Hulu’s latest miniseries, Below the Bridge, has despatched each person (okay, presumably correct me) true into a tailspin. Space in 1997 in Saanich, Canada, the present tracks the disappearance and rupture of Reena Virk—a fourteen-365 days-feeble lady who went missing after attending a party.
Below the Bridge is based on an proper story, which creator Rebecca Godfrey quick in her e-book of the same name. The Hulu assortment modified into once co-produced by Godfrey and Quinn Shepard. When Shepard started working on the present, she grew to became Godfrey true into a character (played by Riley Keough). Shepard quick IndieWire that reading Below the Bridge made her straight unfamiliar about Godfrey, who included her perspective and life story in the text—and in total empathized with the sufferer and perpetrators. “I concept it modified into once so animated she had grown up in the same town as the kids and that she had such an hobby in writing fiction in regards to the prison justice machine, juvie providers for younger folks, and younger teens rising up in Victoria,” Shepard said. “Then she extra or less stumbled into this story that modified into once cherish an proper-life version of the fiction she modified into once writing. I correct concept it modified into once very cinematic. I concept, ‘Oh, here’s a mode to touch upon the perspective of actual crime.”
Godfrey’s character in the assortment is fictionalized to an extent—Below the Bridge invents a steamy romance with Cam (Lily Gladstone), her childhood fair correct friend-grew to became-cop—but her essence remains. Godfrey is a primitive apprehensive minute one whom the local younger folks have confidence and spill their secrets and tactics to. Her ability to connect with them helps share collectively what took residence to Virk. “This lady in her 20s went and did what no journalist, no cop, and no lawyer modified into once ready to achieve, which is pick up the true truth of what took residence, Shepard quick Vulture.
Below, we damage down the full lot it be a must to know about Rebecca Godfrey.
Who is Rebecca Godfrey?
Riley Keough as Rebecca Godfrey.
Rebecca Godfrey is a creator. She modified into once born on December 2, 1967, in Toronto and raised in Victoria, on Vancouver Island. Later in life, she moved to Fresh York City to pursue her occupation. Her mom, Ellen (Swartz) Godfrey modified into once an editor and wrote mysteries. Her father, David Godfrey, modified into once an English professor and creator. Her brother, Jonathan, died when he modified into once 16. He fell from a bluff and drowned, which had a lasting impact on Godfrey’s life and writing.
Godfrey studied English on the University of Toronto and earned her M.F.A. in ingenious writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She wrote three books: The Torn Skirt, Below the Bridge, and Peggy, which would per chance be printed posthumously in August. Godfrey died on October 3, 2022. Her agent, Christy Fletcher, confirmed her demise, citing the scheme as issues from lung cancer. She modified into once 54.
Why Did Rebecca Godfrey Write Below the Bridge?
Godfrey wrote Below the Bridge because she felt a deepest connection to the case. Reena Virk died in the same situation where Godfrey grew up—and the accused younger folks were reminiscent of the kids Godfrey spent time with in her youth.
Godfrey’s ability to suppose to perpetrators shaped her writing. Even supposing the younger folks who killed Virk were responsible of a unfriendly crime, Below the Bridge uses involving interviews with the accused to execute a original perspective on bullying and coming of age. “I modified into once so struck by how nonetheless [the book] modified into once,” Shepard quick IndieWire. “And there modified into once an proper sensitivity to the best likely draw that it approached the holistic story, besides as the overall characters. It modified into once a in actual fact exquisite e-book; it modified into once very poetic. I modified into once in actual fact terrified that a account that modified into once so darkish and so brutal might per chance well well delight in so great tenderness. [It’s] in actual fact a account of childhood and coming of age.”
Below the Bridge modified into once originally printed in 2005. In 2006, the e-book got British Columbia’s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. It modified into once republished in 2019 with an introduction written by Mary Gaitskill.
What Took residence to Rebecca Godfrey?
Godfrey died from lung cancer in 2022. In 2020, Shepard approached Godfrey about turning Below the Bridge true into a tv current. Shepard quick Vulture that she moved to upstate Fresh York, 15 minutes far off from Godfrey, so that they’d per chance well well work collectively. “She be taught a form of drafts of the pilot,” Shepard said. “She showed me all this analysis and her feeble family photos. She gave me all her diaries. She had the full lot from when she researched the crime—the total police file, the overall recordings, transcripts of every interview she did—in eight or nine file containers.”
Godfrey died sooner than the present debuted, but she played a pivotal characteristic in its introduction. Shepard said she in total grew to became to Godfrey for notes on episodes. She also included inclined major points from her life to craft Keough’s complex character. “I have confidence there modified into once an ingredient of exciting she modified into once on the rupture of her life,” Shepard outlined. “She modified into once very prepared to enable me to circulate to her most deepest places and place that on the display veil. On every occasion I grew to became in an episode account for to her, I’d be spinning out on the opposite side, cherish, Oh God, here is so fucking deepest, after which she would send help her notes, and they’d correct be a pair of line Josephine says. She never perceived to feel an proper stress to need the character to be hyper-very best likely or sanitized.”
Given Goddfrey’s prognosis, she and Shepard’s mantra modified into once “Secure as far as we are able to, while we are able to.” Shepard quick Vulture, “She modified into once literally reading the scripts in hospice and calling me and having her daughter be taught the scripts to her.” Even supposing Godfrey never saw the last product, she is credited as an executive producer on Below the Bridge.
