Grace Van Patten sits ‘in awe’ of Amanda Knox’s ability to hold onto hope

Grace Van Patten doesn’t remember exactly how the trials of Amanda Knox unfolded in real time.

The star of Hulu’s eight-part limited series “The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox” was only 10 when the body of British student Meredith Kercher was discovered in an Italian apartment on Nov. 1, 2007. Authorities quickly arrested Knox, then 20, who was Kercher’s roommate and also studying abroad, and her boyfriend of about a week, Raffaele Sollecito. Knox and Sollecito were convicted, then acquitted, found guilty once more and finally cleared in 2015.

“I knew that name,” Van Patten, 28, says. “I didn't know the details because I was younger, but as soon as I did, I could not believe it. It was such a shocking, tragic story.” The “Tell Me Lies” star felt “shocked by the sequence of events that happened … the flaws in the system and the lack of evidence and how this even came to be, the frustration of all of these things happening that should not have happened.”

“The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox” (first two episodes now streaming, then weekly on Wednesdays), revisits the details of Kercher’s death and the investigation that largely ignored them. Knox spent nearly four years in an Italian prison before being acquitted in 2011. Even after she was exonerated in 2015, Knox still faced public scrutiny, despite the conviction of a man named Rudy Guede. (Guede was released in 2021 after serving 13 years.)

For her portrayal, Van Patten relied heavily on Knox, an executive producer of the series. In their first meeting over Zoom shortly after Van Patten was cast, the actress expelled a “word-vomit of endless questions,” she says, while “gauging how much (Knox) would share with me. And she was so open. So it really gave me comfort knowing that she was wanting to share all this with me.”

To prepare for the most authentic portrayal possible in the dramatic retelling, Van Patten asked Knox “how she felt in the moment, moment to moment,” Van Patten says, so she could “show her emotions as much as possible, as opposed to trying to do some impression of her.”

Van Patten remains astonished by Knox’s ability to remain optimistic. “A big surprise to me, and something I'm still in awe of, is how she maintained positivity and hopefulness throughout it all,” says Van Patten. “I could never imagine being in that situation."

Van Patten applauded Knox for setting her sights on learning Italian in prison. “The way she took control was so inspiring," Van Patten says. "She could have easily given up and she never gave up and she still hasn't.”

“I am someone who sees the silver lining in things,” Knox, 38, says, “and that quality was both used against me and was the source of my strength. It was the reason why I was able to survive this experience and come out on the other side, to accomplish the things that I've accomplished and that you see in this show.

“There's so many themes that this show deals with and one is perception and my ability to perceive my plight at the various moments that I am,” Knox continues. The onscreen version of Knox is “very naïve for a long time in this series. Even after I'm in prison, there's still this, like, ‘Oh, the adults in the room will figure it out.’ There's this huge psychological shift that happens after the guilty verdict, where her whole approach to life is challenged and she has to rediscover that hopefulness and that sense of purposefulness, even in a very dark place. I guess I'm grateful that I'm built that way.”