Elle Fanning transforms into Michelle Carter for The Girl From Plainville
The Hulu limited series examines the sensational texting suicide story
Aux News The Girl from Plainville
Elle Fanning spends plenty of time running on a treadmill in the trailer for The Girl From Plainville, but she can’t run from the law. The 20th Century Women actress stars in the Hulu limited series as Michelle Carter, the Massachusetts teen who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for using text messages to encourage her boyfriend Conrad Roy III to die by suicide.
Across eight episodes, the show follows Carter through her relationship with Roy, its shocking end, and her 2017 trial. Written by Liz Hannah and Patrick Macmanus, who also served as co-showrunners and executive producers, The Girl From Plainville is based on the Esquire article by Jesse Barron that went in-depth on the now-infamous “texting suicide” case. Various details from the piece can be spotted in the trailer, such as Michelle’s interest in softball, and an exchange the couple had about becoming Romeo and Juliet.
Alongside Fanning, The Girl From Plainville also features Chloë Sevigny (We Are Who We Are) as Lynn Roy, Colton Ryan (Dear Evan Hansen) as Conrad Roy III, Cara Buono (Stranger Things) as Gail Carter, Kai Lennox (Green Room) as David Carter, and Norbert Leo Butz (Fosse/Verdon) as Conrad Roy II.
Hulu subscribers who are accustomed to seeing Fanning tossing out “Huzzah”s in full Russian empress regalia as Catherine on The Great will be surprised to see the actress’s very different look for The Girl From Plainville, featuring dramatic eyebrows and a forehead prosthetic. The streamer also recently made headlines for Lily James’s remarkable transformation into Pamela Anderson for the limited series Pam & Tommy.
The Girl From Plainville will have its world premiere at SXSW before releasing the first three episodes on March 29. The remaining episodes will be available on Hulu weekly.
19 Comments
More like Walton Goggins as Dooneese Maharelle as Michelle Carter.
“the Massachusetts teen who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for using text messages to encourage her boyfriend Conrad Roy III to die by suicide.”Man, it’s tortured sentence constructions like the above that make me uncomfortable with the phrase “die by suicide.” I get that “commit suicide” is problematic and I now avoid using it, but encouraging someone to die by suicide makes as much sense as encouraging someone to die of a heart attack or die of cancer, right? Like, if you want to de-emphasize the intentionality of suicide, point to how mental illness robs of us control, that’s fine, but when you add in a second party who very intentionally wants you to do a very specific thing the inherent passivity of “die by suicide” makes a lot less sense. Surely in this situation you can just say that she encouraged him to take his own life without stigmatizing or criminalizing the act.
I don’t get that it’s problematic. If you can explain it without being a cunt thank you. For the rest of you, here’s a preemptive ‘fuck you’.
I thought OP explained it pretty well! “Die by suicide” is a passive, blameless description of the death, whereas “commit suicide” gives the person more responsibility for the act that led to death.
I don’t know where I stand on it tbh, even as someone who has struggled with suicidal thoughts. I kinda think I have as much responsibility for hurting myself as I do for hurting other people. But that’s just my experience, and I respect what people are aiming for.
So the new acceptable parlance is “die by suicide”? Who decides this stuff?
I think the person you called a “cunt” was wondering the same thing.
Read more carefully.
It’s been common journalistic practice for a while now, after advocacy from mental health professionals.
Will there be more The Great? I’d really rather see that than this.
Prosthetic forehead? How long before The Five-head Thespians Guild is up in arms?
Thought that was Cara Delevingne in the photo.
YES. I guess I’ll take their word for it that that is Elle Fanning.
Pfff, those eyebrows aren’t near thick enough. Those are rookie eyebrows.
No, it’s clearly an actor.
Lol
I’m glad she didn’t have drastic forehead surgery for the part.
She better not! She is perfect just as she is.
I wonder how the family feel about this. Maybe they’re fully on board and feel it’s honoring his memory, in which case I’m being a cynical bitch. But the way this poor kid’s death and mental illness keeps being sensationalized makes me feel icky.
I’m really fucking worried that this sounds like a story about Michelle, and not, y’know, the guys she got killed.It does reek of white-woman-in-trouble bullshit, but I’m hoping that’s just the writer of this piece sticking to the AVClub’s style guide.
Across eight episodes
four tops – tight, interesting series.eight … ?