- Title: Matt Damon opens Amanda Knox-inspired film in New York
- Date: 27th July 2021
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 26, 2021) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** ACTOR MATT DAMON, ACTOR ABIGAIL BRESLIN, AND DIRECTOR TOM MCCARTHY POSING FOR PICTURES AT RED CARPET EVENT AHEAD OF "STILLWATER" FILM PREMIERE VARIOUS OF DAMON TALKING TO PRESS DAMON POSING FOR PICTURES (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, MATT DAMON, PLAYS "BILL BAKER" CHARACTER IN "STILLWATER" FILM, SAYING: "Well, I could relate, you know. He's a character who's carrying a lot of pain, and grief, and shame about how he's... how... how he's failed as a father and so... and so obviously with having kids of my own, that was something I thought about a lot as I was preparing." DAMON TALKING TO PRESS DAMON POSING FOR PICTURES DAMON TALKING TO PRESS VARIOUS OF DAMON POSING FOR PICTURES WITH HIS STEPDAUGHTER, ALEXIA BARROSO (TO DAMON'S LEFT, BLUE DRESS), MOTHER, NANCY CARLSSON-PAIGE (TO DAMON'S RIGHT), AND STEPFATHER, DOUG KLINE (TO DAMON'S FAR RIGHT) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, MATT DAMON, PLAYS "BILL BAKER" CHARACTER IN "STILLWATER" FILM, SAYING: "I kind of say, Bill Baker, the character I play is Kenny Baker's messed up cousin, like that's kind of how we saw him. Like he's... You know, Kenny is an amazing guy, and he's really got his act together. He's a pretty special guy. But Bill is somebody who doesn't quite have control of his life, and he's trying to get control of his life. And he's recently sober and he's trying to... he's trying to do the right thing and repair this relationship with his daughter. And... and that's really where we start with the movie." "STILLWATER" MOVIE CREW POSING WITH KENNY BAKER, OIL RIG WORKER FROM OKLAHOMA WHO HELPED DAMON DEVELOP HIS CHARACTER DAMON, MCCARTHY, AND BRESLIN TALKING TO PRESS DAMON AND MCCARTHY POSING FOR PICTURES WITH KENNY BAKER DAMON POSING FOR PICTURES (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, MATT DAMON, PLAYS "BILL BAKER" CHARACTER IN "STILLWATER" FILM, SAYING: "Well, a lot of the physical stuff I just got from the roughnecks, like just the look of the body, the clothes, the... you know, the sunglasses, the facial hair, all that stuff came from them, the physicality of them. And then there was stuff that, you know, the stuff the parenting stuff feels very familiar. And... and I can draw a straight line to my own life with a lot of what the character's going through." DAMON, BRESLIN, AND MCCARTHY POSING FOR PICTURES DAMON AND BRESLIN POSING FOR PICTURES BRESLIN POSING FOR PICTURES BRESLIN, MCCARTHY, DAMON TALKING TO PRESS BRESLIN POSING FOR PICTURES (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, ABIGAIL BRESLIN, PLAYS "ALLISON BAKER" CHARACTER IN "STILLWATER" FILM, SAYING: "Yeah, it was it was it was amazing. I mean, getting to work with such a complicated and layered character and have such a brilliant script to work with already was such an honor and... And also, I guess, the research that I did was basically just going... I spent some time at the prison, not like inside of the prison, but they walked me through kind of what my day to day life would be, and also just researching people who had been wrongfully convicted and... and incarcerated was very enlightening. And I was lucky enough, though, that we already had such a brilliant script to work with that it was basically already all there." VARIOUS OF DAMON, BRESLIN, AND MCCARTHY POSING FOR PICTURES PAN FROM BRESLIN TO MCCARTHY DAMON AND MCCARTHY POSING FOR PICTURES (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR OF "STILLWATER" FILM, TOM MCCARTHY, SAYING: "We took a little bit from Amanda Knox, but I figured there was enough written about that tragic story, quite honestly, and I just didn't want to touch it. I didn't want to tell a true life story. So, I took a little bit of that story. Everything else was created over a long period of time, like slowly piecing this story together and trusting it and an audience to take it wherever it needed to go, not being feel like we're too constrained by genre or one particular storyline. We wanted to kind of... wanted something that felt more sprawling and epic."
- Embargoed: 10th August 2021 03:17
- Keywords: Abigail Breslin Amanda Knox Camille Marcus Hinchey Marseille Matt Damon Noé Debré Stillwater Thomas Bidegain Tom McCarthy arrested film killing legal system roomate
- Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, UNKNOWN LOCATIONS
- City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, UNKNOWN LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Film,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA001ENHB9ZH
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Matt Damon said on Monday (July 26) he had immersed himself for weeks in Oklahoma with oil rig workers for his role as a disoriented American who travels to France to help his jailed daughter, in a new film loosely inspired by the real-life Amanda Knox case.
The U.S. actor appeared on the red carpet at New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center performing arts venue before the movies's New York premiere.
He said he spent time driving around and living with the so-called roughnecks in the Republican state to grasp his character's mindset in "Stillwater."
"Well, a lot of the physical stuff I just got from the roughnecks, like just the look of the body, the clothes, the... you know, the sunglasses, the facial hair, all that stuff came from them, the physicality of the," said Damon. "And then there was stuff that, you know, the stuff the parenting stuff feels very familiar. And... and I can draw a straight line to my own life with a lot of what the character's going through."
In the film Damon plays oil worker Bill Baker, who travels to Marseille, France to visit his estranged student daughter Allison in prison.
She is serving time for the murder of her roommate, echoing the story of American student Knox and her then boyfriend who were convicted and later acquitted of killing British student Meredith Kercher at a flat in Perugia, Italy, in 2007.
The film explores the struggles faced by Baker in a foreign country, as he tries to overcome cultural and language barriers to help Allison, played by Abigail Breslin, when a new lead comes to light.
Oscar-winning director Tom McCarthy, of "Spotlight" fame, said he was working on the film against the backdrop of former U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, which also influenced his approach to Baker's character and how he is viewed overseas.
McCarthy said the real-life Knox story kicked off the idea.
"We took a little bit from Amanda Knox, but I figured there was enough written about that tragic story, quite honestly, and I just didn't want to touch it," said McCarthy. "I didn't want to tell a true life story. So, I took a little bit of that story. Everything else was created over a long period of time, like slowly piecing this story together and trusting it and an audience to take it wherever it needed to go."
Damon said having children of his own had also helped him relate to Baker, who is struggling to repair his broken relationship with his daughter.
"I could relate, you know. He's a character who's carrying a lot of pain, and grief, and shame about how he's... how... how he's failed as a father and so... and so obviously with having kids of my own, that was something I thought about a lot as I was preparing," Damon said.
"Stillwater" will be released in U.S. movie theaters on July 30, 2021.
It was initially scheduled to be released in November 2020, but that was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic
(Production: Hussein Waaile, Aleksandra Michalska) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
