Interview: Erin Lee Carr On 'I Love You, Now Die,' Sobriety And Her Father

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🗓️ 23 July 2019

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

Erin Lee Carr's documentaries have probed some dark true crime stories. She's made films about the so-called "cannibal cop," the USA Gymnastics scandal, as well as a daughter accused of murdering her mother. Her latest, 'I Love You, Now Die' tells the story of Michelle Carter, who stood trial on involuntary manslaughter charges after she encouraged her boyfriend to kill himself over text message. Lee Carr talked to guest host Julia Furlan about the two-part documentary and the court case behind it, as well as her journey to sobriety and the legacy of her father, late New York Times columnist David Carr.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Julia Farlane here. I'm sitting in for Sam Sanders this week. Just a note before we start
0:05.1	the episode that we do discuss suicide quite a bit in this one. I wanted you to know that. Okay,
0:10.8	here's the episode.
0:17.5	In 2012, Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy fell in love. They lived about an hour away from each other
0:22.6	in Massachusetts. They didn't see each other a lot in person, but they exchanged thousands of
0:27.5	text messages over two years. That's the setup for the new documentary from filmmaker Aaron
0:32.5	Lee Carr, which premiered on HBO this month. It's called, I love you now, die.
0:37.3	The trial of a plainville woman accused of encouraging her friend to kill himself through text messages
0:42.8	is now underway. Michelle Carter is on trial for manslaughter to decide if text messages she sent
0:48.8	cross to legal line, whether she should be held responsible for her boyfriend's decision to take
0:53.9	his own life. The documentary is split into two parts. In the first Aaron Lee Carr unfolds the
0:59.6	dramatic story of how Michelle encouraged Conrad to kill himself and later the dramatic decision
1:04.9	in court. We stake to a full name and age. Michelle Diana Carter, 20. To wave her right to a jury
1:13.6	trial. How you doing now, if your own free will, knowingly and voluntarily? Yes. All right. Thank you very
1:20.8	much. You may step down. Thank you. Then in the second part, Aaron flips the script. She lays out a
1:27.4	story that raises a lot of questions about whether Michelle, who was ultimately convicted of
1:31.7	involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 15 months in jail, was fully to blame. Michelle was on
1:40.6	psychiatric drugs too. And so we have these two kids that are not star crossed, they're drug crossed.
1:48.8	Both parts of I Love You Now Die are available on HBO platforms. Go watch them. And as we'll discuss,
1:54.9	there are similar dark themes in Aaron's other HBO documentaries. There's one called at the heart
2:00.2	of gold inside the USH gymnastics scandal, mommy dead and dearest. There's also one called
2:05.3	Thought Crimes, the case of the Cannibal Cop. And Aaron is also the author of a memoir called
	...

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