In “Winner,” which premiered Sunday at Sundance 2024, “Cat Person” director Susanna Fogel wanted to explore why an ordinary 20-something named Reality Winner leaked an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections and ended up serving five years in prison for treason.
As Fogel told TheWrap editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman at our Sundance Portrait and Interview Studio presented by NFP, she loved Kerry Howley’s script, which portrayed Winner as “this funny woman who was very much her own person” and “sort of too smart for her own good.”
Kathryn Newton, who plays Reality’s sister, Brittany, was also at the studio, along with costar Danny Ramirez.
“Just the idea that this funny, vibrant millennial person could become Public Enemy No. 1 — how did that happen? Besides just the headline, that was what drew me to it,” Fogel said.
She and star Emilia Jones, reuniting after working together on “Cat Person,” conferred with Winner personally to nail the specifics about her case. Read on for TheWrap’s conversation with Fogel, Jones and Newton below.
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Susanna, you don’t think of the film as a comedy?
Susanna Fogel: No, but that there’s humor in it. I think that distinguishes it from most movies that are also a little political. A serious movie about a funny person was what we set out to do, because Reality is funny. Her sense of humor got her into a lot of trouble. Reality is complicated and...
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