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| Emily VanCamp and Abigail Breslin in Miranda's Victim |
60 years ago, Arizona teenager Patricia Weir, on her way home after an evening spent working in her local cinema, suffered a brutal assault at the hands of a stranger. Despite the social stigma associated with being victimised in that way, she fought for justice, and with the help of a police force which treated her with respect from the outset, her assailant was out away. Three years later, however, his sentence was quashed. The police had failed to let him know his tights or speak to a lawyer before they interrogated him, and the case collapsed. This was the origin of what are known in the US as ‘Miranda rights’.
The case – which would result in a retrial taking place – has legendary status within US legal history, but whilst students continue to learn about what happened to Ernesto Miranda, the experience of the woman he targeted is often overlooked. Miranda’s Victim sets out to tell her story. Speaking with its director, Michelle Danner, I noted that it’s a story which feels very timely today.
“I think, sadly, it's timely,” she says. “This is not just something that went on years ago in 1963. It keeps going on. This story – not this exact story but, you know, an assault and rape – happened to somebody very close to me. I thought it was incredible that nobody had told the story about the Miranda rights, not through a TV show or documentary, nothing. This is the first time it’s been told. And this woman was very brave in 1963, Patricia Weir. She suffered a lot of consequences, a lot of trauma, to tell her truth in a court of law and justice. It's an inspirational story for women, to keep finding the courage to speak out.”
She’s always been interested in true crime, she says.
“Throughout my whole life, my family made fun of me, because I've watched every crime show known to mankind. I went into my office and I saw the email and it was really intriguing. I emailed back to say ‘Yeah, I'd love to direct it.’ It was ready to go, it was funded, and immediately, it felt an important story.
“They didn't call for a while because they were still talking to other directors. They wanted a female director. They interviewed more famous female directors but at the end of the day, I think my vision won out. I had a vision for this, I had a passion for wanting to direct it, and that drive, that passion carried me through all the way until this moment, this morning, because I'm still working on it. We're doing festival circuits. We got into some great festivals and we’re just trying to figure out the trajectory of it all.
“I’m very grateful. I mean, there hasn't been a day that I have worked on this that I've not felt that gratitude and energy. So many of the pieces came together in the most incredible way. The fact that Donald Sutherland said yes, I attributed that to my father watching from Heaven and supporting me in this because Donald Sutherland was one of my very favourite actors. He always reminded me of my father. And then I met with Abigail Breslin and Enrique Murciano and the rest of them. It was great. I was able to work with a group of people that brought their hearts, their compassion and their talents to tell the story.”
Abigail has had a fascinatingly diverse career, I say, recalling a conversation I had with Tyler Shields after he directed her in Final Girl, in which he said that she was incredible to work with.
“Oh, most definitely. She's extraordinary,” Michelle concurs. “She was very generous. She gave it her all. And there was a moment when Donald Sutherland turned to her and said “You are a very, very talented young lady.” She understands the subject matter and that it’s contributing to a very important conversation.”
Before starting on the film, she recalls, she spent a long time analysing courtroom dramas, helped by her son, who had studied film and theatre at USC. She also talked to her heads of department about a specific colour palette which she felt would help to establish the Sixties setting.
“This story has never been told, she says, reflecting on the responsibility she felt. “I wanted to not take sides. I just wanted to tell the story in a very pure way. I also love this story because it not only tackles personal justice, but justice in a court of law. And finally, it came full circle with karmic justice. I really wanted the colours and the costumes, and the richness of the production values. We ended up shooting in an authentic courthouse of the Sixties, and an authentic police station of the Sixties. They tore it down days after we finished shooting. We were the only movie that ever shot there, and they tore it down afterwards. So it was an incredible authentic place.
“We also went to a theatre which looks very, very similar to the Paramount Theatre, and I went to the theatre where she worked at night and the bus stop where she was abducted. I drove to the desert, I did the whole trajectory of what happened to her that night, where she lived as a child – because, you know, she was a child with this happened. And then as an adult, when she got married. I went to his house, where he got arrested, and the same courthouse, which is like a museum. So we lived this whole thing. It was very, very emotional to do that, and ultimately connect even deeper to the story.”
We talk about the language of cop films and the scene in which Miranda is arrested.
“That whole scene was very intentional,” she says. “First of all, I have to do a should out to the actors who played those officers, Enrique Murciano and Brent Sexton. The chemistry they had as police officers and the way they went to the house and scouted it out, looking for him. And then Taryn Manning from Orange Is The New Black plays his girlfriend / live-in, and she's phenomenal. That scene there was just spontaneous and organic. And then the reveal of him: I had him come from the dark into the light and he realised immediately what was happening, and so he picked up his little girl. His girlfriend said he was not a good father. He would have never picked up that child. So the idea was to pick up the child and appear as a family man in front of the two police officers. But yeah, all of that was choreographed and thought out and I scouted the locations. I thought it was the perfect house. And it looked actually like the house that he had lived in, in Phoenix.”
Whether fictional or otherwise, we rarely see stories in which male police officers are this supportive.
“I feel it's an element that people don't talk about, but when women come forth and accuse an assailant, and they find that courage to speak out, very often they’re not believed because it's a bit of a men's club,” she agrees. “And they say ‘Well, you know, it’s he said, she said,’ and sometimes they go after you and the woman gets traumatised, and she’s the one that gets convicted. This does happen, but this is not what happens in this story. This was, the police came through. The police wanted to arrest the perpetrator. This is what happened. The police and the prosecutor, they had a great moral compass and the fought hard to get the right person put away.”
Nevertheless, Trish had to deal with quite a few people telling that she should just forget about it all.
Well, absolutely, it wasn't easy for her. When the real Patricia Weir saw the movie for the first time she had a tear in her eyes. We had a psychologist be there because we were very sensitive to how she reacted. She had a lot of obstacles. I mean, this cost her dearly. She paid the price for telling for having the courage, the bravery to tell the truth. All these obstacles were there.
“Her family loved her, but they didn't want her to do what you seen the movie. They thought that she was going to ruin her life. And she did damage herself. Once you suffer that kind of a trauma, you know, it was horrible. Yes, you can heal, and I think it's healing to seek justice. I mean, the worst is to not seek justice. But I think that she knew that she had to do it, I think that was a force greater than anything, than all the obstacles that were there, her mother and her husband and society at the time, that told her to hold back. It's also because of her incredible bravery.”
We talk about the way that her relationship with her husband is depicted in the film, and how he treats her in ways which would not be considered acceptable today, in one scene in particular.
“That was one of my very favourite scenes in the movie,” Michelle says. “And I thought Josh Bowman, who plays Charles, the husband, was also very brave, because he went there, you know? That's a really brave actor. He fought for what he believed was true. And when he comes home and he finds out the truth that she withheld from him for three years of marriage, with two kids, and then it's all over the news, you can totally come to respect his point of view, but obviously he is cruel with her. He is cruel and goes after her. And yeah, we rehearsed that scene. It was difficult to shoot because it was highly emotional and Abigail had to go to a very specific place. And she did hit it several times but she wasn't sure.
“After Josh did it, I remember going into his dressing room and saying, ’You know, you have so much power in, you must go do theatre!’ He was so so good. It was such a good scene. Watching it with a festival audience, and the way they reacted to that, that is absolutely priceless. And you know that you did your job and they were really moved by it.”
Ryan Phillippe also has a challenging role, portraying the ACLU lawyer who overturned Miranda’s conviction because he believed that no matter what had happened to Trish, bigger principles of justice were at stake.
“Yeah, I mean, I thought that was brilliant. He took on the skin of John Flynn in his accent, and he just, you know – we had done a zoom conversation about the character and then he came on sest and he was very, very focused. He’s a very focused actor. He comes in with choices and open to play. He really liked the movie and he saw his performance was strong”
Her big hope for the film, she says, is that it will inspire other people who have been through the sort of thing that Trish experienced to tell their stories and seek justice.
“I really hope that they'll find the courage and are not afraid to come forward, despite what the risks are of not being believed. Because you know, I think it's important. That’s how the #MeToo movement came about. Things got swept under the carpet for decades and decades and centuries. And that's why finally there was a big movement of ‘No more.’ I mean, look at the people that ended up being convicted, like Weinstein or Bill Cosby. Yes, that is exactly what I hope, you know, and also, it's interesting because it has a dual story about protecting individuals’ civil rights. I found it to be a fascinating story. I feel so lucky that I got to direct it. And not only do I feel lucky that I got to direct it, but then I got to direct it with that cast.”
If you have experienced sexual violence and you want to talk to somebody about it, this directory of services can help you to find the right support in your country.
