Derek and Maria Broaddus, depicted as Dean and Nora Brannock in the Ryan Murphy series, really were hounded by threatening letters after moving into an affluent neighbourhood \u2013 but the besieged family received little sympathy from their neighbours or online commentators.<\/p>\n
Rather, the couple were the subject of scorn in their community, with some residents of Westfield, New Jersey accusing them of sending the letters to themselves. (Suffice to say, they denied the claim.)<\/p>\n
The impact of this horrifying saga is still very much felt today by the Broaddus family, who wanted little to do with the television series and requested their names be changed in the dramatisation (via The Cut<\/a>).<\/p> Watts, who plays Nora, acknowledges the distress felt by the real victims and hopes that The Watcher<\/a> drums up the compassion that was sorely lacking when the story first made headlines.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a very distressing experience for them and hopefully people can conjure empathy for that reason,\u201d she told RadioTimes.com<\/a>. \u201cI would certainly not want to be in their shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n The Academy Award-nominated actor revealed that she hadn\u2019t heard about The Watcher true story<\/a> prior to joining this series, but quickly \u201cdevoured\u201d New York Magazine<\/a>\u2018s exhaustive account of it after getting a call from co-creator Murphy.<\/p>\n Watts continued: \u201cI just imagined myself in their shoes and I thought it would be something that lots of people could relate to. Dreaming for that moment to come \u2013 that beautiful house \u2013 they\u2019ve finally got it in their clutches, and for it to go so horribly wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something I think we can all identify with.\u201d<\/p>\n While inspired by the disturbing events that the Broaddus family endured, Watts explained that The Watcher does take \u201cartistic licence\u201d, with some characters and events being exaggerated creations by Murphy.<\/p>\n Previously, Watts\u2019s co star Mia Farrow said she hoped that the real victims don\u2019t see the show<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Watcher is available to stream on Netflix<\/a>. <\/strong>Sign up for Netflix from \u00a36.99 a month<\/a>. Netflix is also available on\u00a0Sky Glass<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Virgin Media Stream<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Check out more of our Drama<\/a> coverage or visit our TV Guide<\/a> to see what\u2019s on tonight.<\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0and get the next 12 issues for only \u00a31. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By David Craig Published: Tuesday, 18 October 2022 at 12:00 am Naomi Watts has said she hopes the success of new Netflix true crime drama The Watcher will help to change the narrative around the real-life victims in the case. Derek and Maria Broaddus, depicted as Dean and Nora Brannock in the Ryan Murphy series, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":24028,"template":"","categories":[5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/the-watchers-naomi-watts-hopes-show-conjures-empathy-for-real-victims-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/the-watchers-naomi-watts-hopes-show-conjures-empathy-for-real-victims-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/the-watchers-naomi-watts-hopes-show-conjures-empathy-for-real-victims-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/the-watchers-naomi-watts-hopes-show-conjures-empathy-for-real-victims-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/the-watchers-naomi-watts-hopes-show-conjures-empathy-for-real-victims-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/the-watchers-naomi-watts-hopes-show-conjures-empathy-for-real-victims-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/the-watchers-naomi-watts-hopes-show-conjures-empathy-for-real-victims-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By David Craig Published: Tuesday, 18 October 2022 at 12:00 am Naomi Watts has said she hopes the success of new Netflix true crime drama The Watcher will help to change the narrative around the real-life victims in the case. Derek and Maria Broaddus, depicted as Dean and Nora Brannock in the Ryan Murphy series,…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/24027"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/10\/watcher-netflix-8dc7b6a.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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