‘Tinder Swindler’ Director Felicity Morris Talks New Challenge ‘All American Nightmare’

Following the success of Emmy-nominated “Tindler Swindler,” director Felicity Morris is already at work on Netflix’s miniseries “All American Nightmare,” she mentioned at Rome’s MIA.

Morris, beforehand at Uncooked TV, began her personal firm Ladywell Movies with “Tinder Swindler” producer Bernadette Higgins.

“It felt like the precise time to do my very own factor,” she mentioned.

“All American Nightmare,” clocking in at three episodes, shall be accomplished subsequent summer time. Uncooked TV can be on board.

“I’ve learnt so much through the years and [when it comes to] true crime, there all the time must be a purpose to inform that story,” she said, admitting filmmakers ought to do extra than simply “rehash one other story a few cold-blooded killer.”

“It has this superb girl who fell sufferer to a horrendous crime. However it’s about greater than that. It’s about victims not being believed, in regards to the establishments that are supposed to shield us and but they fall brief. For her, in a horrible, horrible method.”

In “Tinder Swindler,” (“Netflix’s most watched documentary ever,” AGC’s Joel Zimmer reminded the viewers) Morris additionally wished to give attention to ladies.

Pernilla, Cecilie and Ayleen have been all conned by Israeli fraudster Shimon Hayut. Posing as Simon Leviev on the courting app, billionaire inheritor to the diamond fortune, he would trick them into lending him substantial sums of cash. Norwegian paper VG first broke the story.

“I learn that piece and there’s this large query mark: ‘How may you fall for it?,’” she admitted.

“The con began on Tinder, however Simon had an Instagram account with 1000’s of followers. He was a ‘official’ individual. The ladies did these checks earlier than they went out on a date. Later, once they met him, there was no purpose to doubt that he was who he mentioned he was.”

“He was the puppet grasp, creating this ‘Truman Present’ world these ladies occurred to step into. You usually ignore pink flags within the pursuit of happiness.”

Her protagonists handed over their WhatsApp messages to the crew.

“It doesn’t get juicier than that, having the ability to learn by means of somebody’s telephone,” mentioned Morris.

“Simon stored ‘touring on enterprise,’ so the reality of how he did it lies in these messages. When [VG] wrote the article, Cecilie had already handed them over. By that time, disgrace has gone by means of the window. And disgrace is an enormous factor with victims of this sort of con.”

“We had a tremendous assistant producer, Jean-Mark Bou Mansour, who created 1000’s of graphics for these [scenes]. He had two telephones, would hit report and ship the messages forwards and backwards.”

However the movie took a distinct form as soon as one other girl – one which managed to “swindle the Tinder Swindler” – determined to return ahead.

“When Norwegian journalists wrote their piece, Ayleen despatched a message to Pernilla. ‘On my God, I simply learn the article, I’m courting Simon now. I really feel like I’m residing in a nightmare and I don’t know what to do.’ After which she went quiet. And he received arrested.”

“We stored speaking to her. My superb producer Bernadette is Irish and she will be able to allure anyone. We instructed her: ‘You need to be pleased with what you might have carried out.’”

Hayut was arrested in 2019 and extradited again to Israel. Now, he’s being sued by the Leviev household over impersonation, however Morris doesn’t see the movie’s ending as a “celebration.”

“This man continues to be on the market. Sadly, he was solely charged with passport fraud, not with crimes he dedicated towards these ladies. It’s extremely arduous for the police to show he has carried out something fallacious. These have been their bank cards. However he was uncovered to hundreds of thousands of individuals.”

He reached out to her a number of occasions, she mentioned. However the thought to interview him was swiftly dropped.

“I awoke sooner or later to a textual content. ‘Hello, that is Simon Leviev, I simply received out of jail.’ I had a dialog with him. He mentioned: ‘I’ll participate however I wish to be paid.’ However this movie wasn’t about him. I didn’t need it to be a platform for extra of his lies.”

Though Leviev – who stored contacting her – has been allegedly conning individuals for years, “The Tinder Swindler 2” is just not within the playing cards. A minimum of not for Morris.

“We already did the podcast known as ‘The Making of a Swindler,’ which explores his backstory,” she mentioned.

“He believes that if he says one thing sufficient occasions, individuals will imagine it. Personally, I’m not keen on listening to his story. Or in giving it air.”