{"id":15336,"date":"2022-05-25T16:34:37","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T14:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/?p=15336"},"modified":"2022-05-25T16:34:38","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T14:34:38","slug":"the-human-story-behind-the-texting-suicide-case-elle-fanning-stars-in-the-girl-from-plainville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2022\/05\/25\/the-human-story-behind-the-texting-suicide-case-elle-fanning-stars-in-the-girl-from-plainville\/","title":{"rendered":"The Human Story Behind The \u201cTexting Suicide Case\u201d \u2013 Elle Fanning Stars In “The Girl From Plainville”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One of Rotten Tomatoes<\/em>\u2019 Most Anticipated Shows of 2022, The Girl From Plainville<\/em> is now available to binge on Showmax. Critics Choice nominee Elle Fanning (The Great<\/em>, Maleficent<\/em>) executive produces and stars as Michelle Carter, the teenager at the centre of the unprecedented \u201ctexting suicide case\u201d that arose from the death of her boyfriend, Conrad Roy, in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Girl From Plainville — \u201cTalking Is Healing\u201d – Episode 106 — The trial begins and a new Michelle emerges. The prosecution lays out Michelle\u2019s involvement in Coco\u2019s death and Lynn Roy takes the stand. Michelle finds help for her eating disorder while Coco dives deeper into his depression. Gail Carter (Cara Buono), Michelle (Elle Fanning) and David Carter (Kai Lennox), shown. (Photo by: Steve Dietl\/Hulu)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The widely publicised case saw Carter charged with involuntary manslaughter for encouraging Conrad to commit suicide, mostly through phone calls and hundreds of text messages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colton Ryan (Little Voice<\/em>) and Oscar nominee Chlo\u00eb Sevigny (Boys Don\u2019t Cry<\/em>, We Are Who We Are<\/em>) co-star as Conrad and his mother, Lynn Roy.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portraying the two very human, very damaged teenagers with sensitivity was a crucial consideration for both the show\u2019s cast. \u201cThis was a very ripped-from-the-headlines case,\u201d Elle said on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert<\/em>. But, \u201cthe media really painted a very one-dimensional [picture] of this story: Michelle was kind of this black widow manipulator, and Conrad was her victim \u2013 and he very much was a victim in this situation, but also, he<\/em> was painted very one-dimensionally. We didn\u2019t get to know about the young man that he was.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Elle, the role came with a great deal of responsibility. \u201cI had to really think about the story that we were telling,\u201d she told Entertainment Weekly<\/em>. \u201cIt ultimately ends in such a tragedy, and these [families] are still alive. We have to be sensitive to them. So it had to be told in the right way that could actually be helpful, and possibly help someone out there who’s suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Created by Critics Choice nominee Liz Hannah (The Dropout<\/em>, Mindhunter<\/em>) and Patrick Macmanus (Dr. Death<\/em>), The Girl From Plainville<\/em> has a 94% critics\u2019 rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> calls it, \u201cA compassionate and devastating portrait of two teens in trouble.” Time <\/em>says, \u201cThe Girl From Plainville<\/em> rises to the significant challenge of offering novel insight into the psyche of a young woman whose widely discussed actions seemed not just indefensible, but also inexplicable to the public.\u201d And LA Times<\/em> hails it as \u201cthoughtful and intelligent,\u201d praising its tone as \u201cneither sensationalistic nor judgmental.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The actors were conscious of the need to monitor their own judgement about the characters they would be playing. On Good Morning America<\/em>, Elle noted that although her role is based closely on a real, living person, \u201cI am<\/em> playing a character. And you can\u2019t judge a character that you play. You don\u2019t have to agree with the decisions that they made or necessarily like them but I think I have to come at it from an understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Elle and Colton belong to the same generation as Michelle and Conrad, and have grown up in the digital world. \u201cThis is something that we\u2019re all trying to navigate, this false sense of reality that we face in the technological age of texting and social media and that instant gratification that you feel when you get a text, and how easy it is to say things online and to not see the consequences of the hurt that your words can cause,\u201d Elle said in an interview with Collider<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the real world, Michelle and Conrad only actually met face to face a handful of times. The bond between them \u2013 powerful enough to shape the outcome of both their lives \u2013 was built mainly on text messages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elle says the blurring of fantasy and reality, and the false sense of intimacy that texting can create, were built into the way the story is told.\u00a0In the hands of directors like Oscar nominee Lisa Cholodenko (Unbelievable<\/em>, The Kids Are All Right<\/em>), the show reimagines the pair\u2019s text exchanges as if they were spoken face to face in intimate moments, and even segues into fantastical musical numbers \u2013 Michelle was a huge fan of the series Glee<\/em> \u2013 to help paint the emotional and psychological landscape of their relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had access to all the text messages, so reading those was very haunting and very difficult,\u201d Elle told Collider<\/em>. \u201cYou could see that these two people were in a dark place and they were both reaching out to one another, but reaching out to the wrong people. You just wish that they had never met. They didn\u2019t bring out the best sides of each other, unfortunately. So yeah, Colton and I talked about it a bit. We both are the same age and we have phones, ourselves, so we can understand how you can get wrapped up in that alternate universe. You can create whatever you want on your phone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview with Extra TV<\/em>, Colton said, \u201cThis still happens under all of our watch. Many young people are looking for themselves, and I think that [the show is] asking the question, \u2018Are they looking for it in the wrong place? Are we all looking for it in the wrong place, by valuing ourselves more online?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elle hopes The Girl from Plainville<\/em> will help to destigmatise mental health and get people talking about it. And, as LA Times<\/em> put it, \u201cPlainville<\/em> may get you thinking more generally about responsibility \u2013 of media that sells kids death-wrapped images of love, of how ready we are to believe we know what we only think we know. It may at least remind you that, in an age fueled by reductive statements about everything under the sun, nothing human is as simple as it seems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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