Who is Elizabeth Gilbert? Meet the character portrayed by Laura Dern in Trial by Fire

Laura Dern played the character of Elizabeth Gilbert in the biographical drama film Trial by Fire. The movie by Edward Zwick sheds light on the real-life case Willingham v. the State of Texas, which raised questions about the criminal justice system.

Elizabeth Gilbert, a French teacher and playwright from Houston, was in her late forties when she became the pen pal of an inmate on death row in 1999. This inmate was Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004.

Willingham was convicted of committing arson at his own home, which led to the death of his three little daughters. During his correspondence with Gilbert, he insisted that he had not done anything to harm the girls.

What followed next was an investigation that Gilbert conducted on her own. Despite the huge amount of effort she put into trying to prove that Willingham deserved a second chance, she was ultimately unsuccessful in saving him.

This entire series of incidents, with minor changes, was shown in 2018's Trial by Fire.

---

Elizabeth Gilbert says it was her "goal" to write a play and draw attention to the case

Laura Dern as Elizabeth Gilbert in Trial by Fire (Image via RoadsideFlix)

Elizabeth Gilbert wanted to write a play to let the world know that Willingham might not have been the villain that the judicial system had deemed him to be. But she wasn't able to do that.

When Laura Dern, Jack O'Connell (who played Willingham), and director Edward Zwick made Trial by Fire, Gilbert was glad Todd's story had received the attention she wanted it to, her initial goal. In a Refinery29 article dated May 18, 2019, she is reported to have said:

"I had a tremendous amount of grief and guilt that I had failed him. The [process of] making of the movie and rereading his letters and actually hearing the real words from his last letter to me [made me realize] I was the right person at the right time. Even though we didn't have the success we wanted."

---

Cameron Todd Willingham refused to plead guilty

Jack O'Connell as Cameron Todd Willingham in Trial by Fire (Image via RoadsideFlix)

David Grann's New Yorker article, dated August 31, 2009, inspired the movie Trial by Fire. On December 23, 1991, Cameron Todd Willingham, a 23-year-old unemployed auto mechanic, woke up to find his family home in Corsicana on fire.

He managed to escape the burning house but failed to save his three children- one-year-old twin daughters, Karmon and Kameron, and two-year-old Amber. His wife, Stacy, was away at the time.

The investigation led the authorities to conclude that Willingham had deliberately set the house on fire. They offered him a deal: if he pleaded guilty, the state would give him a life sentence. He refused, insisting that he had not done it. This decision cost him his life.

Willingham's wife, parents, and his children's babysitter insisted that he could not have committed the crime to no avail. The only other person who believed that he deserved a fair trial was the playwright Elizabeth Gilbert.

Gilbert tried hard to prove that Willingham was possibly innocent but failed to stop his execution. Due to a car accident that left her hospitalized, she could not be there at the time of his execution.

For dramatic effect, the movie showed that she missed Willingham's execution on February 17, 2004, because of the car crash.

---

Trial by Fire is available for streaming on Netflix.