Diksha Sundriyal
Written and directed by Roxine Helberg, ‘Cold Copy’ is set in the world of investigative journalism, where a young woman becomes so obsessed with getting the approval of the woman she worships that it leads her down a dangerous path. Starring Bel Powley and Tracee Ellis Ross in the lead roles, the story focuses on the dark nature of journalism and how the hunger for a good story can turn a person away from the truth and towards lies, no matter how harmful they might be for someone else. Powley’s character Mia learns this lesson after she uses a teenager named Igor for his story, a lot of which has to do with his mother, Charlotte Nowak. SPOILERS AHEAD
Charlotte Nowak is Not Based on a Real Author
The name of Charlotte Nowak enters the picture when Mia looks into Igor and discovers he is her son. If she hadn’t found the teenager, who stood up for her against a man who was completely intent on assaulting her, already interesting, then she would have become immediately curious after finding out about his mother, and it has to do with the way she died. It turns out that Igor’s mother is the author of a popular children’s book series. She was a beloved writer, but the personal demons that haunted her were too much for her to handle, and one day, she overdosed on pills and died.
It was a piece of huge news, something that the media tried to milk for as long as possible but couldn’t because her family refused to speak to them. Her husband and son held up an unbreakable vow of silence, and they stood by it no matter how many offers were made to them. They wanted to keep the sanctity of Charlotte’s memory rather than have her name be spoiled by the media people who had never known her and would write about her for their own selfish purposes.
Igor meets Mia under circumstances that lead him to believe that she is not like other journalists and is truly interested in him as a person rather than in pulling apart his life to find some juicy news about his mother that she can milk to further her own career. Unbeknownst to him, this is exactly what she wants, and she is ready to do whatever it takes to get there.
Charlotte, being the famous dead author, becomes central to the plot because if it weren’t for her fame, then Mia would probably have never thought twice about Igor. She would have left the teenager to his own devices and would never have bothered to look for a story in his life. It was solely because of his mother that Mia found his story worth exploring and telling to the world. It was because of the public nature of his loss that Mia convinced herself that whatever he held private could be forced away from him and pushed into the public limelight. If it hadn’t been for his mother, Mia would have probably left him alone.
Read More: Cold Copy Ending, Explained: What Did Diane’s Nod for Mia Mean?
