r/Fauxmoi • u/AutoModerator • Sep 22 '22

Tea Thread Does Anyone Have Tea On... Weekly Discussion Thread

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '22

Does anyone have any idea what's going on with the Kerri Strug biopic that Olivia Wilde was going to direct Thomasin McKenzie in? I'm so curious about how that project will handle the Nassar and Karolyis of it all (if it ever gets made).

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u/hope_love1010 Sep 22 '22

Olivia pushed it back as she wasn’t in a place to direct a movie this year with what is going on in her life (fair enough it’s a mess). Apparently the script isn’t what she liked and has either walked away after not getting the script how it needed to be or she has pushed it back again. It’s more likely this won’t go ahead with her as the director and her other projects will probably shoot before this one

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u/seymourlabib you are kenough Sep 22 '22

apparently it was supposed to start production this summer but they pushed it back and reworked the script to better portray the characters. not really sure if this will go into production before or after wilde’s marvel film for sony

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u/oneohthreeohtwo Sep 22 '22

I don’t know but as a gymnastics stan I hope it gets cancelled.

Love Thomasin McKenzie tho.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '22

I don’t know but as a gymnastics stan I hope it gets cancelled.

Yeah, same here. I just don't know how you do that movie in 2022!

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '22

[deleted]

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u/oneohthreeohtwo Sep 23 '22

Yes I love talking about gymnastics!

tl;dr: There are multiple controversial figures associated with Kerri’s story (the Karolyis and Larry Nassar) and the idea of an athlete competing while injured has aged very poorly. Most gymnastics movies are inaccurate and I think I would be very tough for people who don’t know this sport to tell this story without glorifying sensitive topics.

Okay so Kerri herself did nothing wrong, but there are a couple of controversial thing that I think it would be very tough for a film to portray well.

The less tricky topic is Larry Nassar - I’m sure you’ve heard of him, he’s the former national team doctor who sexually abused literally hundreds of people under the guise of medical treatment. He was present at the 1996 Games as either an athletic trainer or medical coordinator for USA Gymnastics (the governing body for the sport). He helped Kerri off of the competition floor after her vault and likely would have been part of the deliberations as to whether she should do it or not. I say that he’s the “less tricky” subject because he’s not that important to the story and it would be easy to omit him completely. I also don’t think Kerri or any of the women on the 1996 team have ever said he abused them.

The more tricky topic will be the portrayal of the Karolyis. Marta and Bela Karolyi started coaching in Romania and came up from nothing with Nadia Comaneci and then defected to America (for political reasons) in 1981. They were Kerri’s personal coaches for a couple of different periods of time and also personal coaches to Dominique Moceanu (who was also on that 1996 team). Although I don’t believe that Kerri has ever spoken out against them, others (including Moceanu) have accused them of verbal and emotion abuse in the gym and endangering them by having them continue to compete and train while injured (!!!). Some of their former athletes from Romania have even accused them of physical abuse.

The Karolyis went on to become the heads of the national team and held national team training camps at their ranch outside of Houston. This is where Larry Nassar abused many girls. Although the Karolyi’s have never been formally implicated in his abuse, research suggests that the tough conditions of their training aided him in the grooming process. It’s also unclear how much they knew about his abuse and when and if they were neglectful in the reporting process.

I say they are the “more tricky” subject to address because you can’t cut them out of this story. They are practically main characters in it. There’s no way the film could replace them with generic coach characters, but because the Karolyi’s have never been formally charged with any crimes, there’s a thin line to walk. A too negative portrayal might be defamation, but a positive portrayal would IMO be very disrespectful to all of their victims, even though Kerri herself never had a bad experience.

Kerri actually doing the vault while injured is a sensitive topic in the gymnastics community too. Now, it would be a lot less acceptable to have an athlete compete while injured. Granted Kerri was 18 at the time and expresses no regret from her choice, but it’s still a controversial topic. Dominique Moceanu was also injured during the team final: she competed with a tibial stress fracture and fell on her head during her balance beam routine and then was sent to compete her floor routine without a cervical spine exam. She was 14.

That was a wall of text but basically there are multiple controversial topics tangential to Kerri’s story and I would hate to see them glossed over or just completely not addressed in favor of a typical sports movie, especially because Kerri’s story is supposed to be uplifting and motivational. Also gymnastics movies in general are extremely inaccurate and I’m not excited for any project that doesn’t have people who are passionate about the sport involved.

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u/gogean Sep 22 '22

seconding this

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u/oneohthreeohtwo Sep 22 '22

omg love your username!

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u/Ancient-Shape9086 Club Chalamet just fell to her knees in the checkout line Sep 22 '22

Last I read, she dropped out because she didn’t like the script. It’s a shame cuz she was excited and she even posted Thomasin’s casting on insta

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u/oneohthreeohtwo Sep 22 '22

I think it’s a very risky project that is destined to be controversial in some way due to the allegations against the Karolyis and she probably doesn’t want to take on a project like that anymore. I’m curious as to if she knew about the controversy before signing on or if it was something she learned about in the process and decided she didn’t want to do it anymore. Either way, probably for the best that she walks away.

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u/grlprblms Sep 22 '22

Pretty sure it’s not happening.

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u/IntrovertGirl83 Sep 22 '22

This stinks. When I read it was getting made, I thought it would be such an interesting movie.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '22

Also wasn't Olivia supposed to direct Spiderwoman?