Giuseppe De Domenico had a reason for not reaching out to Amanda Knox‘s ex Raffaele Sollecito about playing him in The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox until after filming wrapped.
“We finished production and maybe one month before the premiere, I asked to talk with him,” De Domenico, 32, exclusively told Us Weekly. “I asked permission to talk with him and I promised that I would not say anything about the script.”
De Domenico, who played Sollecito, 41, in the Hulu series, had a “very human reason” to make contact, saying, “I know a lot of stuff about him, he doesn’t know anything about me. I just shared with him some information about me just to give him balance. I think he really appreciated that moment and I feel like this is the right thing to do.”
As for why De Domenico waited until production had nearly wrapped?
“This is pretty common. When someone is involved in the production, it’s pretty easy to work together and prepare for the role. In this case, Raffaele wasn’t part of the production team,” the actor noted. “It was difficult because the only thing we can share is that I was part of the project. But I cannot share sensitive information outside of that.”
The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox is an eight-episode series chronicling the period after Knox, 38, was wrongfully accused, her time in prison and her journey to freedom. The actual trial took place after Knox was accused in 2007 of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher while they were studying abroad in Perugia, Italy. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison after she and then-boyfriend Sollecito were both convicted of the crime despite a lack of evidence.
An appellate court later found the former couple not guilty in 2011, but they were again found guilty three years later during a retrial. The Italian supreme court cleared Knox of Kercher’s murder in 2015, and she was exonerated.
Ivorian migrant Rudy Guede was sentenced in 2008 to 30 years in prison for Kercher’s murder after his DNA was identified at the crime scene. His sentence was later reduced, and he was released from prison in November 2021.
Before The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox premiered, De Domenico and Sollecito were able to cross paths in person in New York.
“The timing of this meeting was so cool because I arrived at the hotel in New York. While taking the elevator, I met with Amanda. Then I just went for a walk and I went to Times Square. I came back and when I arrived at the in front of the hotel, it was Raffaele,” De Domenico recalled. “I really appreciate those moments. I was a little bit shy — maybe because I was very curious to get his feedback about my job.”
Sollecito gave his honest opinion about De Domenico’s performance as him in The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox.
“He really thanks me for that. He says that there’s been a lot of narratives about him and for you. My performance is the closest one to the truth,” De Domenico shared while calling Sollecito’s feedback “really important” to him. “It makes me feel so proud.”
New episodes of The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox air Wednesdays on Hulu.
