The chief executive from the film studio behind a movie about the Chappaquiddick scandal has said he was pressured to dump the project.
Byron Allen, the CEO of Entertainment Studios and the executive producer of Chappaquiddick, says ‘some very powerful people…tried to put pressure’ on him ‘not to release this movie.’
‘They went out of their way to try and influence me in a negative way,’ he told Variety.
‘I made it very clear that I’m not about the right, I’m not about the left.
‘I’m about the truth.’
Chappaquiddick refers to the island next to Martha’s Vineyard which was the site of a 1969 car accident that killed a female companion of then-Senator Ted Kennedy.
Byron Allen (second from right), the executive producer of Chappaquiddick, says ‘some very powerful people…tried to put pressure’ on him ‘not to release this movie.’ The film’s stars, Jason Clarke (far left), Kate Mara (second from left) and Ed Helms (far right), are seen above
Late at night on July 18, 1969, Kennedy drove his car off a bridge with Mary Jo Kopechne in the passenger seat.
Kopechne, 28, who was trapped inside the car as it sank in the water, drowned while Kennedy swam to safety.
Kennedy reported the accident the following day after Kopechne’s body was recovered.
He denied he was drunk at the time of the crash. Kennedy, who was married, also denied he was having an affair with Kopechne.
The then-senator pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a crash causing personal injury. He received a suspended sentence of two months in jail.
Chappaquiddick likely ruined any chance Kennedy had of being elected president.
The film, starring Kate Mara as Kopechne, was screened in Beverly Hills this week before its limited release on Friday.
Frogmen dive into the water as they try to raise the car belonging to Senator Edward Kennedy in which he was seriously injured and his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne was killed. The above photo is from July 19, 1969
Kennedy (right) swam to safety and survived while Kopechne (left) drowned in his car as it sank
Kennedy and his then-wife, Joan, are seen on their way to Kopechne’s funeral
Kennedy arrives to the Dukes County Courthouse in Edgartown, Massachusetts, on July 25, 1969, after pleading guilty to leaving the scene of a fatal auto accident. Chappaquiddick destroyed Kennedy’s chances of ever being elected president
Jason Clarke, the Australian actor, portrays the late Massachusetts senator who died of brain cancer in 2009.
Allen says that the film is a tribute to Kopechne, a long-forgotten victim who is due to receive her fair share of justice.
‘[She is] one of the original #MeToo victims,’ he said.
Mara said she was worried how Kopechne’s family would react to her portrayal.
The House of Cards star wanted ‘to make sure we show her in a way that is respectable and that honors her in some small way.’
Jason Clarke, the Australian actor, portrays the late Massachusetts senator who died of brain cancer in 2009
Mara, the star of House of Cards, says she wanted to pay tribute to Kopechne through her portrayal of her
The director of the film, John Curran, says that the movie is faithful to the facts while taking Kennedy’s version of events into account.
Clarke, who prepared for the role by jumping into the same waters off Cape Cod where the accident took place, told Variety he was apprehensive about the project.
‘I was nervous on a “can I do it” level and I guess on a “should we do it” [level],’ he said.
‘We’re not making propaganda. Here is this amazing, incredible, traumatic event, which I think has had a massive impact, and still does, and effects the world we’re in now–20th century American history.’
Clarke said the indie film, which is in limited release on Friday, doesn’t try to sensationalize the accident.
He said the film sticks ‘to the facts as much as we could and to play it out without scandalizing, without going to the tabloid of it.’
‘This man committed this act and he worked his way out of it with help and with his own moral journey to the other side, where he then became one of the longest-serving senators in history.
‘I don’t think – partisanship aside – you can’t take away from what he did.’