
The Hulu Original limited series, The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, depicts the real life story of Knox, who was wrongfully convicted for the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, while studying abroad in Italy in 2007. The show traces Knox’s relentless years–long fight to prove her innocence and reclaim her freedom while examining why authorities and the world stood so firmly in judgment against her.
During Deadline’s Los Angeles Contenders TV event on Sunday, executive producer Monica Lewinsky explained why it was essential to bring this story to life along with unraveling public perception of the controversial decades old case. After initially meeting Knox in 2017, Lewinsky thought of the misogynistic coverage of the case, where Knox was referred to as “Foxy Knoxy” for her youth and good looks, and related that to her own experience in the media as a young woman caught up in the storm of lies and sensational media coverage.
“I had met Amanda in 2017, and I had felt so much compassion for her. And in 2021, when I had come across an article where she had talked about wanting to do a film of her memoir [Waiting to be Heard], I was in a deal at 20th Century and thought about a limited series,” Lewinsky said. “I was drawn to it so much because in her story, I see just the wider lens, which we really cover in the series of what happens to a young woman when you’re thrust onto the world stage and you’re feasted upon and regurgitated by the media for entertainment, clicks and dollars. And when you start to see those, for me, there were so many parallels of my own experience, so many more times than I had ever even imagined being triggered in Amanda’s story of things that I experienced.”
Lewinsky also emphasized, by turning to the audience, asking how many people even knew the name of Kercher’s true killer. “[We remember the ridiculous moniker] Foxy Knoxy. But how many people here know the name Rudy Guede? That’s exactly the point of why we’re telling this story. Why do we remember Foxy Knoxy and not the actual person who killed her?”
Grace Van Patten, who stars as Knox, talked about capturing the most harrowing moment of her life on screen. “It was extremely intense. Not only in the series, but in Amanda’s life. [Trying to portray] the emotional intensity and shock that Amanda is feeling in the moment [she was sentenced and dragged to jail] is such a turning point for the series as a whole. What I find so beautiful about the series and Amanda’s story is how fiercely she came back from that. To show her at her lowest low, which is what we all spoke about with Amanda, to really show her at her lowest point so that we can watch her rise from it and really come back from it.”
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Showrunner K.J. Steinberg chimed in, talking about how she wanted to be as fair as possible to the case by also including narratives outside of Knox’s point of view. “I wanted to show her point of view, but I also wanted to [have] episodes that are from other characters’ points of view as well. We really need to understand the how of [the case]. It wasn’t a whodunnit. It was a howdunnit and a whydunnit. How did this innocent girl from Seattle end up in this position and why did we come to believe it? That’s one of the running themes of the show, which is the anatomy of bias, which was what are all the false beliefs that each of us had? What are the false beliefs that the police had when they entered that crime scene and started to observe things? And how did they end up building such a deeply false narrative about her that even sticks today? There are people who still believe in her guilt, even though she’s been exonerated and even though they’ve seen so much material proclaiming her innocence.”
Check back Monday for the panel video.
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