Culture / Film

See Sydney Sweeney as the face of whistleblower, Reality Winner, in this trailer about the 2016 US election

sydney sweeney reality winner

Although we've done our best to suppress it, 2016 is a year many of us will never forget. Whether you were living in the US at the time, or found yourself watching on in horror from overseas, the US presidential election result was the beginning of the end in many ways. For her directorial debut, Tina Satter is revisiting this chaotic time, focusing her lens on Reality Winner. For those who need a reminder, Winner was the former American intelligence specialist who first sounded the alarm about Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, leaking an intelligence report to journalists at The Intercept.

What is Reality about?

At 26 years old, Winner was sentenced to federal prison for five years and three months in 2018 for the leak and was the first person charged by the Trump administration under the Espionage Act. The news that HBO would be fashioning her story into a film titled Reality arrived almost a year after Winner was released from prison.

The film is loosely based off Is This a Room a play written by Satter that debuted on Broadway back in 2019. It uses a 65-minute transcript of the FBI’s interrogation of Winner as the basis for the script. For now though, that's all the information we've been handed about this mysterious new project.

Who is involved?

In a casting choice that has delighted us all, Sydney Sweeney has been selected for the role of Reality Winner. A performance that will undoubtedly be a change of pace from her portrayals of angsty teens in Euphoria and The White Lotus. As for the rest of the cast? Josh Hamilton who we've watched act alongside Noah Baumbach in Kicking and Screaming will star as will Marchánt Davis.

Is there a trailer?

Take a look at the trailer for Reality below.

What about a release date?

Expect to see Reality on your screens on May 29 when it debuts on Max.

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