Click here to listen to the interview with Michelle Danner.
Michelle Danner had the advantage of having Trish Weir, the subject of her film, MIRANDA’S VICTIM, on set for a few days. Weir even makes a cameo during the scene where her character gets married. When I talked to the director on August 11, 2023, I asked her what it was like to talk to Trish about the 1963 kidnapping and rape that had ultimately led to the Supreme Court’s Miranda Rights Decision in 1966.
Before then, though, we talked about the difference between the law and justice, and why both Weir and her attacker, Ernesto Miranda, were, on some level, the perfect test cases for that law. We also talked Abigail Breslin’s astonishing performance as Weir, getting period films right, and why the importance of women speaking up for themselves is as important now as it was over a half-century ago.
MIRANDA’S VICTIM premiered at a sold-out opening night at the Santa Barbara FIlm Festival, and was also the opening night film of Cinequest in San Jose.
The film co-stars Taryn Manning, Mireille Enos, Andy Garcia, Emily VanCamp, Donald Sutherland, Andy Garcia, Ryan Phillippe, Kyle MacLachlan, Luke Wilson, Enrique Murciano, Brent Sexton, Josh Bowman, Noland Gould, and Sebastian Quinn as Ernesto Miranda
Danner directed from a screenplay by J. Craig Stiles, with story by George Kolber, J. Craig Stiles, and Richard Lasser. Her previous work includes THE RUNNER, BAD IMPULSE, and HOW TO GO ON A DATE IN QUEENS.
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