People believed Amanda Knox was capable of murder because of her 'crazy eyes'
The "Amanda Knox" filmmakers Brian McGinn and Rod Blackhurst appeared on Netflix's "Chelsea" on Friday and discussed what they found were the hardest things for Knox to overcome during the trials.
In "Amanda Knox," Knox herself mentions how impactful her eyes were on people's judgment of her. Host Chelsea Handler referred to them as "crazy eyes."
"People can see in her what they wanted to see," Blackhurst said. "If she didn't have a certain level of emotion, it meant 'X.' And if she had too much emotion, it meant 'Y.' But we see that, too, happening in our presidential election, right, with the way people look at Hillary Clinton. So this is not just the way people react with true-crime stories or tragedies. It's happening everywhere right now. They want to find something that reinforces what they believe and what they want to see in somebody."
In the documentary, Knox addressed the judgment of her based on her eyes:
"You're trying to find the answer in my eyes when the answer is right over there [referring to the lack of DNA evidence placing her in the victim's room]. You're looking at me, why? These are my eyes. They're not objective evidence."
The filmmakers also felt Knox's gender contributed greatly to the judging of her guilt. Knox was observed to be cold and was seen kissing her boyfriend and later co-defendant, Raffaele Sollecito, by police on the day of the murder. They found those behaviors to be inappropriate in that tragic situation.
"People have such an ingrained idea of how women should behave," McGinn said. "And every culture all over the world has a different idea of what that is. So what we found is this is one example of this way that patriarchal societies all decide how women should behave and judge people."
Last year, Italy's equivalent to the US Supreme Court upheld Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito's exonerations for the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in their Italian home on November 1, 2007. Knox is now living back in the US.
Watch Handler's interview with the "Amanda Knox" filmmakers below: