Sit down with the director, actor and real-life inspiration of a movie and you’ll probably get a sense they’ve built some chemistry together.
For a movie like Conviction to work, one about a daunting true story, a little thing called compassion is required. Director Tony Goldwyn (A Walk on the Moon) made a promise to Betty Anne Waters that he would share the story of her and her brother, Kenny, with the world.
You may already know it. Kenny Waters was sent to prison for murder, only to be released 18 years later after his innocence was proven through DNA evidence. He never would have made it without his sister, Betty Anne, who became a lawyer and took on the world in a quest to save him.
Sam Rockwell (Moon), who plays Kenny, came away from the film an enlightened man.
“I think I was pretty naïve,” he said. “Most people probably think that somebody’s in prison, that they, you know, probably belong there, they’re guilty of something.”
The harsh reality is that sometimes, the system doesn’t work.
“I knew that he was innocent from the evidence as well as knowing Kenny,” Betty Anne Waters said.
Kenny was known to have a bipolar and manic personality, though Betty Anne knew he was never the aggressor — he only reacted to the indecencies of others. She said “it just wasn’t in his makeup” to kill a person.
Goldwyn described Kenny as being “a guy of real contrasts,” which contributed to his desire for Rockwell to portray him in the movie.
“He’s always very surprising in his work,” Goldwyn said, referring to Rockwell.
Rockwell has led a varied career, ranging from his isolated character in 2009’s Moon to the downright insane character from 1999’s The Green Mile. In person, though, he was nothing but polite. He served bottles of water to reporters before the interview began.
He faced a challenge that co-star Hillary Swank (Amelia), who plays Betty Anne, didn’t have to. Swank had Betty Anne on set to refer to, but Kenny died merely six months after being released from prison. Goldwyn called it a freak accident in which Kenny fell and died from head injuries.
Rockwell, who has played real-life characters in the past, said its nice to have someone to refer to, “but at the same time I think when they’re not around you have a little more liberty to do your own interpretation.”
Rockwell isn’t necessarily bipolar or manic himself, but claims to have dated a few bipolar people in the past.
Surprisingly, Goldwyn did not include information of Kenny’s death in the movie. (Spoiler alert) The film ends with Kenny and Betty Anne living happily ever after, just days after he gets out of prison.
“I wanted the movie to be about the transcendent power of love,” Goldwyn said.
He left Kenny’s death out because he feared people would lose that message. Conviction may have ended up being about the inescapable horrors of life rather than the triumph of love.
In fact, some test audiences were exposed to a version of the movie that included Kenny’s death in the end. Goldwyn said the audiences reacted in such a way that it seemed the rest of the movie was virtually erased from their minds.
One theme that did remain, however, was the opposing side to Kenny and Betty Anne’s everlasting love. Rockwell’s take seemed to go in the right direction.
“Not only are there people like Nancy Taylor who are not just selfish, because — I can be selfish, we can all be selfish, self-absorbed — but actually selfish to the extent where they actually hurt somebody to further what they want, and that still astonishes me,” Rockwell said.
Nancy Taylor was Kenny’s arresting officer who is portrayed as corrupt and dishonest in her attempt to nail Kenny for the murder he didn’t commit. In the movie, she threatens witnesses into testifying against him.
While Rockwell will continue his acting career with different roles, Betty Anne and Goldwyn will continue to help the issue in their own unique ways. Betty Anne works with the Innocence Project, an organization that helped her exonerate her brother.
Goldwyn, on the other hand, is looking to TV to spread awareness on the issue. He said he is developing a series that tells other stories similar to Kenny’s. While he wants to raise awareness about the “cracks in our system,” as he puts it, he also said the stories are “great fodder for drama.”
Go see Conviction and you may find yourself agreeing with him.
truben@umdbk.com
