Modern Family alum Nolan Gould says he signed up for a supporting role in the fact-based courtroom drama, Miranda's Victim, because the story is an important one that few people know.
"I flew through the script, which is saying something because courtroom dramas and true crime and heavy dramas are not typically page-turners for me," Gould told UPI in a phone interview Thursday.
"I just knew that I had to be a part of it," the actor said. "This is a story that needs to be told. As an actor, you can really only hope to be a part of projects that have real-world impact and carry such weight and gravity with them."
In theaters and on video-on-demand platforms Friday, the film is about the 1963 rape case that led to the landmark Supreme Court decision requiring U.S. police officers to read suspected criminal perpetrators their rights to remain silent and be represented by a lawyer at the time they are arrested.
"There are all these questions that get brought up that I think are really integral and important for us in modern times to think about," Gould said.
"There are a lot of moments [in the film] where you are like, 'Wow, we've come so far as a society and, yet, we still have so far to go in terms of believing survivors and rallying around them and protecting them and telling their stories and seeking justice for them."
Balancing the rights of suspected criminals with those of their alleged victims is still difficult in 2023, he acknowledged.
"We have to play with this dichotomy," Gould said.
"That is one of the elements that this movie really nails, which is telling Patricia Weir's story, but also telling and supporting the formation of the Miranda rights, which are integral to part of our society and criminal justice system."
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Michelle Danner directed Miranda's Victim, which stars Abigail Breslin as Trish Weir, an 18-year-old high school student raped by Ernesto Miranda (Sebastian Quinn) while walking home from an Arizona bus stop after working her shift at a movie theater.
Gould plays James Valenti, Weir's co-worker, who finds himself questioned by police after the incident.
The actor recalled that, in first reading the script, it crossed his mind that Valenti might be wrongly blamed for the attack on Weir because he was the last person to see her before it occurred.
"I had no idea what the Miranda rights were. You hear it brought up in TV shows and movies all the time, but I didn't know the story," Gould said.
"I was reading [the screenplay] and I was like: 'I'm playing this James character. OK, here he is.' They're going on a date and then he starts getting questioned by police. I was like, 'I don't know where this is going.'"
Ultimately, Weir's rape and the subsequent investigation crush her dreams of going to business school, as well as her blossoming romance with Valenti, even though her name was not reported in the media at the time.
"What this character represents is one of the many ways men of that time period -- and arguably still today -- react upon getting the news of Patricia's story," Gould said, referring to how Valenti seems to lack the coping skills and language to help Weir after her ordeal.
"As a viewer, you can both be shocked and angry [at him], but also empathize and see the humanity," the actor added. "He was very much a product of his time and represents opportunity and love and innocence lost."
Gould praised Breslin for turning in a powerful portrayal of a young woman who was not only brutalized, but who then had to courageously and repeatedly detail what happened to her in front of men who questioned her virtue and reliability while ambitious attorneys tried to get Miranda's confession thrown out because he didn't have a lawyer present at the time of his arrest.
"It certainly was not an easy role," Gould said of Breslin as Weir.
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While everyone in the cast and crew showed tremendous respect for Breslin and "what she was putting herself through in order to tell this story," Gould said he tried to be especially protective of his co-star.
"She was like, 'Dude, knock it off!'" he laughed.
"We're good friends now, but I showed up and I was very serious and said: 'I'm here if you need me and I'm going to try to be quiet and keep my head down.' And she was like, 'I love Modern Family! Let's hang out! Let's talk!'" Gould said.
"I know it was incredibly difficult for Abigail, but she did it with such grace and treated everyone with kindness and respect."
The film co-stars Ryan Phillippe, Luke Wilson, Emily VanCamp, Mireille Enos, Enrique Murciano, Josh Bowman, Brent Sexton, Taryn Manning, Dan Lauria, Michael Mulheren, Kyle MacLachlan, Andy Garcia and Donald Sutherland.