On July 27, 1996, during the Atlanta Summer Olympics, a vigilante named Richard Jewell discovered, hidden behind a bench, a backpack containing an explosive device. Without wasting a minute, he evacuated the premises and saved several lives by limiting the number of injured. He is acclaimed as a hero. But three days later, the life of this modest rescuer turns upside down when he discovers, along with the whole world, that he is the main suspect of the attack in the eyes of the FBI. This story, which evokes the plot of a thriller thriller, is not the fruit of a fertile imagination: it is the appalling events that occurred in the life of Richard Jewell and which are treated in the last Clint Eastwood's film, "Le Cas Richard Jewell", in which Europe 1 is a partner, in theaters on Wednesday.
Richard Jewell was the subject of an FBI investigation for 88 days and was in the crosshairs of particularly fierce media. Interested by these facts, the director wanted to bring to the screen the tragic story of this man whose life was turned upside down by the press and by the police forces he idolized. "We often hear about powerful people being accused of things and more, but they have the money, they hire a good lawyer, and they escape prosecution," said the director, quoted by Warner. "The story of Richard Jewell interested me because he was a normal man, a common man. People were quick to accuse him; he could not escape these accusations and for a long time he was too naive and idealistic to realize that he had to save his own skin. This is why I wanted to make this film ", he continues," to rehabilitate Richard's honor. where he committed a heroic act, he paid a high price for it and was thrown to the lions. "
>>> A long-standing project for the director
Malpaso, Clint Eastwood's production company, has been thinking about the project for a few years. Producer Tim Moore says: "I was scouting for another project in Hawaii and when I got home, Clint said, 'You better take off your Hawaiian shirt, we're going to Atlanta to shoot the story of Richard Jewell, now is the time to do it. You have to tell this story. "And without transition, we ended up in Atlanta to prepare for the shooting."
The team has done a lot of research to define how to tell this story. "There was a lot of information," says producer Jessica Meier. "We decided to focus on Richard's point of view and the pair he formed with his lawyer Watson Bryant, the first person to believe him after his mother. In our opinion, it was the most promising angle" .
Screenwriter Billy Ray started from an article in Vanity Fair written by Marie Brenner in 1997. The journalist was there just after the drama, and she spent time with Richard, his mother Bobi Jewell and his lawyer Watson Bryant. She remembers: "In 1996, the police were obsessed with 'profiling', and in the frenzy which was to reign in the offices of the police after the attack, they looked at this brave little eccentric guy who had found the bomb and they said to themselves, "This is the theory of the lone terrorist!" It turned into a witch hunt, a term now overused but which perfectly designates what happened to Richard ".
"Everyone wanted to resolve the investigation and the various media and news agencies competed with each other to be the first to do so," said Clint Eastwood. Since Richard Jewell was considered a suspect, he was charged in public and with hindsight, we find that these charges were never officially dropped, even if he was completely cleared after these 88 trying days and the confessions of the real culprit.
Clint Eastwood says: "It's a true story but it is nonetheless full of suspense and we want to support the protagonist".
>>> A prestigious casting
To embody the main roles, the director chose Sam Rockwell, actor Oscar winner for his role in "3 billboards: panels of revenge", to embody the lawyer Watson Bryant. For the role of Richard Jewell's mother, Clint Eastwood turned to the immense actress Kathy Bates, nominated for the best supporting role for this film, which had never shot under the direction of the director. Paul Walter Hauser, who we saw recently in "Me, Tonya", embodies the title role.
"As an actor, I appreciated that the script shows the reverse side of the investigation and the disastrous way in which Richard was treated," says Paul Walter Hauser. "It is a redemption for this man whose life has been turned upside down, even wiped out by these tragic circumstances."
Paul Walter Hauser worked hard to appropriate the expressions and speech of Richard Jewell because he wanted to do him justice, as well as those who knew him. "The production gave me videos and archive images to view. With the addition of Marie Brenner's article, the screenplay and my meeting with Bobi and Watson, I had plenty to do."
Clint Eastwood comments: "I have been lucky on several occasions to make films where everything worked perfectly and in this case we can say that Paul was born to play this role. He is an exceptional actor. 'is erased and interpreted Richard as the candid and candid man that he was ".