Kaitlyn Dever plays Marie Adler, and 18 year-old woman whose sexual assault report is questioned by authorities and those who know her. Photo / Supplied / Netflix
Kaitlyn Dever plays Marie Adler, and 18 year-old woman whose sexual assault report is questioned by authorities and those who know her. Photo / Supplied / Netflix
Kaitlyn Dever hopes her new true-crime series alters perceptions about sexual assault survivors.
Unbelievable is a confronting portrayal of the real-life case detailed in the 2016 podcast Anatomy of Doubt.
Drawn directly from the source material, it explores what happens when police get things right — and gravely wrong —when investigating rape cases.
"What I took away from the experience is that everyone reacts to trauma differently," says Dever. "With these kinds of [sexual assault] investigations, we have to change the way we view survivors and listen to them."
Dever plays Marie Adler, an 18-year-old in Washington State who has already faced significant trauma after spending childhood in foster care. When she is raped in her apartment one night, doubts are raised by the police and a former foster parent when inconsistencies in her story become apparent.
Meanwhile, two female detectives from neighbouring districts in Colorado (Toni Collette and Merritt Wever) connect the dots with the separate sexual assault cases they're working on and join forces to hunt a man they believe is a serial attacker.
One of the hardest scenes to watch is in the first episode. When Marie reports the crime, she has to recount her story multiple times and is medically examined — all within hours of being assaulted.
"It just really put me in the headspace of what someone has to go through," she says.
"After getting something so personal taken from them, they have to go to the hospital and get their pictures taken of their body, they have to get their body parts examined and tested and then they have to get their blood taken."
It continues a big year for Dever, who has already had critically acclaimed roles in Short Term 12 and Men, Women and Children. It's also a major change of role for the 22-year-old American, fresh from starring in hit teen comedy, Booksmart.
"I knew that everything was going to be challenging, I didn't think it was going to easy ever, at any point.
"I was really lucky to have all of this source material, and all of this information about her going into it."
Unbelievable: Merritt Weaver and Toni Collette play Detectives Karen Duvall and Grace Rasmussen. Photo / Supplied / Netflix
Playing a character based on a real person has its advantages but can also be weighed down by expectation.
True crime fans appreciate a documentary-like insight into real people, such as the serial killers in Mindhunter or O.J. Simpson in Ryan Murphy's The People v. O.J. Simpson.
But while finding it useful to hear Adler's voice on the podcast, Dever, in consultation with director Lisa Cholodenko, decided not to call her. They agreed that achieving the character's state of mind and emotional complexity was more important than paying biographical homage to the source.
Dever undoubtedly achieved that. Her performance covers a spectrum of emotions and challenges, from timid and traumatised, to reckless and angry.
Over the eight episodes, the combination of considered directing and great acting means the viewer can watch her character go through the stages of her trauma, in a considered and non-voyeuristic way.
The layers of her psyche unravel as she accepts what she went through, despite being coerced by the detectives on her case to retract her allegations.
"I think Maria's really, really strong and brave," says Dever. "You don't necessarily see that early on [in the show], because she's gone through so much.
"We're really seeing her, not through her words, but through the actions of others ... she doesn't know who to trust, and the thing that really stood out to me is she developed this way of shutting down her emotions, like an on and off switch."
Detective Karen Duvall (Merritt Weaver) with authorities investigating the case. Photo / Supplied / Netflix
It is evident Dever cares deeply about her character and the implications of she goes through. Unbelievable's power lies in its careful construction of the trauma, carried by not only Dever's character but Collette's and Wever's too.
Dever said it was a dream come true to work with Collette.
"She's sort of the reason I wanted to become an actress in the first place," she said, adding the Australian's performance in M. Night Shyamalan's twisty supernatural thriller The Sixth Sense "blew me away as a little kid". Although the two don't share any scenes, Dever got the chance to praise Collette at a dinner they shared for the show.
Ultimately, Dever hopes viewers will empathise with Adler's story.
"The show should definitely move the needle forward in that way."
LOWDOWN: Who: Kaitlyn Dever What: Unbelievable When: Available on Netflix today
• If it's an emergency and you feel you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
• If you've ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone, contact the Safe to Talk confidential helpline. Text 4334, email support@safetotalk.nz or visit safetotalk.nz/contact-us/ for an online chat.
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