‘Woman of the Hour’ Writer Explains “Obligation” To Approach True Crime Genre With “Empathy”

Although Woman of the Hour takes some creative liberties, the true crime film’s writer aimed to capture the “emotional reality” of Rodney Alcala‘s murders.

Following a Saturday screening of the Netflix film hosted by Writers Guild of America, screenwriter Ian McDonald told me in a Q&A that he felt “an obligation” to Alcala’s victims and survivors as the true crime genre becomes increasingly ripe with spectacle and sensationalism.

“I mean, it’s tricky because on one hand, it should just be a basic tenet of writing any sort of thriller,” he explained. “If you wanna feel scared for someone, you kind of have to know who they are and you have to know where they’re from and where they’re going and what they care about, and the more you can get to know them as a person, the more you’re gonna feel their loss if something terrible happens to them or even if they just are in danger. And yet at the same time, this isn’t a thriller, I mean, it’s not a Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”

McDonald continued, “These are real people with real lives, and if you spend years, like I did, reading about their deaths, article after article after article, at a certain point, you feel an obligation to — even though I’m changing their names and changing their biographies to kind of account for the fact that they didn’t opt to be part of the story, Rodney did by virtue of making his decisions — you do feel an obligation to try to be empathetic in the telling and bear in mind there are still families out there who are, even if they don’t watch the movie, they’re gonna know it exists.

“And my hope is that if they did see it, they would feel as though the depiction was respectful and that these people weren’t just fodder to be killed off for fun,” he added.

In Woman of the Hour, now available to stream on Netflix, Anna Kendrick plays struggling actress Cheryl Bradshaw, who lands a spot on The Dating Game and has an eerie encounter with contestant Alcala (Daniel Zovatto) amid his nationwide killing spree. The film also features flashbacks of Alcala’s victims and survivors.

Serving as Kendrick’s directorial debut, the film also stars Autumn Best, Nicolette Robinson, Kathryn Gallagher, Pete Holmes and Tony Hale.

While Ryan Murphy defended his recent controversial anthology Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, also at Netflix, as showing “many, many, many perspectives” and theories around the cast, McDonald explained that his approach to the genre and taking creative license was in service of “emotional truth.”

One example is the character of Laura (portrayed by Robinson), a friend of one of Alcala’s victims who recognizes him during the dating show’s taping. Although Laura was not a real person, McDonald was inspired by “all these instances of friends and family members who had memories of, ‘Oh God, I saw this guy in a bar and he seemed skeevy, but I didn’t want to tell my friend to not talk to him because she seemed like she was having a good time and then I never saw her again, and I lived with that guilt … and how traumatic that was.’

“And so that was a perspective that we felt was really important to be in there somewhere,” explained McDonald. “So, you try to find these kind of creative and economical ways of squeezing those points of view into the narrative.”

Currently ‘Certified Fresh’ on Rotten Tomatoes and No. 1 on Netflix movies, Kendrick previously told Deadline she was drawn to Woman of the Hour because of the “heartbreak” in McDonald’s script, explaining she got “really sick at the idea” of anyone else directing it.