With the abundance of true crime documentaries, movies, specials, podcasts and virtually every other form of media, it’s no surprise that we occasionally come across stories that just hit us more than usual, leaving us emotionally gutted. That was the case for Vivica A. Fox during one of the episodes of The Interrogation Room, a new docuseries that follows investigators as they attempt to get to the bottom of some sometimes heinous crimes.
When speaking with CinemaBlend ahead of The Interrogation Room’s July 1st streaming debut, the Independence Day and Kill Bill Vol. 1 star opened up on her experiences working on the new true crime series and how the murder of a teenager caused some real emotions:
And then I do remember the case about the African American young man. To see how it unfolded was sad. And the interview, with his father, really touched my heart. It actually brought tears to my eyes that the father was like, ‘I’m still gonna carry on his memory and his name and do the right thing so that this doesn’t happen again.’
The episode Fox is referring to in the above quote is the case of Michael David Dunn, who opened fire on a car full of teenagers in a Florida gas station parking lot on November 2012, killing 17-year-old Jordan Davis in the process. According to the Florida Times-Union, Dunn was later convicted of first-degree murder and various other charges in October 2014, and was sentenced to life in prison shortly thereafter.
The emotionally-charged episode of The Interrogation Room follows authorities as they attempt to get to the bottom of the shooting and determine whether or not it was in self-defense or in cold blood.
This is just one of the stories told throughout The Interrogation Room, as a total of 10 episodes make up the series. And though the crimes at the center of each of these cases differ in some way, they all have the element of mystery and suspense as the investigators try to figure out what happened. This aspect is what Fox thinks makes shows in the true crime genre so engaging and popular with audiences:
I think that’s also the lure of true crime shows why they’re so successful is the, like I said, the whole who done it, aspect of it. … It’s the whole mystery of trying to figure it out that I think really gets people talking.
Fox, who has long had a love for the true crime genre, explained that there’s always this quality to shows like 48 Hours and Dateline where people want to know what’s going on and try to figure out the crimes. When asked why she thought we’re seeing so many shows available with a Netflix subscription or Peacock Premium membership, she attributed it to everyone having a camera on their phone, as well as everyone being nosy and trying to figure everything out.
If you want to check out The Interrogation Room, you’ll be glad to know that it’s one of the shows on the 2023 TV schedule that can be watched for free on services like Tubi, the Roku Channel, Pluto TV, YouTube and Amazon’s Freevee platform.