Lily Gladstone, Samir Mehta on 'Under the Bridge' showcasing 'Radical Empathy'

Lily Gladstone and showrunner slash executive producer Samir Mehta recently appeared on Deadline’s Contenders TV, sharing their thoughts on their Hulu series Under the Bridge.

Speaking of the murder of Reena Virk, the trio admitted to being careful not to sensationalize Virk’s death.

The creator and EP Quinn Shephard, Gladstone said: “A lot of times, the human element, particularly the people who suffered the most are the ones who get erased.”

“The thing that happened to them becomes a sensationalized thing for the media and then it becomes something for consumption.”

Speaking of her film Killers of the Flower Moon, for which she was nominated for an Oscar, Gladstone said that it faced the same issue.

Opening up about making an artwork about a real-life tragedy, Gladstone said: “It’s about bringing the voices of the family and what their experience was with the media.”

“In bringing Rebecca [Godfrey] into the narrative herself as the woman writing about this, that’s a great way to self-indict the sensationalism that often happens with true crime journalism, with writing these books when somebody’s career blows up because of another family or somebody’s tragedy.”

In addition, Shephard decided to make Godfrey a character, played by Riley Keogh in Under the Bridge after getting to know the author.

He said: “Part of making her a character in the show was removing ourselves from her perspective as the answer to what had happened or who we should sympathize with in the story.”

“The more I got to know her the more I realized that she is a character because her own perspective shapes the book.”