It seems that in 2019, releasing a film inspired by a real-life event or person is likely going to be the subject of intense scrutiny, and maybe, a little controversy. And when you have a filmmaker like Clint Eastwood at the helm, that’s definitely going to be true. So, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that “Richard Jewell,” the upcoming Eastwood film about the 1996 Olympic Park bombing, finds itself under the harsh spotlight of criticism. But according to one of the film’s stars, Olivia Wilde, the controversy is completely unfounded and worse, unfair.
The issue at hand seems to have stemmed from recent reports that the film indicates heavily that the female reporter, Kathy Scruggs (Wilde), used sex as a way to gain tips from the FBI agent in charge of the investigation, played by Jon Hamm. According to a new interview with Deadline, Wilde claims that the film doesn’t necessarily spell that out completely, and instead, the film points out that the reporter had relationships with men involved in the investigation, but she shouldn’t get called out for it.
READ MORE: ‘Richard Jewell’ Is Clint Eastwood’s Best Film In Over A Decade [AFI Review]
“She was incredibly successful as a cop reporter,” said Wilde. “She had a very close relationship with the cops and the FBI helping to tell their story, and yes, by all accounts she had relationships with different people in that field. But what I resented was this character being boiled down to one inferred scene and I don’t hear anyone complaining about Jon Hamm’s character as being inferred that he also had a relationship with a reporter. It feels unfair that Kathy has been minimized in this way.”
She added, “I think that we are still struggling with allowing for female characters who aren’t entirely quote-unquote likable. If there’s anything slightly questionable about a female character, we often use that in relation to condemn that character or to condemn the project for allowing for a woman to be impure in a way. It’s a misunderstanding of feminism to assume that all women have to be sexless. I resent the character being minimized to that point.”
The actress clearly did her research on the real-life inspiration for her character. She went on to tell Deadline that she spoke with colleagues, peers, experts about the incident, and even her friends when she prepared for the role of Scruggs. Ultimately, she didn’t find anything that contradicted the scene in the film, and instead, Wilde said she found a pretty inspiring figure.
She explained, “And then what I discovered was that she was an incredibly intrepid, dogged reporter, a woman in 1996 who rose in the ranks of a newspaper. It’s not a very easy thing to do.”
“Richard Jewell” arrives in theaters on December 13.