TV - Movies
Is Room Based On
A True Story?
By NIKKI MUNOZ
Before she took on the role of Captain Marvel, Brie Larson portrayed a young mother being held captive in a small shed in the 2015 drama "Room." The movie itself is based on a novel of the same name by Emma Donoghue, but was the tragic story actually based on a true story?
When the novel was published, Donoghue revealed in an interview that her story was inspired by the true story of Elisabeth Fritzl, a woman who was held captive by her father for 24 years. Donoghue took pains to clarify that her novel wasn’t based on the story as much as "triggered" by it.
Donoghue explained, "The newspaper reports of Felix Fritzl [Elisabeth's son], aged five, emerging into a world he didn't know about, put the idea into my head. That notion of the wide-eyed child emerging into the world like a Martian coming to Earth: it seized me."