Amanda Knox Says ‘The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox' Shows 'A More True Version of Me' Than Ever Before

Cosmopolitan

4 hours ago

Since her acquittal in 2011, Amanda Knox has written two memoirs, produced one podcast, starred in one extensive documentary, and made countless television appearances—all telling the story of how she was wrongfully convicted of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher in 2007 and spent almost four years in an Italian prison. Now, for the first time, she's telling her story in a whole new way with the fictionalized Hulu show, The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox.
'It's a much more personal human story than I think people expect, and I was motivated to tell it that way in large part because I've become a mother,' Amanda, an executive producer and writer on the series, told Cosmopolitan in a video interview. She added that her goal was not just to rehash her past but 'to tell a story that isn't just the worst experience of my life but the story of how you rebuild a life in the aftermath of trauma and make sense of it.'
The show premiered with the first two episodes on Wednesday, August 20, and immediately sets itself apart from other true-crime series. Driven by a voiceover from Amanda, as played by Grace Van Patten, The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox starts off with a surprising amount of whimsy. A study-abroad flyer blows into Amanda's face as she walks on campus, sparking her desire to study in Italy, for example, and these small touches of magical realism are peppered throughout the show, even as events grow increasingly dystopian.
Amanda talked to Cosmo about the unique tone of the show and how the show offers 'a more true version of me to the screen than has ever really been captured.'
There's something really special and magical and visceral about a scripted show that allows you to have access to human beings and to characters and to story that you wouldn't otherwise have access to. In a dramatization, you're able to take reality as it is and boil it down to its most essential elements for the sake of an entertaining journey for the audience.
One of those things is my interrogation, right? In reality, I was interrogated for 53 hours over 5 days. It was not recorded in any way, so that element of my story has never really been able to be represented in a documentary, whereas here, we bring you into the interrogation room and we take you on a psychological journey—not just for me, Amanda, but also for the interrogators themselves, who have their own life context and set of motivations that you can relate to.
When K.J. was initially interviewing me, very early on in the series, like one of the things that she asked me was, 'Where do you get this optimism? You've been through this incredibly sad and traumatic thing—how are you experiencing it in the moment?' And I was describing to her, like, 'Well, I wasn't. I didn't know that this was going to be the worst experience of my life.'
I'm a very optimistic person who sees the silver lining. And I'm a whimsical person, a silly person. I experienced the world that way, and I was attempting to understand this incredibly traumatic experience by that touchstone in my life.
When K.J. hit upon that magical realism element, I was like, 'Oh my god, yes!' And that's another example of how dramatization can bring forth—even more than reality—the authentic experience of it. What does it feel like to go on this journey and to feel like you're both the luckiest person in the world and the most unlucky person in the world?
I don't think that the use of fantasy and magical realism challenges the authenticity and the truthfulness of the story at all. Magical realism is very intentionally used to convey a felt truth—it's taking a felt truth and making it visual. So I don't think that in any way contradicts the very truth or 'record setting straight' element of the story, which was also hugely important.
K.J. did three years of research, studying court documents and talking with experts about this case, so that she could understand the facts of it inside and out. There are things that she discovered that I didn't even know. The amount of work that has gone into making sure that the facts are correct, that we are representing this case faithfully to the truth, while also introducing fantastical elements that get at a felt truth is the magic of cinema.
This show is about who is doing the looking and there are certain scenes where you see it from multiple different perspectives, and it means something different depending on whose point of view you're in.
There's this scene where the police take me back to my house, and they asked me to go look through a knife drawer. And for the first part of it, you're in my perspective. Amanda is tired; she's overwhelmed. They're asking her to go back into her house where her friend just got murdered. That's nerve-racking. They put her in front of a drawer full of knives, and she has to rifle through them and is realizing, 'Oh my god, my friend was stabbed to death.' And the visceral reality of that just freaks her out, and she has a panic attack. I had a panic attack.
And then you see the shift in perspective, and you see the cops watching me, and you see them interpreting it in their own way. And it's not like a mustache-twirly, villain kind of way. They are coming with their own context and their own expectations. You see how, even with the best of intentions, people misunderstand each other because they experience things internally and from different perspectives.
That was a really important part of this show—me wanting to show and honor everyone's perspective who lived through this perfect storm. There's so much to these characters, much more than how the media has appreciated them in the past, and I wanted to do justice to that.
Parts of this interview have been edited and condensed for clarity.