Amanda Knox Profile picture
Jul 29, 2021 45 tweets 12 min read Read on X
Does my name belong to me? My face? What about my life? My story? Why does my name refer to events I had no hand in? I return to these questions because others continue to profit off my name, face, & story without my consent. Most recently, the film #STILLWATER.

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This new film by director Tom McCarthy, starring Matt Damon, is “loosely based” or “directly inspired by” the “Amanda Knox saga,” as Vanity Fair put it in a for-profit article promoting a for-profit film, neither of which I am affiliated with.
I want to pause right here on that phrase: “the Amanda Knox saga.” What does that refer to? Does it refer to anything I did? No. It refers to the events that resulted from the murder of Meredith Kercher by a burglar named Rudy Guede.
It refers to the shoddy police work, prosecutorial tunnel vision, and refusal to admit their mistakes that led the Italian authorities to wrongfully convict me, twice. In those four years of wrongful imprisonment and 8 years of trial, I had near-zero agency.
Everyone else in that “saga” had more influence over events than I did. The erroneous focus on me by the authorities led to an erroneous focus on me by the press, which shaped how I was viewed. In prison, I had no control over my public image, no voice in my story.
This focus on me led many to complain that Meredith had been forgotten. But of course, who did they blame for that? Not the Italian authorities. Not the press. Me! Somehow it was my fault that the police and media focused on me at Meredith’s expense.
The result of this is that 15 years later, my name is the name associated with this tragic series of events, of which I had zero impact on. Meredith’s name is often left out, as is Rudy Guede’s. When he was released from prison recently, this was the NY Post headline. Image
In the wake of #metoo, more people are coming to understand how power dynamics shape a story. Who had the power in the relationship between Bill Clinton and @MonicaLewinsky? The president or the intern?
It matters what you call a thing. Calling that event the “Lewinsky Scandal” fails to acknowledge the vast power differential, & I’m glad that more people are now referring to it as “the Clinton Affair” which names it after the person with the most agency in that series of events.
I would love nothing more than for people to refer to the events in Perugia as “The murder of Meredith Kercher by Rudy Guede,” which would place me as the peripheral figure I should have been, the innocent roommate.
But I know that my wrongful conviction, and subsequent trials, became the story that people obsessed over. I know they’re going to call it the “Amanda Knox saga” into the future. That being the case, I have a few small requests:
Don’t blame me for the fact that others put the focus on me instead of Meredith. And when you refer to these events, understand that how you talk about it affects the people involved: Meredith’s family, my family, @Raffasolaries, and me.
Don’t do what @deadinepete did when reviewing #STILLWATER for @DEADLINE, referring to me as a convicted murderer while conveniently leaving out my acquittal. I asked him to correct it. No response. Image
And if you must refer to the “Amanda Knox saga,” maybe don’t call it, as the @nytimes did in profiling Matt Damon, “the sordid Amanda Knox saga.” Sordid: morally vile. Not a great adjective to have placed next to your name. Repeat something often enough, and people believe it.
Now, #STILLWATER is by no means the first thing to rip off my story without my consent at the expense of my reputation. There was of course the terrible Lifetime @LMN movie that I sued them over, resulting in them cutting a dream sequence where I was depicted as killing Meredith.
A few years ago, there was the Fox series Proven Innocent (@InnocentOnFOX) which was developed and marketed as “What if Amanda Knox became a lawyer?” The first I heard from the show’s makers was when they had the audacity to ask me to help them promote it on the eve of its debut. Image
Malcolm Gladwell’s last book, Talking to Strangers, has a whole chapter analyzing my case. He reached out on the eve of publication to ask if he could use excerpts of my audiobook in his audiobook. He didn’t think to ask for an interview before forming his conclusions about me.
To his credit, Gladwell responded to my critiques over email, and was gracious enough to join me on my podcast, Labyrinths. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the…
I extend the same invitation to Tom McCarthy and Matt Damon, who I hope hear what I’m about to say about #STILLWATER.
#STILLWATER was “directly inspired by the Amanda Knox saga.” Director Tom McCarthy tells Vanity Fair, “he couldn’t help but imagine how it would feel to be in Knox’s shoes.” ...But that didn’t inspire him to ask me how it felt to be in my shoes.
He became interested in the family dynamics of the “Amanda Knox saga.” “Who are the people that are visiting [her], and what are those relationships? Like, what’s the story around the story?” I have a lot to say about that, & would have told McCarthy...if he’d ever reached out.
“We decided, ‘Hey, let’s leave the Amanda Knox case behind,’” McCarthy tells Vanity Fair. “But let me take this piece of the story—an American woman studying abroad involved in some kind of sensational crime and she ends up in jail—and fictionalize everything around it.”
Let me stop you right there. That story, my story, is not about an American woman studying abroad “involved in some kind of sensational crime.” It’s about an American woman NOT involved in a sensational crime, and yet wrongfully convicted.
And if you’re going to “leave the Amanda Knox case behind,” and “fictionalize everything around it,” maybe don’t use my name to promote it. You’re not leaving the Amanda Knox case behind very well if every single review mentions me.
You’re not leaving the Amanda Knox case behind when my face appears on profiles and articles about the film. Image
But, all this I mostly forgive. I get it. There’s money to be made, and you have no obligation to approach me. What I’m more bothered by is how this film, “directly inspired by the Amanda Knox saga, “fictionalizes” me and this story.
I was accused of being involved in a death orgy, a sex-game gone wrong, when I was nothing but platonic friends with Meredith. But the fictionalized me in #STILLWATER does have a sexual relationship with her murdered roommate.
In the film, the character based on me gives a tip to her father to help find the man who really killed her friend. Matt Damon tracks him down. This fictionalizing erases the corruption and ineptitude of the authorities.
What’s crazier is that, in reality, the authorities already had the killer in custody. He was convicted before my trial even began. They didn’t need to find him. And even so, they pressed on in persecuting me, because they didn’t want to admit they had been wrong.
McCarthy told Vanity Fair that “Stillwater’s ending was inspired not by the outcome of Knox’s case, but by the demands of the script he and his collaborators had created.” Cool, so I wonder, is the character based on me actually innocent?
Turns out, she asked the killer to help her get rid of her roommate. She didn’t mean for him to kill her, but her request indirectly led to the murder. How do you think that impacts my reputation?
I continue to be accused of “knowing something I’m not revealing,” of “having been involved somehow, even if I didn’t plunge the knife.” So Tom McCarthy’s fictionalized version of me is just the tabloid conspiracy guilter version of me.
By fictionalizing away my innocence, my total lack of involvement, by erasing the role of the authorities in my wrongful conviction, McCarthy reinforces an image of me as a guilty and untrustworthy person.
And with Matt Damon’s star power, both are sure to profit handsomely off of this fictionalization of “the Amanda Knox saga” that is sure to leave plenty of viewers wondering, “Maybe the real-life Amanda was involved somehow.”
Which brings me to my screenplay idea! It’s directly inspired by the life of Matt Damon. He’s an actor, celebrity, etc. Except I’m going to fictionalize everything around it, and the Damon-like character in my film is involved in a murder.
He didn’t plunge the knife per se, but he’s definitely at fault somehow. His name is Damien Matthews, and he starred in the Jackson Burne spy films. He works with Tim McClatchy, who’s a Harvey Weinstein type. It’s loosely based on reality. Shouldn't bother Matt or Tom, right?
I joke, but of course, I understand that Tom McCarthy and Matt Damon have no moral obligation to consult me when profiting by telling a story that distorts my reputation in negative ways. And I reiterate my offer to interview them on Labyrinths.
I bet we could have a fascinating conversation about identity, and public perception, and who should get to exploit a name, face, and story that has entered the public imagination.
I never asked to become a public person. The Italian authorities and global media made that choice for me. And when I was acquitted and freed, the media and the public wouldn’t allow me to become a private citizen ever again.
I went back to school and fellow students photographed me surreptitiously, people who lived in my apartment building invented stories for the tabloids, I worked a minimum wage job at a used bookstore, only to be confronted by stalkers at the counter.
I was hounded by paparazzi, my story and trauma was (and is) endlessly recycled for entertainment, and in the process, I’ve been accused of shifting attention away from the memory of Meredith Kercher, of being a media whore.
I have not been allowed to return to the relative anonymity I had before Perugia. My only option is to sit idly by while others continue to distort my character, or fight to restore my good reputation that was wrongfully destroyed.
It’s an uphill battle. I probably won’t succeed. But I’ve been here before. I know what it’s like facing impossible odds.
If you're an @Medium reader, you can find this all here:

amandamarieknox.medium.com/who-owns-my-na…
After articulating my thoughts about #STILLWATER here & in @TheAtlantic, I've decided to argue the other side! I'm steel-manning the position that "Matt Damon and Tom McCarthy did nothing wrong." Check out this week's "Who's Right?" debate on my patreon.

patreon.com/posts/whos-rig…

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More from @amandaknox

Mar 27
I remain wrongly convicted of slander in Italy, and loads of people still think I'm a killer despite my acquittal. I am at peace with this. I will also never stop fighting to clear my name.

This is a paradox. Embracing this paradox is a key that can free you from suffering.
/🧵
You must accept that the world is on fire and simultaneously try to douse the flames. You must accept that your life is perfect, with all its flaws and annoyances and griefs and burdens, and still strive to improve yourself and your circumstances.
Zen Master Suzuki Roshi put it this way: "Everything is perfect…and there’s plenty of room for improvement!" What does this mean? How could everything be "perfect" when there are wars and famines and rapes and murders, and myriad injustices that no one deserves?
Read 16 tweets
Mar 22
Before Italy, I was only vaguely aware of that ancient stereotype that all women secretly hate one another, that we are incapable of true friendship. Some call it “venimism”; others refer to “mean girls”.

/thread
In 1893, Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso wrote: “Due to women’s latent antipathy for one another, trivial events give rise to fierce hatreds...these occasions lead quickly to insolence and assaults.” The source of our antipathy? Sexual jealousy, of course.
We hate one another because we are ever competing for male attention. I always thought this misogynistic myth was obviously false. I had lots of girlfriends, from school and soccer; so did my sisters, my mom. But, then again, I also thought my innocence was obvious…
Read 12 tweets
Jan 24
I've been on trial half my life. Yesterday, my 18-year legal drama finally came to an end when the Court of Cassation, Italy’s highest court, definitively convicted me of criminal slander.

/thread
Many people are familiar with my wrongful conviction for Meredith Kercher’s murder, but this lesser charge, arising from statements I signed during my interrogation, is the one that has continued to haunt me.
The charge resulted from a lie invented by the police: that I was present when my roommate Meredith was sexually assaulted and murdered at our apartment in Perugia in 2007.
Read 25 tweets
Jan 19
I’m currently still on trial in Italy and I have a verdict coming in 4 days. The waiting is the hardest part. So I turn to my comforts, like Star Trek. You probably know that it’s always been a progressive show, but it’s also featured many wrongful convictions!

/thread
It’s not surprising that Star Trek would feature such stories. The original series broke ground in casting @NichelleIsUhura as Uhura and
@GeorgeTakei as Sulu. It was rare at the time for a Black woman and Asian man to be cast in positions of authority.
And of course, The Next Generation prominently featured a talented character with a disability,
@levarburton's Geordi La Forge. But what’s warmed my heart the most is that the Star Trek writers are so fond of wrongful conviction stories. Here’s a sampling!
Read 21 tweets
Jan 9
Rarely do I meet people whose compassion floors me. That’s the case with @ScarlettMLewis . She lost her son Jesse in the Sandy Hook tragedy, and it would have been easy for her to become angry and vengeful. But she took a different path. /
thread
In her first interview in the wake of her son’s murder, she said “I take my part of the responsibility for what happened to Jesse in his school.” Her sister told her, don’t you ever say that. It’s not your fault. And Scarlett said, “If I don’t, who will?”
She forgave the shooter, Adam Lanza, knowing that someone that could do something so heinous must have been in a tremendous amount of pain.
Read 7 tweets
Dec 31, 2024
I’m writing this from the Panama Hotel and Cafe, which sheltered the valuables of Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps during WWII, and which sheltered me during one of my darkest periods. This is a letter of gratitude to the Japanese.
/thread Image
Most people see my name and think of Italy, but the first foreign culture that captured my heart was Japan. Manga and anime and sushi led me to study Japanese in high school, and I would often stop through Japantown on my way home from school. Image
I spent countless hours in Kinokuniya, the Japanese bookstore. And my first study abroad experience was actually in Kyoto and Nara, at age 14. I carried Japanese culture with me, even as I later went to study in Italy.
Read 23 tweets

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