For the past two months, director Richard Linklater has been housing convicted murderer Bernie Tiede, on whom his movie “Bernie,” starring Jack Black, was based.
Tiede served 17 years of a life sentence for killing his 81-year-old companion Marjorie Nugent, whose body he hid in a freezer for nine months.
“I picked him up getting released, and he started work the next week,” Linklater told us, adding that Tiede is living in his garage apartment in Austin and working as a paralegal.
“He says, ‘It’s a miracle,’ but I was like, ‘Yeah, but life wasn’t always the best to you.’ There’s so many people in our world behind bars who, given a bit of attention, and legal support, they would have much different results not just guilt or innocence, but sentencing.”
After his sentencing, it was found that Tiede — who’d been a beloved member of his Panola County, Texas, community before he was convicted — endured years of sexual abuse.
Linklater was in New York promoting his movie “Boyhood,” which stars young actor Ellar Coltrane over 12 years, beginning when he was 7.
“It’s about growing up,” Linklater said of the innovative project, also featuring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette. “It’s about being a parent.”