F
ew true-crime series
have resonated like
Ava DuVernay’s moving
new drama When
They See Us.
Based on the real-life story
of the Central Park Five, When
They See Us follows the wrongful
convictions and incarceration of
five black and Latino teenagers
over the brutal rape of Trisha
Meili in 1989.
The quintet of innocent
teens – Kevin Richardson, 14,
Raymond Santana, 14, Antron
McCray, 15, Yusef Salaam, 14,
and 16-year-old Korey Wise- spent 13 years fighting the
convictions from 1989 to their
eventual exoneration in 2002.
The five teenagers were
falsely imprisoned following
The men of the
Central Park Five
were heavily involved
in the filming of When
They See Us.Trisha Meili
revealed herself
as the Central
Park Jogger
in 2003.coerced confessions and spent
between six and 13 years
behind bars.
Ultimately, the real
perpetrator was found to be
serial rapist Matias Reyes. The
real-life men, all now aged in
their 40s, were closely involved
with the production of critically-
acclaimed Netflix show – all
except victim Trisha Meili.
Until 2003, Trisha remained
anonymous and was known as
the ‘Central Park Jogger’ for
nearly 25 years.
Trisha was 28 when she was
attacked and raped during a
night-time jog on April 19, 1989.
She was in a coma for 12 days
and woke with zero memory
of her attack.
Rising star Alexandra
Templer played the tormented
character of Trisha in When They
See Us, landing the role fresh out
of graduate school at NYU.
As the Georgia-born actress
exclusively tells New Idea, it was
a tough gig playing the real-life
survivor.
“It was a bit tricky because
there’s no source material for
Trisha Meili at that time because
she was anonymous in the press
for so long, so all I had was
the written court documents
and a court sketch with the face
blurred,” Alexandra says.
“I didn’t meet her. It was
never really presented to me as
an option to do so in the sameway that the men were very
present on the series, but I
tried to get to know her as
best I could.”
“I quite love playing
characters that are based on real
people because it requires more
of me as an actor, an artist and a
person. It requires your mind
and your body in different way
that I find really rigorous and
kind of delicious.”
While Alexandra never met
Trisha – who has remained
private since publishing her
memoir I Am the Central Park
Jogger in 2003 – she and the cast
spent a lot of time with the
Central Park Five.
Korey, Kevin, Raymond,
Antron and Yusef were at
filming from the very first
table read all the way to the
wrap party.
“I was quite nervous to meet
them because even though I
was playing a character, I felt
weirdly shy about being present
in the room. And Ava took me
over to them and was like ‘Guess
who she’s playing!’ And I was
like, ‘Oh no Ava, please no!’,”
Alexandra laughs.
“And then she was like, ‘She’s
playing the jogger!’ and then
they just gave me this really
big hug ... I was shaking a
little bit. It was a really
amazing moment.”
Like most of the world,
Alexandra didn’t know thenightmarish details behind the
false confessions and eventual
wrongful convictions.
“The events of that night,
the police investigation and the
prosecution all happened before
I was born, I learned about the
case as a teenager and from my
parents, who are both lawyers,”
she says.
“It is a really fantastically told
story with so much sensitivity
on Ava’s part. It resonates
because of how relevant it is 30
years later – we still have mass
incarceration in this country.
We still have a pretty broken
criminal justice system and we
have deeply entrenched systems
of racism.”
Despite this, Alexandra hopes
Trisha’s story of survival is not
lost in the Netflix re-telling.
“She suffered a brain injury
which impaired her memory of
the event, and I think she’s as
much of a victim as anyone else.
Her story is one of a remarkable
recovery.”
In a rare interview with
Oprah in 2002, Trisha spoke
about her attack.
“I still have some balance
issues. And my vision is
impaired and I’ve lost my sense
of smell,” Trisha admitted.
“I’m more than the Central
Park Jogger – that’s just a name.
But I understand that’s how
people know me, and that’s
OK with me.”KOREY WISE
KEVIN RICHARDSON
RAYMOND
SANTANAJUNE 12, 2002
Rapist and murderer Matias
Reyes confessed to being
the perpetrator behind the
Central Park Jogger attack.
Reyes had encountered
Korey Wise in prison in
2001 and “felt guilty”
Korey was serving time for
a crime he didn’t commit.DECEMBER 19, 2002
DNA from the scene
matched Reyes and a judge
ruled to overturn the five
convictions. By this time, all
five had already left prison- except Raymond, who
had been incarcerated
on unrelated drug charges.
He was freed soon after.
APRIL 8, 2003
Trisha Meili comes
forward with
her identity in
her memoir
I Am the
Central
Park
Jogger.JUNE 19, 2014
New York City settled a
civil rights lawsuit
brought by the
Central Park
Five and
awarded
them $US40
million.M AY
31,
2019
Netflix
drama
When
They See Us
is released.