The drama, which is directed by Tobias Lindholm, is an intense narrative full of twists and turns, and viewers are no doubt wondering how much of the story is true.
Is ‘The Good Nurse’ Based on a True Story?
The Good Nurse is based on a true story, and nurse Amy Loughren really did come to help police capture her co-worker, Cullen, when he became a suspect in the killing of several patients.
The real-life Cullen is currently serving 18 consecutive life sentences in prison for the deaths of 29 patients, but authorities believe he is behind the deaths of 400 patients.
Netflix’s true crime film is based on the real case as well as Charles Graeber’s book The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder, which is focused on Cullen’s life, as well as insight from Loughren herself.
Krysty Wilson-Cairns wrote the film’s script, and she told Newsweek that she was more interested in focusing on Amy’s story than she was the parts of Graeber’s biography that told Cullen early years, because making the serial killer the focus—as true crime films and shows often do—didn’t “resonate” with her.
“I remember a lot of TV dramas when I was growing up were like, murdered sexy women and there was always an element of it where they were murdered but did they deserve it?” Wilson-Cairns said.
“And there was always that and, to me, it’s so off-putting and it invalidates the victims, and, in this, to go through Amy’s experience, to understand her, you don’t need to know why Charles Cullen did what he did.
“In fact, none of us ever can assume because he’s never said it, and also I don’t think he even knows. So either you invent that, you put words in people’s mouths, ideals, [but] you’ve got to remember there might be 400 victims out there so it doesn’t feel quite right to do anything like that.
“Or you go through Amy, and you experience her true reaction of this man who she thought was a good man who turns out to be a monster and who, in the end, she defeats or I suppose brings round with humanity.”
The Oscar-nominated scriptwriter also spoke about the research that went into her writing process, saying: “I was so lucky when I signed on to do this, they flew me out to New York and I got to meet the cops, I got to meet Charles Graeber, and he was such a massive resource for me, he opened his entire archives to me and was someone I could call up anytime and be like, ‘is this right?’
“And, through him, I got two things. One is I got to do two weeks of night shifts in a hospital shadowing nurses, dressed as a nurse with nurses, so I got to really understand the American system and also how nurses deal with it and how manual the job is.
“I had all this kind of in my arsenal. And the other thing Charles Graeber did was he basically put Amy and I together and we spent a weekend together, and she was so open to me.
“Bear in mind, I think I was 23-years-old with no credits, like this was my first job, I had no track record whatsoever and she trusted me, she trusted me to tell her story. She had a lot of mercy and a lot of grace, and a lot of kindness.
“And she became more than someone who was the subject of the film, I reckon she became a friend throughout the years, she’s sort of become both a friend and also one of those women that you hope to aspire to [be like]. And so I’m very fortunate, very fortunate to have her and it was so fortunate to have her throughout the writing process.”
The Good Nurse is in theaters now. It will be released on Netflix on Wednesday, October 26.
