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‘Conviction’ and Hilary Swank draw fire from slain woman’s family

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Hilary Swank has called ‘Conviction,’ the Fox Searchlight film she stars in, a ‘feel-good’ story.

But apparently, there’s nothing about the movie, which hits theaters Friday, that makes Melrose and Charles Brow feel good. They’re the children of Katharina Brow, a diner waitress who was found stabbed to death in her trailer home in 1980. A local troublemaker named Kenny Waters was charged with her murder, and spent 18 years in prison. But he was released after his sister, Betty Anne Waters, brought to light DNA evidence that proved his innocence. Subsequently, no one has been charged with Katharina Brow’s murder.

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That’s the real-life story that’s told in ‘Conviction,’ in which Swank plays Betty Anne Waters, a single mother who put herself through law school to help her brother.

On Thursday, Brow’s children held a news conference with their lawyer, Gloria Allred, to express their disappointment that they had not been contacted by the ‘Conviction’ filmmakers or by Swank, who executive produced the film.

‘We are angry and disappointed that in the making of the film, neither executive producer Hilary Swank nor anyone else connected to the film ever contacted us to see how we would feel about the fact that our mother’s murder is the basis for events which transpired as a result of her tragedy,’ Melrose Brow said.

She and her brother have requested a meeting with Swank, during which Brow says she would like to ask the actress a number of questions, including why the movie was made and how the film’s profits will be used.

“I want to find out what the movie’s made and, as the profits come in, if they’ll use those profits to help us with trying to find out who the perpetrator is,” Brow said in an interview after the news conference. She and her family are not seeking compensation, but would like money to go toward a search for the killer, she said.

Fox Searchlight did not respond to an immediate request for comment. Swank’s representative said the actress had no comment.

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The Brow family has not had the opportunity to see ‘Conviction’ yet because they have not been invited to any private screenings before its release, Allred said. Katharina Brow’s murder, although the impetus for the film’s plot, does not occupy much of the movie itself. In the film, after she is slain, Brow is shown in a mildly graphic scene, bloodied and sprawled across a floor. But little else is revealed about her in the movie.

In a recent interview, Swank said she had prepared diligently for ‘Conviction.’ She traveled to the East Coast to visit Waters, who drove Swank through her hometown of Ayer, Mass., pointing out ‘where she lived, where her trailer was, where she used to eat, the candy store she used to steal from,’ the actress recalled.

Swank said she took the responsibility of portraying the Waters family accurately on screen seriously.

‘I wouldn’t be able to live with myself [if] I somehow didn’t portray the story in a way that [Betty Anne] felt reflected her story,’ Swank said. ‘I was at the premiere with her in Toronto, and I don’t want the credits to roll and have her look at me and go, ‘What are you thinking? That’s not how it happened at all.’ So it’s an enormous responsibility. You can’t take a lot of liberty with the storytelling.’

--Amy Kaufman
Twitter.com/AmyKinLA

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