In 1997, 14-year-old Reena Virk went to what she thought was a celebration and by no means got here dwelling. As an outcast, she’d been bullied and teased about her weight and different issues earlier than, however this time was completely different. After being accused of spreading rumors, she was attacked by a gaggle of her friends. They introduced her to the Craigflower Bridge in Saanich, British Columbia and beat her violently, resulting in her demise. Her physique was discovered eight days later. Seven ladies and one boy have been accused of the crime. Virk’s demise would change into nationwide information in Canada, highlighting considerations about bullying.
Whereas researching for her first ebook in Victoria, Canadian novelist and journalist Rebecca Godfrey turned entangled with the crime. Due to her youthful, edgy look, the women concerned let her into their world, trusting her with their secrets and techniques. Godfrey spent years reporting on the bottom and, in 2005, printed Underneath the Bridge, an astonishing account of Virk’s demise and people concerned in it. The ebook was broadly acclaimed; some even likened it to Truman Capote’s In Chilly Blood. Now, Godfrey’s celebrated work is headed for the small display screen, two years after her passing in 2022 at age 54.
Gallery Books Underneath the Bridge
Gallery Books Underneath the Bridge
Hulu’s Underneath the Bridge, premiering April 17, provides a brand new perspective on Reena Virk’s story. Whereas delving deeper into Virk’s private and household life previous to the tragedy, the restricted sequence consists of Godfrey as a personality (performed by Riley Keough) as she reviews on the crime. It additionally introduces the cop Cam Bentland (performed by Lily Gladstone), a fictionalized character who provides an inside take a look at the systemic points surrounding the incident, particularly inside the police power.
Godfrey as soon as stated in an interview, “I actually wasn’t serious about crime—I used to be serious about that crime.” Underneath the Bridge government producer Quinn Shephard (Not Okay) felt equally. She was most drawn to the truth that “for a narrative about such a brutal act of violence, the precise storytelling had numerous gentleness to it and it captured these very common truths about adolescence that actually spoke to me. It was a narrative that had such a startling empathy for everybody concerned and everybody whose lives have been touched by the crime and in addition for Reena herself.” It was additionally an opportunity to carry consideration to Virk’s story, which isn’t as broadly identified within the U.S.
Fellow government producer Samir Mehta (Inform Me Lies) was motivated by “the chance to inform the story of an Indian baby of an immigrant,” he says. Reena’s mom Suman was born in Canada and her father Manjit, who later wrote his personal ebook about Reena, immigrated there from India. “And it’s an attention-grabbing alternative to simply dig into that dynamic, which I really feel like we haven’t actually seen numerous on TV.”
Vritika Gupta as Reena Virk in Underneath the Bridge.
Shephard labored with Godfrey, additionally an government producer on the sequence, for nearly three years to adapt the ebook for TV. “Proper off the bat once we first began talking, we felt like we had this virtually non secular tie,” Shephard says. “I had learn numerous interviews along with her earlier than I first began speaking to her, so I had some scenes sketched out, after which she was telling me tales about herself and I had written issues that have been true however that I had by no means identified.”
Godfrey shared the notes she took whereas writing Underneath the Bridge. She was concerned in growing “TV Rebecca,” who was partly primarily based on her actual life but additionally fictionalized “to make her right into a dynamic main character,” Shephard says. She additionally supplied new perception, trying again at her time reporting. One thing she and Shephard mentioned all through the method was “the context for her relationship with one of many actual folks” from the case, Shephard says with out spoiling the plot. “It was attention-grabbing; it felt like she was reframing her personal life.”
Riley Keough as Rebecca Godfrey.
Different elements that have been altered for the display screen: the timeline, for the reason that precise story befell over seven years and the TV model was made extra concise; and Reena’s interior life, as Godfrey by no means received to satisfy her. The writers had “numerous conversations about accountable fictionalization,” Shephard says. “How may we inform a narrative that felt prefer it spoke to a common reality about being a toddler once we have been lacking sure particulars? However we nonetheless wished her to really feel like a significant character within the sequence.”
Keough, who not too long ago earned Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for her newest TV function in Daisy Jones & the Six, was a best choice to play Godfrey. The writer herself thought it was “good casting.” It was additionally vital to her that the actress had a connection to youngsters, given the bonds Godfrey created with the teenagers in her ebook. “[Keough has] performed numerous work with youth advocacy…and I feel that meant an enormous quantity to Rebecca,” Shephard says. Keough additionally government produces, together with Liz Tigelaar (Little Fires All over the place), director Geeta Patel, and extra.
Casting Gladstone was additionally Godfrey’s thought. She had a pal who shot images on the set of Killers of the Flower Moon and floated the now-Oscar nominee’s identify. “So the precise Rebecca Godfrey was like, ‘What about Lily Gladstone?’” Shephard remembers. It was exhausting to disagree. “I imply, it’s Lily Gladstone,” Mehta laughs.
Lily Gladstone as Cam Bentland.
“She’s such a grounded and type particular person,” Shephard provides. “I feel with each her and Riley, it was such a pleasure to look at them working with the younger forged as a result of they have been each such giving actors they usually have so many scenes with our younger actors, and numerous the children have been actually new to appearing. And I feel you may see every of them rising and studying and collaborating a lot, they usually simply adored Lily and Riley.”
Whereas Cam isn’t an precise particular person, “who she represents and what she represents is our try and excavate the spirit of the reality of this crime,” Mehta says. “Lily has a heat that it was actually vital to us that we seize with the character that she performs,” Shephard provides. “We didn’t need to do a procedural cop story in any approach, and her character is a lot there to perform as any individual who the crime turns into very private for.”
In addition they lucked out in casting Archie Panjabi, of The Good Spouse and Bend It Like Beckham fame, as Reena’s mom, a religious Jehovah’s Witness member. “There was just one identify we spoke of within the author’s room for Suman,” Mehta says. Ezra Faroque Khan (Physician Unusual) performs Reena’s father.
Archie Panjabi as Suman Virk and Ezra Faroque Khan as Manjit Virk.
Reena, nonetheless, was the primary function they started casting. After a six-month search amongst actors of all expertise ranges, they landed on relative newcomer Vritika Gupta, who was 12 on the time. “We have been so glad to seek out her,” says Shephard.
For the younger actors on the present, the staff wished to forged true to age “as a result of I feel some of the disturbing parts of the particular story is simply how younger the children actually have been,” says Mehta. With the assistance of casting director Julie Schubert, they forged: Chloe Guidry (The Park) as Josephine Bell, the vicious queen bee who’s been out and in of foster care; Izzy G. (AJ and the Queen) as Kelly Ellard, Josephine’s greatest pal; Aiyana Goodfellow (The Outlaws) as Dusty Tempo, one other pal who was shut with Reena. Maybe probably the most recognizable younger face is Javon ’Wanna’ Walton, a.ok.a. Ashtray on Euphoria, as Warren Glowatski.
Javon “Wanna” Walton as Warren Glowatski.
After final 12 months’s widespread celebrations of girlhood, Underneath the Bridge exhibits the surprising flip facet. Any lady who’s survived center college and highschool is aware of that ladies could be terrible to at least one one other. Even when issues have improved at the moment, toxicity persists on social media. The issues Reena struggled with within the ’90s are nonetheless related—like cliques, peer strain, and insecurities over physique picture, all the way down to one thing so simple as not shaving your legs. However she was going through a lot harsher critics. Lots of the ladies she ran with lived in foster properties, would shoplift, knew Biggie’s lyrics by coronary heart, and idolized John Gotti and mob wives. “Our shorthand within the room was that the present is Eighth Grade meets The Sopranos,” says Mehta. “And in some methods, the expertise of being in center college and the way unique it will probably really feel and the way merciless being ostracized [is] can really feel such as you’re coping with a gang.”
Shephard admits “horror tales from being in center college” have been exchanged within the author’s room. However she notes that, amid the cruelty, “there may be additionally numerous love between younger girls on this story.” They wished to depart house “to discover what is gorgeous about adolescence and in addition what’s tragic about it.” And it’s not simply the children. “Our grownup girls within the present are nonetheless grappling with their very own girlhoods.”
Again: Vritika Gupta. Entrance: Chloe Guidry as Josephine Bell, Izzy G. as Kelly Ellard, and Aiyana Goodfellow as Dusty Tempo.
Almost three many years later, Underneath the Bridge continues to be as well timed as ever. Not solely due to the obsession with true crime, but additionally due to how lacking younger ladies are handled and infrequently ignored by the authorities, particularly ladies of colour. In a startling element on the present, reviews of runaway ladies are referred to as “BIC ladies,” which Godfrey utilized in her ebook The Torn Skirt. “In her analysis in regards to the police and their interactions with these ladies, she had discovered that they have been calling these ladies ‘BIC ladies,’ like lighters,” Shephard says, “as a result of they have been really easy to lose and disposable.”
However the present’s different themes—about adolescence, a want to really feel included, and parent-child relationships—are additionally common. Shephard provides, “It seems like numerous the issues are nonetheless very a lot part of our tradition now, each day.”
