Watch Elle Fanning in the Chilling 'The Girl From Plainville' Trailer About Suicide-by-Text Case

The Girl From Plainville, following the true story of Michelle Carter’s 2014 involuntary manslaughter case, premieres March 29 on Hulu

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Published on March 3, 2022 11:26 AM

Elle Fanning is recreating the horrifying events behind the headline-making 2014 suicide-by-text case.

On Wednesday, Hulu released the chilling trailer for The Girl From Plainville. The upcoming limited series stars Fanning as Michelle Carter, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after she encouraged her teen boyfriend Conrad Roy III's 2014 suicide through texts and phone calls.

The series, which is based on Jesse Barron's Esquire article of the same name, details Carter's relationship with Roy — portrayed by Colton Ryan — his death, and Carter's trial and conviction.

"All he thought about was dying… I really just wanted to help him," Fanning says as Carter in the clip.

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In addition to Fanning and Ryan, The Girl From Plainville stars Chloë Sevigny, Cara Buono, Kai Lennox, and Norbert Leo Butz.

The Girl From Plainville premieres March 29 on Hulu.

Carter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 15 months in jail for her role in the death of her 18-year-old boyfriend, who was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in his pickup truck on July 13, 2014, in the parking lot of a Fairhaven, Massachusetts, Kmart.

In hundreds of texts and statements that came to light afterward, Carter, who was 17 at the time, was revealed to have pressured Roy to go through with his suicide.

The judge who found her guilty cited Carter's written admission to a friend that, after Roy got out of the truck and shared his last-minute fears with Carter in a phone call before he died, she had told him to "get back in."

Both teens had struggled with depression, and Roy had made previous attempts at suicide.

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Although Carter's defense acknowledged her exchanges with Roy, her attorneys argued that prosecutors had "cherry-picked" only those text messages that served their case against her, ignoring others in which Carter urged Roy toward help for his struggles.

Her defense team further argued that Carter's statements were covered by First Amendment free-speech protections, and that she shouldn't be found guilty for a crime because of words alone, especially when she wasn't on the scene where Roy committed suicide.

But police said Carter deliberately misled friends and Roy's family members in the days and hours before Roy died, claiming to them that he'd gone missing at the same time the two of them were in contact and he was planning his suicide.

Carter was released from prison in January 2020, more than three months before the end of her 15-month sentence.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text "home" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.