Series director Casey Anthony fends off TV critics

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When Alexandra Dean signed on to direct “Casey Anthony: Where the Truth Lies” for Peacock, she had high hopes that the series would help people understand the Casey Anthony murder case, which Time magazine had previously dubbed the trial. social media of the century, in a new light.

Anthony, now 36, was found not guilty of the murder of his two-year-old daughter Caylee in a 2011 trial that captivated the country. Anthony was charged with the murder of his daughter in 2008.

“My biggest hope for the show is that it sparks some really deep conversations about how people like Casey are portrayed by the media,” Dean told Variety. “I hope this will inspire people to think more critically about where they get their information. If it’s a media outlet that’s covering a court case on one side and doesn’t want to hear from someone who isn’t on their side, then they don’t have the whole story.

But after the Nov. 29 debut of Peacock’s three-part docuseries, it’s become clear to Dean that Anthony is as polarizing a figure as she was 11 years ago, when 12 people declared her innocent of murder.

Cardi B, “The View” hosts and Nancy Grace were among those who publicly denounced the show. Grace, who declined an invitation to take part in the project, does not consider it a documentary. “When I hear the word documentary, I think of something that is truthful,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. Guardian reviewer Rebecca Nicholson called the series “the fuzzy vanity project of a world-class narcissist”.

The public outcry over “Where the Truth Lies” surprised Dean, a former Bloomberg reporter.

She says she approached Anthony’s docuseries the same way she did earlier nonfiction projects “Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story” and “Secrets of Playboy” — as a reporter. She dug into the details of the case, reviewed all the evidence, verified that evidence, and interviewed multiple sources on both sides of the fence, including Anthony and the police who arrested her for murder.

The director also explored Anthony’s sexual abuse allegations against his father George and brother Lee. (George, Lee and Casey’s mother, Cindy, did not agree to be on the show.) Various other topics explored in the show are the supposed trauma Anthony suffered from sexual abuse and Stockholm with whom she lived for Caylee’s 31 years. – day of disappearance.

Dean’s on-camera interview with Anthony marks the first time the public has heard of the Florida native. Dean maintains that she had complete editorial control over the docuseries and that neither she nor Peacock paid Anthony for the interview. (Anthony received money for stock footage she provided to the production, including photographs and video, but Dean says the total amount paid was minimal.)

Variety spoke to Dean about the show’s three-part split, the public reaction to pedophilia and sexual abuse, and why Anthony never believed his daughter drowned.

Why did Casey Anthony feel like it was the right time to be on a show like this?

Casey says she chose to speak out now because she has gone through 10 years of therapy and has come to terms with a lot of her trauma and finally understands what happened to her.

Viewers took issue with Anthony saying the trauma from a sexual assault caused him to lie again and again during the search for Caylee. Over the past few decades, it has become clear that the public initially struggles to come to terms with allegations of sexual abuse, especially childhood sexual abuse. Why do you think that is?

We don’t want to acknowledge that parents can sexually abuse their children because it’s just too scary. The damage to children is so profound. We never want to hear about such terrifying sexual abuse. It took years and years for whistleblowers to start the #MeToo movement. Same with whistleblowers who exposed pedophilia in the Catholic Church. It may also be decades before we can recognize that sexual abuse by parents is quite widespread.

It’s not until the third episode that you go into detail about Anthony’s version of the story. Why wait so long ?

Until we got through the doubt and uncertainty of episodes one and two, I didn’t think our audience would be ready, because I myself wasn’t ready to listen to Casey until then. So episode three is where you hear my probing questions for Casey as I try to figure out his version of events. Episode three is where we explore why she behaved so strangely during Caylee’s 31 days of disappearance, and that’s when we hear her story of how her father George pretended to be by her side, told the media that she was innocent and suddenly became the star witness against her. It’s like turning a glass three times and seeing three stories. My conclusion is that we don’t know what happened to Caylee because nobody tested Casey’s version of events in court, but the media and the cops should have looked at those three sides of the story to assess what happened instead. of one. That’s why it’s so important to watch all three episodes before jumping to a conclusion.

“The whole defense was that Caylee drowned in the pool, but now she’s saying she didn’t,” a juror told People Magazine. “So either the defense was a lie or they are lying now.” Can you explain why Casey agreed with her defense using drowning as a theory if she didn’t believe it?

Casey tells us she felt too traumatized to speak directly to her attorneys about what happened to Caylee, but she told court-appointed psychologists who interviewed her in jail. Defense attorneys had access to these transcripts and could craft their arguments accordingly. We checked the transcripts and Casey told these psychologists the same story she’s telling us now: that her dad showed up with Caylee drenched in his arms, that the baby seemed lifeless, but he said she’d be fine. , that she listened to him because she wanted to believe him, and that he had disappeared with Caylee and that she did not know where he had gone. So Casey’s story has been consistent all these years. Explaining why his attorneys chose to go with the theory that Caylee drowned, Casey says his attorneys couldn’t say “Casey doesn’t know what happened to his child.” They had to come up with a theory that they could argue in court. I would add that they couldn’t put George on trial either. It wasn’t their job, their job was to defend Casey’s innocence.

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