Woman of the Hour true story: How accurate is Anna Kendrick's film?

Kendrick stars as Bradshaw herself in the film and since its release, Woman of the Hour has received plenty of critical acclaim and proven to be a major hit on Netflix.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, former homicide prosecutor Matt Murphy, who worked on the Alcala case, said of the murderer at the centre of the case: “He was very charming, he was very charismatic but, of course, I knew that he was a monster.

“He is a true blue American bogeyman and it was fascinating just dealing with him, trying to figure out what made him tick."

But just how strictly does it stick to the truth? Read on for everything you need to know.

Woman of the Hour true story: How accurate is Anna Kendrick's film?

While the basic story presented in the film is very much based on true events, there are a couple of liberties taken with exactly how some things are portrayed.

For example, while the film shows Cheryl and Rodney going for a drink after they match on the show, this did not happen in real life – Cheryl actually refused to go out with him because she found him creepy.

There are other differences, too. For example, Laura – the member of the audience played by Nicolette Robinson who tries to alert The Dating Game's producers about Alcala and his crimes – is a fictional character.

Furthermore, the exact nature of Alcala's capture is also changed. As is explained in on-screen text at the end of the film, he was released on bail after the police were alerted to his capture of Monique Hoyt (Amy in the film), and went on to murder a 21-year-old woman and a 12-year-old girl before his eventual arrest.

Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com about why she and screenwriter Ian McDonald made some of these changes, Kendrick explained that she wanted to "tell the story in a way that is emotionally impactful and that the viewer can really follow for a 90-minute movie".

She added: "So, in many ways, we were trying to not get bogged down in some kind of, like, hyper-detailed accuracy."

One way in which this is exemplified is in the central character of Bradshaw. Kendrick and McDonald were forced to create a somewhat fictional version of her given that in real life she is a very private person about which not much is known – and also changed the spelling of her name from Cheryl to Sheryl to differentiate them.

"Cheryl is one of those people that we know very little about," she explained. "And if anything, I thought that Ian did a really masterful job of, like, using that vacuum as this perfect opportunity to explore the themes of the movie.

"And that question of, like, well, we know that she was an an aspiring actress in Hollywood in the 1970s and, you know, imagining the average week in a life of an aspiring actress in the 1970s is pretty fertile ground for all the humiliations and dangers, small and large."

She added: "And even The Dating Game itself. You know, there are clips of it online, but the entire episode sort of appears to have been lost to history.

"And sure, like, do I think that in the missing footage, Cheryl decided to rebel and make up her own questions? Probably not, but I also really love that section of the movie, because it's almost even shot like a like a fantasy section of the film. Except, the fantasy isn't, like, fairies and dragons. It's what if a woman stood up for herself."

Of course, despite these fictionalised aspects of the film, Kendrick still steeped herself in factual research as part of the preparation process – which led to her honing in on some particularly haunting details that ended up featuring directly in the film.

"We did a lot of research about [Alcala] working at the Los Angeles Times," she explained. "The details of which kind of get lost in the movie anyway, so, you know, whatever.

"But a lot of it was just like me and a subscription to newspapers.com. And I wish I was, like, sponsored to say that, but it was really interesting to kind of go to the source and look up a lot of the original material."

As for the ending of the film itself, and the way things end for Sheryl, it was a conversation to be had between Kendrick and screenwriter McDonald, who decided to put in a fictional scene of Sheryl interacting with her neighbour (Pete Holmes).

Speaking about the importance of including that fictional scene, Kendrick told TUDUM: “Ian and I were debating whether maybe there’s a little bit of dialogue or a conversation between Sheryl and her neighbour at the end of the movie, and nothing was feeling right.

"And Ian suddenly suggested like, ‘Well, what if Sheryl just stands her ground in the hallway, and he has to move around her?’ I think I threw my highlighter across the room – I was so excited.”

She added that McDonald's idea was a “great way of illustrating the complexity of a victory that’s small, but it’s meaningful to that character”.

Woman of the Hour is available to watch on Netflix now. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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