Who plays Tilly in Escape at Dannemora? Everything you need to know

Escape at Dannemora is a limited-event series directed by Ben Stiller, which premiered on Showtime on November 18, 2018. The series is now streaming on Netflix.

It provides a dramatized account of the real-life Clinton Correctional Facility prison break that occurred on June 6, 2015. In this incident, two convicted murderers, Richard Matt and David Sweat, tunneled through their cell walls and escaped through the city sewers. They evaded authorities for around three weeks before finally being apprehended.

Two prison employees helped in the escape, one of them being Joyce "Tilly" Mitchell, portrayed in Escape at Dannemora as being romantically involved with the inmates. In the series, Tilly is played by Patricia Arquette, an American actress who's had a career spanning the late 1980s and early 1990s.

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Patricia Arquette plays Joyce "Tilly" Mitchell in Escape at Dannemora

Patricia Arquette has had an extensive career in Hollywood. (Image via Showtime)

Patricia Arquette is an American actress who was born on April 8, 1968. She is the daughter of actor Lewis Arquette and therapist Brenda Olivia "Mardi."

Patricia's acting career first reached prominence in 1987, when she played Kristen Parker in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Although the character returned for the fourth Nightmare on Elm Street film, she was recast with a different actress.

Throughout the 1990s, she acted in numerous low-budget and indie productions, including films such as 1990's Prayer of the Rollerboys and 1991's The Indian Runner, which also served as Sean Penn's directorial debut. In 1992's Wildflower, she played a character who was deaf and suffering from epilepsy. The performance netted her a CableACE award for Best Lead Actress in a Mini-Series.

Her major acting breakthrough came in 1993 with True Romance, directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino. Her portrayal of Alabama Whitman, a fiercely independent-minded hooker with a heart of gold, earned her praise from The New York Times and Rolling Stone magazine.

In the 2000s and 2010s, Patricia gained recognition for her role in NBC's Medium and her work on 2014's Boyhood. The latter film had an extended production cycle that went back to 2002, as director Richard Linklater wanted to chronicle the process of a boy growing up for the film.

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Joyce "Tilly" Mitchell was an accomplice in the Escape at Dannemora prison break

Joyce "Tilly" Mitchell was a married woman who helped Richard Matt and David Sweat in their escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in 2015. The two used hacksaw blades and drill bits to tunnel through their cell walls and escape into the city sewers.

Joyce was one of the prison employees who provided them with these tools. Escape at Dannemora also portrays her as being romantically entangled with the prisoners, which is disputed by the real Joyce Mitchell. In a December 2018 interview with the New York Post, she vigorously disputed her characterization in Escape at Dannemora, saying:

“Ben Stiller is a son-of-a-b**ch liar just like the rest of the world. He doesn’t care about the truth. All he cares about is making millions off me. He’s an idiot.”

Escape at Dannemora was well-received by critics upon release, with the Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus making specific note of Patricia Arquette's "nearly unrecognizable and unbearably moving performance."

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Patricia Arquette currently stars in the Apple TV+ original series Severance. Escape at Dannemora is available to stream on Netflix.