Amanda Knox Explains Her Criticism of Stillwater : 'I'm Still Living with the Consequences'
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Amanda Knox is clarifying why she spoke out against Matt Damon's latest film Stillwater in a heated Twitter thread last week.
The drama stars Damon, 50, as a construction worker named Bill whose estranged daughter Allison (played by Abigail Breslin) is convicted of killing her ex-girlfriend while in France. Despite its fiction label, Knox believes the film is based on her public fight against murder charges.
In 2009, Knox and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were convicted of the 2007 murder of Knox's roommate Meredith Kercher when she was a 20-year-old American student studying abroad in Perugia, Italy. The legal battle lasted until 2015, when she was acquitted for the final time.
In an interview with Variety, published Wednesday, Knox suggested Damon and director/writer Tom McCarthy (Spotlight), wrongfully believe viewers will not attach Stillwater to her case by simply calling it fiction.
"... Matt Damon and the director can walk away with a great story in their pocket, but meanwhile, I'm still living with the consequences of people thinking that I am somehow involved in this crime that I am not involved in."
Prosecutors alleged Knox and Sollecito killed Kercher during a sex game gone awry despite no DNA evidence linking them to the crime scene and a lack of hard evidence. The pair was freed in 2011 after four years in prison following an appeal but were convicted again in absentia in 2013 before being acquitted a second time in 2015.
Knox has been open about the trials of re-adjusting to daily life after being involved in the highly publicized case. Last Friday, she tweeted about what it was like to see a story "loosely based" on her own life portrayed on the big screen without her permission.
"Does my name belong to me? My face? What about my life? My story? Why does my name refer to events I had no hand in? I return to these questions because others continue to profit off my name, face, & story without my consent. Most recently, the film #STILLWATER," she wrote.
McCarthy told Vanity Fair and other outlets while promoting the film, in theaters now, that he was inspired by Knox's case in co-writing the screenplay, but stressed that the writers "fictionalized everything around" her story.
RELATED: Amanda Knox Reveals Why She Initially Lied About Where She Was When Meredith Kercher Was Killed
Knox told Variety she wasn't initially bothered by the idea of the movie but "would have loved to have been informed of it beforehand." In a previous tweet, she suggested her story was "incredibly worth telling."
"I'm acutely aware of how much non-fiction is a part of fiction, and how much fiction is a part of non-fiction," she tweeted, referencing her novelist husband Christopher Robinson. "And there are infinite stories out there that you could tell. But why did you decide to tell this one in this way?"
Once she learned of Stillwater's plot, Knox said she was not pleased.
Dominique Charriau/WireImage Matt Damon
RELATED: Why Amanda Knox, and the Prosecutor Who Tried Her for Murder, Agreed to Do Netflix Documentary
"[The filmmakers] created a story that didn't really take the premise of my story as a springboard," she told Variety, "[but one that rather] really did entrench itself in the scandalous interpretation of my story that was presented by the prosecution — one in which I was either directly or indirectly involved in the death of my roommate, who supposedly I had a sexual involvement and entanglement with, which I absolutely did not in real life."
A rep for McCarthy did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.
At the New York City premiere of Stillwater, Damon told PEOPLE of his character, "It's a pretty heavy role and it's really complex, and I love that. It's one of the best roles that I've ever been offered and given a chance to play, and I'm just really grateful to [director] Tom [McCarthy] for thinking of me for it. The guy goes on quite a journey.
"And the movie, it's much more of a drama than a thriller, and anybody who comes sees it should know that and just go with the character and go on the ride he goes on," he said. "That would be my only advice."
