“You do feel a weight of responsibility because these are real people that we’re talking about,” Elle Fanning tells PEOPLE about her role in The Girl from Plainville
Elle Fanning and Colton Ryan are opening up about their roles in the new Hulu series The Girl From Plainville, which was inspired by real-life events surrounding the relationship between Michelle Carter and her late former boyfriend, Conrad Roy.
Fanning, 23, said the case “could have only happened” due to the current era of technology, telling PEOPLE (the TV show!)’s senior correspondent Jeremy Parsons about how she related to her character through her own personal experiences as a young teenager.
“That was the entry point for me that I could really understand because I was in high school, having social media, texting and feeling those feelings that we all feel of false intimacy and that adrenaline rush that we feel when you get a text from a crush,” she explained, adding that she hopes the show will help “destigmatizing mental health.”
Michelle, an emotionally struggling 17-year-old who portrayed herself as Conrad’s girlfriend, urged him toward his death. Conrad was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in his pickup truck on July 13, 2014, in the parking lot of a Kmart in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.
A controversial charge put Michelle on trial for involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors said she not only researched plans for Conrad’s suicide but pushed him to go through with it when he wavered. She was convicted in 2017 and sent to prison, where she served 11 months.
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