“Richard Jewell” screenwriter Billy Ray is getting pushback from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution editor of reporter Kathy Scruggs, saying that Ray damaged the reputation of a woman “who can’t do anything at all now to recover” it.
Bert Roughton, who was Scruggs’ editor in verifying her reporting on the Jewell case during the 1996 Olympics, took issue with Clint Eastwood’s film for specifically criticizing and naming her, rather than himself, other managing editors or the news outlet as a whole.
Scruggs died in 2001 of a drug overdose after years of depression that resulted from the paper being sued by Jewell for defamation. The paper ultimately defended and won the lawsuit. Neither she nor Jewell are around to comment on – or defend – their depiction in the film.
Also Read: Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff 'Appalled' by 'Richard Jewell' Portrayal of Reporter, Journalism
“If Billy Ray had wanted to write a screenplay that took on the newspaper as an institution and the editors of the newspaper, including me and named me and attacked me and characterized me, that would be one thing, because I can defend myself,” Roughton told TheWrap. “Kathy was doing her job, bringing in a story independent of that. The decision of whether to publish that or name Jewell was not up to Kathy. I think his assertion is absolutely specious. If he wants to take on our decision making or take me on or our managing editor, whomever, he should do that, but that’s not what he did in this film.”
Much of the debate has concerned a moment in the film that suggests Scruggs had sex with an FBI agent in order to get a story tip on Jewell, something the AJC and Roughton say there is no evidence to support.
However, on Thursday, Ray spoke to Deadline and said the AJC was deflecting by focusing on “one single minute in a movie that’s 129 minutes long” and criticized the AJC for its reporting at the time.
Photo credit: Warner Bros.
“The AJC hung Richard Jewell, in public,” Ray said. “They editorialized wildly and printed assumptions as facts. They compared him to noted mass murderer Wayne Williams. And this was after he had saved hundreds of lives. Now a movie comes along 23 years later, a perfect chance for the AJC to atone for what they did to Richard and to admit to their misdeeds. And what do they decide to do? They launch a distraction campaign. They deflect and distort…opting to challenge one assertion in the movie rather than accepting their own role in destroying the life of a good man. The movie isn’t about Kathy Scruggs; it’s about the heroism and hounding of Richard Jewell, and what rushed reporting can do to an innocent man. And by the way, I will stand by every word and assertion in the script.”
Warner Bros. had no comment for this story, and Ray did not immediately respond.
Also Read: Olivia Wilde on 'Richard Jewell': 'I Did Not Have a Say' in Portrayal of Female Reporter
Roughton defended his decision making at the time of choosing to publish the Jewell story and naming him as a suspect as “completely reasonable,” and he says he’s heard “second guessing” from critics for the last 23 years.
“We had an accurate story verified completely that was on a very important public issue involving the public coming down on this one guy. I think it’s absolutely debatable, and I think it’s a great debate to have of when to name people, when we shouldn’t. At that time we decided to name Richard Jewell. And if anyone believes that Richard Jewell’s name would not have been brought up to the public within 24 hours one way or another or dependent on whether we decided to hold our story, wasn’t paying attention. The FBI was outside his house. They were planning to interview him. They were executing warrants. His name would’ve surfaced one way or the other,” Roughton said.
“It’s just some kind of fantasy that had our newspaper decided not to name Richard Jewell that somehow he would’ve been protected and somehow his reputation wouldn’t have been harmed at the time.”
Also Read: Fox News' Jesse Watters Defends 'Richard Jewell': Female Reporters Sleep With Sources 'All the Time'
But Roughton said a movie that aims to clear Richard Jewell’s name and criticize the press should not do so “by damaging a woman who cannot speak for herself and who can’t do anything at all now to recover her reputation.”
“Films are very powerful. They’re dramatic in that they created that film of making Kathy Scruggs to be this force of evil without any conscious of thinking at all about what she was doing and the implication,” Roughton said. “It’s going to linger for a long time. I don’t know how she’ll ever be able to recover her reputation.”
Roughton also defended Scruggs meticulousness as a reporter and said not only was there no evidence to suggest she ever slept with a source but that it would not be her “style.” He said he’s seen “Richard Jewell” twice and disagreed with other scenes in the film, including one in which she obtains a scoop by hiding in the backseat of someone’s car.
Also Read: 'Richard Jewell' Film Review: Clint Eastwood's Wrong-Man Docudrama Muddles Harrowing True Story
“The sequence of events when I was dealing with her on this story, it doesn’t make sense to me. Her conversation with her primary source was very detailed, was the kind of thing that you had to be taking careful, knowing that you had to be paying close attention. And she got in touch with me very quickly after she finished having that conversation. I don’t see anyway that she would’ve had time to stop and have sex with somebody. And it would’ve been out of character for Kathy,” Roughton told TheWrap. “I was absolutely astounded by her depiction as her as a demonic, crazed victim who has not one sense of propriety, was awfully rude to her colleagues, was the kind of person who would bully a managing editor into publishing a story.”
Earlier this month, the AJC sent a letter threatening producers and filmmakers with legal action over the “malicious fabrications,” and called for a boycott of the film. The letter, from the law offices of Lavely & Singer accused the filmmakers of acting “recklessly” and “engaging in constitutional malice” due to the film’s portrayal of Scruggs. The paper demanded that the filmmakers issue a public statement that acknowledges they took dramatic and artistic licenses with the story, and that a prominent disclaimer is added to the film.
On Monday, Warner Bros. issued a statement in response to the AJC’s legal demand saying the film was based “on a wide range of highly credible source material.”
“There is no disputing that Richard Jewell was an innocent man whose reputation and life were shredded by a miscarriage of justice,” the statement read. “It is unfortunate and the ultimate irony that the Atlanta Journal Constitution, having been a part of the rush to judgment of Richard Jewell, is now trying to malign our filmmakers and cast. ‘Richard Jewell’ focuses on the real victim, seeks to tell his story, confirm his innocence and restore his name. The AJC’s claims are baseless and we will vigorously defend against them.”
Further, “Richard Jewell” does conclude with a disclaimer — something that has always been in the film and not added in recent weeks — according to an individual with knowledge of the project.
“The film is based on actual historical events. Dialogue and certain events and characters contained in the film were created for the purposes of dramatization,” the disclaimer reads.
“Richard Jewell” opens in theaters Friday.
Clint Eastwood's 5 Worst and 5 Best Movies as a Director, From 'The Rookie' to 'Unforgiven' (Photos)
With "Richard Jewell" landing in theaters, we look back at the Oscar winner's highlights (and lowlights) as a filmmaker.
The Worst: "The Rookie" (1990)
In the wake of two small, personal movies ("Bird" and "White Hunter Black Heart"), Eastwood showed real rust copying the '80s vogue for brash buddy-cop movies: This one's just empty brutality, dumb jokes, thankless roles (poor Sonia Braga and Raul Julia), and hilariously awful thriller plotting. Eastwood seems bored playing another crusty lawman teamed with a newbie (Charlie Sheen), while the mayhem -- trashed bars, crashes, shootouts, explosions -- feels like the work of a caged genre icon lashing out.
"The Eiger Sanction" (1975)
A weird misfire for Eastwood, who's at a loss to make the cheesy espionage story work, and unconvincing on screen as an art professor-secret assassin in the Bond mold; he looks ready to burst out laughing having to do scenes with a cackling albino spymaster named "Dragon." (The less said about an African-American seducer named Jemima Brown the better.) Though the climactic mountain climbing sequence has its breathtaking moments, it's a clichéd slog till then.
"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" (1997)
Eastwood's atmospheric strengths and underappreciated directing of actors eluded him in realizing John Berendt's best-selling nonfiction book about a Savannah, Georgia murder trial. It's an overlong checklist affair of clunky scenes and colorful players, but with little of the lived-in eccentricity rendered in the book. Even the good performances -- namely, Kevin Spacey and as-herself Lady Chablis -- are winking wind-up toys rather than emblems of an exotic, enchanting place.
"Changeling" (2008)
A bizarre true story from the 1920s becomes discordant melodrama in Eastwood's meandering Angelina Jolie vehicle about a Los Angeles single mother's hellish ordeal trying to prove that the boy returned to her by the police isn't her missing son. Injustice, corruption and serial killing prove too much for the director's laconic style. It's three noir movies rolled into one draggy, blankly dark mess.
"Jersey Boys" (2014)
There are elements to admire in the unlikely match-up of Eastwood and a toe-tapping Broadway musical about the Four Seasons, namely a few performances, and a certain grim tinge to its tale of showbiz climbers. But mostly it feels, strangely, both rushed and listless, stuck between pleasing nostalgia fans and rooting out grit and discomfort wherever possible. It's also visually bland and clichéd about its emotions, two rare descriptors for an Eastwood movie.
And the 5 best, startng with...
5. "Bronco Billy" (1980)
Eastwood's foray into old-fashioned screwball comedy -- there's even a madcap heiress (Sondra Locke) -- is really his first attempt at tweaking his tough-guy image, and it's his sleeper masterpiece. Turning a ramshackle, cash-strapped wild west show run by convicts of all colors into a warmly funny vision of a be-who-you-want-to-be America, Eastwood serves up a conservative's vision of the country that's inclusive, patriotic, and able to laugh at itself.
Paramount4. "Letters From Iwo Jima" (2006)
After "Flags of Our Fathers," Eastwood explored the same battle from the Japanese perspective, and -- to many people's surprise -- in the Japanese language. The result is a potently human, unflinching, and deeply felt evocation of how battle is fury, but war is a shroud asphyxiating the soul. As it monochromatically slides from the crisp daylight of preparation to the woozy gloom of tunnels full of doomed soldiers, it becomes Eastwood's purest, least sentimental vision of his most longstanding themes.
3. "The Outlaw Josey Wales" (1976)
Marked by Bruce Surtees' exquisite cinematography, Eastwood's post-Civil War vengeance saga -- in which a Missouri farmer (Eastwood) turns hunted renegade after Union soldiers slaughter his family -- becomes a sly episodic Western about the hard, bloody road to peace. Moving easily between action, melancholy and humor (Wales' spitting on people and dogs is the stain of war made darkly literal), it's Eastwood's first great exploration of violence's psychic toll.
Warner Bros.2. "Million Dollar Baby" (2004)
A poor young female boxer (Hilary Swank) wants to fight. The trainer (Eastwood) reluctantly trains. Punches await, small, and huge. An unabashedly rich-in-feeling movie about toughness, sacrifice, regret, and life on one's own terms, it's Eastwood wrenching the boxing picture from the triumph-of-the-spirit treadmill and introducing it to the abyss. That doesn't mean there isn't verve, humor and sentiment -- its character interactions are fleet and jazz-like -- but its beautiful soul is in the shadows.
1. "Unforgiven" (1992)
Eastwood held on to screenwriter David Webb Peoples' revisionist Western until the time was right, and the result was an Oscar-bestowed turning point and his best movie. Evocatively, suspensefully detailing a desperate widower's reckoning with his savage past, it tracked powerfully as both a pungent deflating of merrily violent western myths and a scarily tense depiction of how, as Eastwood's killer tells a scared young man, "We all have it comin,' kid." By the end, each gunshot is Eastwood mercy-killing a genre he loves, and knocking us to our senses about bloody movie justice.
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