The Accused

Exactly, the behind-the-scenes chaos and the sheer human vulnerability that, you know, birthed a masterpiece.

Our mission today is to deconstruct the anatomy of this film.

We want to show you how creative triumphs, the kind that define an entire generation, rarely come from some pristine master plan.

Oh, absolutely not.

Right, the precursor.

Yeah.

That was the book that actually introduced the world to Hannibal Lecter, and it was adapted into a 1986 film called Manhunter.

Now, Michael Mann directed it, Brian Cox played Hannibal, and today film buffs really respect that movie.

This is an absurdity.

They are pretending as though this were, um, what was the name of that Jodie Foster movie? Was it The Accused? Back in the day where they literally held her up against a, a-

Mm-hmm

... pingpong- a, a, a pinball machine and forcibly raped her character in this very disturbing movie.

That is not even arguably what happened here.

They are talking about her like she was grabbed from the street, held down, and forcibly raped, as opposed to, "Our bodies, our choices.

Both of them testified in these proceedings that she was the initiator, that Winston Lee, who was the last one to have sex with her, said, "Hey, we don't have to do this at all." He wasn't expecting sex with this woman.

And she said, "Hey, we're all consenting adults here," and wanted, wanted him to get on top of her, which then he did.

Yeah, no, I mean, uh, I, I admit the, the first time I read it, I was only interested in this woman and in everything that this woman had to say, and then eventually, you know, everything that all of these other people have to say about her, because there's over 20 people testifying about her.

But then I remembered, uh, like a good historian, that you have to be, you know, extremely careful with your sources, especially as, as you just said, Eric, especially sources from so long ago, and, and remember that this is, you know, the, the incredibly fraught circumstance of, of not just legal proceedings, but, uh, sexual assault proceedings, where there's some risk of the death penalty for the accused.

And so I realized I did have to try to grapple with the author, uh, so-called, and I was very lucky in some senses and not so lucky in others.

Uh, the, the guy who did the investigating was a guy by the name of Jacques Borostel, and what's unlucky for me is we don't know much of anything about his personal life.

Oh, sure.

Um, I, I'm looking right now at the mid 1400s on my timeline page, and you mentioned Joan of Arc.

We did do an episode on Gilles de Rais, the accused serial murderer who was, uh, the right-hand man of, uh, Joan of Arc, and died in 1440, just over 30 years earlier.

And then in 1476, four years after the events in, in your book, Vlad the Impaler was supposed to have been assassinated whi- while fighting the Turkish army.

Yeah, for sure.

And it's like we'll see some of those themes come up, like the, the body horror theme coming up with, um, Demi Moore later and, and her movie The Substance, or we'll see, um, those themes about, like, the accused versus the accuser and stuff come up with, um, Jodie Foster, who like Demi Moore was another Venus retrograde in Scorpio, and Jodie Foster's movie The Accused from, um, I think it was 1986.

Or no, it was 1988.

And that being, again, uh, dealing with some of those themes about, about the, the accused versus the accuser and, and the ways that that can get messed up in, in society.

Yeah.

The villainization of the feminine figure and the story that plays out, you know?

Um, but Jodie Foster's a really interesting case because Jodie Foster has long gravitated towards, like, darker roles in different ways that explore different areas that are very, like, edgy or sometimes controversial or sometimes, like, like, dark.

So for example, her breakout role in 1977 was in the Martin Scorsese movie Taxi Driver, where she played a, a child prostitute who was, like, 12 years old or something like that, and she was actually nominated for Best Supporting Actress in this role.

Hello, my name is Chrissy Champagne, and you are listening to Residue, a true crime podcast dedicated to keeping you paranoid.

Today, we will be discussing the film The Accused.

Before we begin, do not forget to follow me on Instagram, Residue Podcast, Facebook, TikTok, Residue, a true crime podcast, and don't forget to hit that follow button.

And the greatest thing you could possibly do for any podcast that you love is leave a positive review.

I will be discussing the case without graphic descriptions.

Listener discretion is advised.

The Accused is a 1988 film directed by Jonathan Kaplan, written by Tom Topper.

The film was loosely inspired by the 1983 case involving Cheryl Arujo in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

And the question was...

Jodie Foster received her second Academy Award for Best Leading Actress for Silence of the Lambs, three years after winning her first for 1988's The Accused.

As a child actor, she gained fame for her first Oscar nomination for 1976's Taxi Driver and for a handful of family-oriented films, Disney and otherwise, throughout the 1970s.

She played the lead role in one Disney film in particular, in which she unwillingly swapped bodies with her mother.

[laughs]

So I knew that she was in this, and I'd watched The Accused and I thought, all right, she's an adult now.

Okay, I get that.

Uh, but nothing prepared me for it.

Drinking.

And it was a really powerful film.

I mean, that was, what, 40 years ago? And we're still here talking about

this? Oh, I know.