And yet, DuPont is still the only manufacturer of Teflon, now with a slightly less hazardous chemical compound called GenX, which has been questioned for its own dangerous properties. Later, at a gas station, a male voice asks Bilott for the score of a game, and he turns to find that same face aged 30-odd years, leaving him shaken. By signing up to the VICE newsletter you agree to receive electronic communications from VICE that may sometimes include advertisements or sponsored content. In October 2018, he filed a new suit against three other companies, one of whom was previously a part of DuPont. It's impossible not to feel horrified and infuriated in watching Dark Waters, or feel the weight of responsibility on Bilott's shoulders to be the David taking on a billion-pound Goliath. With Dark Waters, he's continuing on this path: The film’s launch coincides with his new Fight Forever Chemicals campaign with activist media company Participant, focused on raising awareness of the damage that forever chemicals cause and pushing government agencies like the EPA to regulate them. Ruffalo has already spoken at the U.S. Capitol and testified before the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on the Environment, urging the EPA to take stronger steps in regulating forever chemicals. In 2017, DuPont and Chemours paid out that $670 million settlement to the 3,550 that took part in the class action lawsuit. Like the water crisis in Flint, the protests at Standing Rock, the Hinkley groundwater contamination case, and the many indigenous water protectors young and old, fighting to save their precious natural resources, Dark Waters brings another upsetting and frightening story forward about our jeopardized waters. "Part of the reason I wanted to do this was because I've done so much activism." But that's not all!
Still, the impact of this large-scale health disaster is unending: a study done at Harvard reported unsafe levels of PFAS in the drinking water of at least 6 million people (though researchers believe it may be closer to 100 million). Those scenes where I'm sitting there in despair, I didn't have to act very much.". In one scene, Bilott comes face-to-face with Bucky Bailey, the son of former DuPont employee Sue Bailey. Ruffalo blames corporate greed and interests for the lack of movement in safeguarding the public from PFAS. All rights reserved. In real life, Bilott himself is still fighting. Horror movies condition us be cautious of our surroundings—to flinch at the sound of a creaking floorboard or a sudden chill in the air. Mark Ruffalo read the story and immediately bought the rights for the film. It was a very grueling slog," said Ruffalo. Ultimately, DuPont was found to have poisoned over 70,000 local people as well as hundreds of animals. In 2018 alone, the company brought in a total revenue of $22.7 billion. "You're living in that every single day. When Bilott looked into the case, he uncovered clear evidence that DuPont’s nearby chemical plant had been dumping toxic waste into the town’s water supply. However, everything changed in 1998 when a farmer from his father’s hometown told him that his cattle had been mysteriously dying in huge numbers in a grisly fashion – foaming at the mouth and covered in lesions. Bilott, a partner at a Cincinnati law firm, spent the beginning of his career fighting on behalf of large chemical corporations, but in 1998, he decided to take on one of the biggest ones in the world.
Both the events of the movie and the characters represented in it are all very closely based on the real story. Ruffalo believes film is a powerful tool for social change, shocking people into action in a way activism may not be able to. © 2020 Associated Newspapers Limited.
Here's the thing, though: Teflon contains perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), otherwise known as C8, part of a larger cluster of "forever" chemicals called PFAS or PFOAs that never break down in the environment and build up in humans and animals, causing irreparable damage. Convincing anyone to join him in his fight against one of the most powerful organisations in the country would prove an almost impossible task for Bilott and the case itself dragged on for over a decade. To ensure that his portrayal of the sadly now deceased farmer Wilbur Tennant was faithful to the real person, actor Bill Camp reached out to his brother and sister to learn more about him. Todd Haynes' legal thriller Dark Waters tells the real life horror story of one man's quest to expose the DuPont company for releasing a toxic chemical into a small town's water supply – but how much of the Dark Waters true story actually happened, and how much of the it was glossed-up for the big screen? A real-life horror story.'' He then reached out to Bilott directly to get a fuller picture of the story, and the lawyer himself became involved with the film from there on.
Ruffalo continued: "[Activism is] so hard and thankless and fucking despairing," he said. However, even some of the film’s more dramatic moments were shockingly faithful – the scene in which Tennant brandishes a rifle at one of DuPont’s helicopters did actually take place. Ruffalo started The Solutions Project in 2011 to fund and provide resources to small groups and organizations working to "transition their communities to 100 percent renewable energy," particularly ones lead by women and people of color. Legal thriller Dark Waters tells the story of tenacious attorney Mark Ruffalo, who takes a stand against a chemical company that has been poisoning a … It's even more unsettling when you realize the real Bucky Bailey plays himself in that scene. Even with the bad press around Teflon and PFAS, DuPont is still thriving. But the biggest scares in life are the ones that come from things we think are completely safe. It kind of links us in a way," Haynes said. Read More: Is Uncut Gems a true story? "As soon as the state has a stake in our healthcare, I promise you our food and our water and our air is gonna get cleaned up really fucking fast," said Ruffalo. Dark Waters Tells the True Story of the Lawyer Who Took DuPont to Court and Won. The film originated from a 2016 New York Times article about the case. "When you see what these people are capable of, how willfully they knew exactly what they were doing and kept doing it because they were making so much money, it makes you mad," Haynes said. “If you measure a country's health and their well-being on the GDP alone, then you're gonna have a lot of sick people running around.".
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