Amanda Knox Slams ‘Stillwater,’ Accuses Film Of ‘Fictionalizing Away’ Her Innocence

MODENA, ITALY - JUNE 15: American journalist Amanda Knox delivers a speech during a panel session entitled 'Trial by Media' during the first edition of the Criminal Justice Festival, an event organised by The Italy Innocence Project and the local association of barristers, on June 15, 2019 in Modena, Italy. The Italy Innocence Project focuses on the issues relating to wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice in Italy. Guest speaker Amanda Knox makes her first visit back to Italy since she was wrongly convicted of murdering British student Meredith Kercher. Knox spent four years in prison following her conviction for the murder of her flatmate in 2007 and was definitively acquitted by the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation. (Photo by Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images)

On Thursday, Amanda Knox shared her opinion on the new movie Stillwater, which is inspired by her experience in Italy. She accused the film and its director, Tom McCarthy, of “fictionalizing away” her innocence.

Stillwater follows Matt Damon‘s character Bill as he races to exonerate his estranged daughter Allison, played by Abigail Breslin, after she’s imprisoned in Marseille, France for a murder she claims she didn’t commit.

The similarities to Knox’s own story are not difficult to see. She was studying abroad in Perugia, Italy when her roommate was sexually assaulted and murdered. The 34-year-old was convicted of the crime but later acquitted. She shared her story and discussed the media campaign that turned public opinion against her in the 2016 Netflix documentary Amanda Knox.

Knox, unhappy with the representation she saw in the film, posted a thread on Twitter.

She began, “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 also pointed to an interview McCarthy had with Vanity Fair where 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.”

In response, she tweeted, “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. 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.”

Knox referred to McCarthy’s comment about taking a “piece of the story” by saying, “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. 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.”

She revealed a major spoiler at the end of her thread, stating that she has always been accused of hiding knowledge, something Stillwater includes. Knox said, “By fictionalizing away my innocence, my total lack of involvement, by erasing the role of the authorities in my wrongful conviction, McCarthy reinforces an image of me as a guilty and untrustworthy person.”