Amanda Knox And Grace Van Patten Spoke Often While Filming New Hulu Series

Grace Van Patten as Amanda Knox in new Hulu true crime drama series, ‘The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox.’

Photo Courtesy of Disney/Adrienn Szabó

Grace Van Patten delivers a remarkable performance portraying Amanda Knox in the new Hulu series about Knox’s fight against an Italian legal system that believed she was involved in the brutal murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, on November 1, 2007.

Knox was wrongfully convicted later that year and spent nearly four years in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. The American college student was studying abroad in Perugia, Italy, at the time and was convicted alongside her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, in 2009. They were both fully exonerated by Italy’s Supreme Court in 2015.

Now, a decade later, Knox is sharing her story in the eight-episode series The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, created by K.J. Steinberg (This Is Us). The show is based on Knox’s New York Times bestseller, Waiting to be Heard: A Memoir.

In an interview ahead of the August 20 premiere, Van Patten shared her experience portraying Knox. Preparation included numerous conversations in person and over the phone with Knox, as well as a crash course in Italian. “There was constant communication, and I was able to ask her as many questions as I possibly could. She was extremely open with me, with anything I wanted to know about, which was so amazing and helpful because my only job was to help people understand her and who she was as a human, not just as a picture on the news with a headline above her face.”

Fans recognize and love Van Patten as Lucy Albright in Hulu’s Tell Me Lies (season three is coming soon), but this is her first time portraying a real person. Her performance deserves awards consideration; she truly captures Knox’s complex range of emotions during this traumatic, life-changing ordeal.

The result is a heartfelt, often infuriating story of an innocent young woman who endured a series of injustices by a flawed and corrupt legal system that pressured her into a confession after days of questioning her in a language she wasn’t fluent in, with accusations based on tainted and mishandled evidence, all while her story was sensationalized by a cruel media.

The truth about Kercher’s murder eventually came out, and Rudy Guede was convicted and received a 30-year prison sentence in October 2008, though that sentence was reduced on appeal before he was released early for good behavior in 2021. Guede will be back in court this fall, facing sexual assault and violence charges from a former girlfriend.

The limited series is executive-produced by Monica Lewinsky, Warren Littlefield (The Handmaid’s Tale), and Knox, who, since her exoneration, has become a respected author of three books, a journalist, activist, and podcaster.

Van Patten stars alongside Sharon Horgan, John Hoogenakker, Francesco Acquaroli, Giuseppe De Domenico, and Roberta Mattei. Side note: Van Patten’s real-life sister Anna Van Patten portrays Knox’s sister Deanna in the series.

Van Patten wants viewers to understand how vulnerable Knox was during that time. She was portrayed by the media as a vixen, but in reality, she was a young, naive, innocent woman who had just begun an incredible adventure, only for this nightmare to happen. “Hopefully, people are reminded while watching this that she was just a 20-year-old girl going through something absolutely unimaginable.”

She shared that filming took place in Italy for two months, with the final four months in Budapest. Regarding her Italian language skills before preparing for the role, Van Patten said that she knew only basic Italian. “I am Italian. My dad pretends to speak a little bit. Now that I know it, I don’t think he does,” she laughed. “I had about two months before we started shooting. I learned as much as I could while learning my lines and knowing what I was saying.”

The series highlights how low Knox felt during that time; she was at times suicidal during her imprisonment. It also shows her incredible strength. When asked to describe her, Van Patten called Knox resilient.

“She’s extremely brave. What I found so beautiful about her was how willing she was to trust me to tell her story after millions of people tried to tell it for her,” Van Patten said. “Her willingness to trust me to portray her emotions was an honor and made me even more motivated to do it correctly. She’s so inspiring to me; her humor, her bravery, and her ability to maintain positivity in moments where it seems unimaginable. I admire her ability to forgive and not hold on to anger. You see all of these things play out through the series, from her life before the tragedy, during her time in prison, and even now. She’s still dealing with it, but she has a beautiful mindset. She has tried to regain control and is doing so with empathy.”

When asked why she believes Knox was accused of this brutal crime and how the situation spiraled so far out of control, Van Patten paused briefly before responding. “That is a great question that I hope everyone asks after watching this, because it doesn’t make sense. There is no answer. There was no evidence. I think it just highlights the differences in people and perspectives. These older Italian men, who were part of the judicial system, were not familiar with a person like Amanda. She was a young, free-spirited woman. It was a misunderstanding, and instead of just accepting it as a misunderstanding, they saw it as whatever they saw it as. It was a clash of two different belief systems and views on the world.”