spotlight AND DIRECTOR CRAIG MACNEILL Lizzie Borden has always been a fascinating
figure in American folklore. The did-she-or-didn’t- she-do-it aspect of whether she literally “got away with murder” in the 1892 death of her father and stepmother, Andrew and Abby Borden in their Fall River, Massachusetts house, remains a compelling mystery to this day. After being tried for the grisly murders and
eventually acquitted, Borden remained a resident of Fall River. She was so detested by its residents however, they came up with a singsong rhyme about her alleged crimes: “Lizzie Borden took an ax, gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41.” There have been books written about her,
theatrical productions staged and of course, two television movies made: 1975’sThe Legend of Lizzie Borden starringBewitched’s Elizabeth Montgomery and 2014’s Lizzie Borden Took an Axstarring Christina Ricci, which spawned the limited seriesThe Lizzie Borden Chronicles, with Ricci reprising her role. For 2018, Lizzie Borden’s story gets the big screen
treatment, simply titled, Lizzie, starring Chloë Sevigny as Borden and Kristen Stewart portraying the family maid, Bridget Sullivan. In a new twist, the film depicts how Borden falls in love with Sullivan and reveals the many unexplored motivations behind Borden’s alleged crime.
The Rage Monthly spoke with two of the film’s
key components, Screenwriter Bryce Kass and Director Craig Macneill, to find out about the film that took a decade to make and to examine the women’s relationship that was shrouded in both light and darkness.
WAS IT AN ACT OF LOVE? SCREENWRITER BRYCE KASS
LIZZIE by tim parks For Kass, as previously mentioned, the project has
been a labor of love, from page to screen. Initially greenlit as a four-part miniseries for HBO, the project hit snags along the way, then had the rights sidelined by the TV movie with Ricci. He remained optimistic the project would eventually find its home and expressed gratitude that his friend, Chloë Sevigny, was also vested in seeing it come to fruition. “I was very passionate and also very fortunate that I had a really great partner in that process, he explained. “We’re old, old friends and understand each other, we ‘get’ each other. There were times where she would get frustrated and tired and I would cheer her on and then I would get frustrated and tired and she would cheer me on. I think that was the key to staying excited, that there was someone next to you who just wouldn’t let it go.” The decision to present a different take and to
focus on the central relationship between the two women—something that was never explored previously in the Lizzie Borden legacy—came about during a research expedition by Kass to Fall River. “I was at the historical society and went through all the letters and there was one Lizzie wrote to a ‘female companion’ that jumped out at me,” Kass described. “It was very tender; romantic might not be the right word, but in our terms now it really felt like a love letter. I asked the Fall River Historical Society people about the letter and they said “Lizzie had lots of affairs with women.” It was also important to portray her in a human
light and not as “some crazy lady with an ax,” Kass explained. “Thinking about who Lizzie was before she was a notorious person and trapped in this house and then thinking about the crimes
themselves. There were two people there at the time of the murders, Lizzie and Bridget,” Kass observed. “Chloë and I spent the night in the Borden house and I actually had Chloë go upstairs to drop a book, while I was downstairs in the murder room to see if anything could be heard. It sounded like she dropped a boulder! She was the person who in the end, really was Lizzie’s alibi, so the idea that Bridget didn’t see anything, didn’t hear anything and was outside just washing windows?” With so much conjecture surrounding the
126-year-old murders, Macneill agreed that the time had come to venture down different avenues in the case. “There are so many theories about what may have happened in that house on that day,” Macneill said. “But I think this particular take on the legend feels fresh.” Kass quickly added, “It was a strangely intimate relationship for the era, Lizzie called Bridget
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RAGE monthly | SEPTEMBER 2018
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