#‘American Nightmare’ Directors on the Trial by Media Suffered by the Misnamed “Real-Life Gone Girl”

American Nightmare follows the story of Denise Huskins and partner Aaron Quinn, the victims of a home invasion in 2015 in Vallejo, California, that resulted in Huskins’ kidnapping. However, the couple was quickly accused of staging it all, with Huskins being labeled “the real Gone Girl.” Directors Bernadette Higgins and Felicity Morris (The Tinder Swindler) set out to tell Huskins’ story piece by piece, highlighting law enforcement behavior, victim blaming and trial by media.

When did you first hear about Denise’s story and decide it’d be your next project? 

BERNADETTE HIGGINS It was just after The Tinder Swindler was released and we’d already decided that we wanted our next project to be together. And Raw, the company that we made Tinder Swindler with, had actually been trying to get access to Denise and Aaron for about two years. They approached us with it and asked us if we’d like to co-direct it. We looked into the story and it was obviously an amazing tale, but more important than it just being a thrilling story, we always ask ourselves, “Why are we telling this story?” — especially when it comes to true crime. And there were just a lot of issues that really struck us as subjects that we’d like to shine a bit of a light on in terms of police and confirmation bias and interrogation techniques, but also Denise’s story in particular, and how she was treated. Using her as a way to shine a light on the fact that this is not unusual, that this is standard practice for reporting sexual assault. They’re immediately put into the suspect rather than victim position a lot of the time. Denise was really willing to go there and to share her whole story, and it’s a very privileged position to be in, to be hearing somebody tell their story. As soon as we met her and Aaron and spoke to them, we were sold. 

It couldn’t have been easy for Denise to relive this. Was she ever hesitant to participate in the documentary?

FELICITY MORRIS Denise and Aaron really wanted their story to be told because they appreciated that they’re not alone in this and that, hopefully, if they could have their story on a platform as big as Netflix, that people would sit up and listen and that change would be made. There’s no denying that after the way Denise and Aaron were treated by the police and the media, they have a lot of distrust in institutions, and that’s why it took so long for them to agree. The exec producer on the show, Rebecca North, spoke to them for two years to say, “We’re the right company to make this, and we’re going to listen to you.” Denise is so unbelievably resilient, has such emotional strength, and in many ways that was sort of what worked against her when she did come forward, when she was released, when she didn’t tell the police in Huntington Beach [where her kidnapper dropped her off] what had happened to her. There was a big question mark over her: “She’s not acting like an ordinary victim.” It was really important for us to have her tell her story in exactly the same way that she told the police so that audiences could listen to her and think, “Would I ever not believe this woman and what she’s telling me?” We never want for interviewees to go through that ordeal of sitting and having to recount what happened to them if there’s not a reason for doing it, if there’s not an impact that can be made.

After the first episode, there is a shadow of doubt on Denise’s story. What were conversations like regarding the way the story would be structured? 

HIGGINS What we kept coming back to was that there was a trial by media with Denise and Aaron. We wanted the Netflix viewers to have the same experience as the people who were following the story in the press at the time. We wanted the audience to have that interactive experience, that active viewing experience, I suppose, by watching and hearing it the same way the police did at the time, and having a chance to sit back and say, “Do I believe this guy? I’m not sure he’s that convincing.” We really wanted the viewer to be able to get to the end of episode one and really not be sure what they felt about anything.

And then you feel guilty for doubting Denise and Aaron.

HIGGINS We’re not trying to overly educate anyone, but one of the big questions that we wanted to leave with episode one and episode two is, “How do I feel about how I reacted to these people?” I might think that I’m a really good judge of character or I don’t fall into any of the pitfalls of just believing everything I’m being told. Really giving people a chance to think, “Well, actually, I didn’t believe them,” or “I did believe them.” And, therefore, how do we respond to victims? How is it that we expect people to act when they’re traumatized? And if they don’t act the exact same way that we act, are we incredibly judgmental, and should we be more empathic or be more compassionate or just understand that not everybody reacts the same way that you would react? It’s an opportunity to really shine a light on trauma and how it affects people and how they respond and what happens when the people that you think are going to help you turn against you — and how that can happen in an instant. Aaron and Denise are both very conscious of the fact that they’re from a very privileged demographic: They’re white, they’re middle class, they’re attractive, they’re tertiary educated, they were never brought up to distrust the police. Aaron never thought that he was putting himself in the firing line by calling 911 and asking for help. He thought that was the right thing to do. And then Denise was in the same boat, really, when she came back. Once the press started running with this story, and once you started seeing those salacious headlines like, “Is that the real-life Gone Girl?” — it’s the more fun way of experiencing the story rather than the terrifying truth of it.

Have you heard from law enforcement since the documentary aired? 

HIGGINS No. Felicity and I have been invited to speak to law enforcement. So there are signs that things got through. But we haven’t personally heard anything.

What was the biggest challenge you faced during production? 

MORRIS It’s an unbelievable twisty, turny story that can be described as entertaining, but sexual assault is obviously such a difficult and delicate subject, and the last thing we wanted to do was use it as an exploitative crutch. We spent a long time thinking about how we tell that story in a dignified and respectful way. In the interview, she told us so much more of what happened to her in that cabin. Here’s a woman who wants to tell her story, so we’re privileged to be able to hear that, but at the same time, there’s a very fine line in visualizing that. We worked really closely from the start with our EP to think about how that’s all going to look. That was the trickiest thing to get right and make sure that we didn’t do a disservice to her in any way. 

This story first appeared in a May standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.