Karen Read Reacts to Elizabeth Banks Prime Video Series: “Not Authorized By Me in Any Way”

Just two days after it was announced that Prime Video is developing a limited series based on the Karen Read trial starring Elizabeth Banks, Read spoke out about the project in her first public interview since she was acquitted.

“I have nothing to do with that; it’s not authorized by me in any way,” Read said during an interview with WRKO host Howie Carr on Thursday. Meanwhile, her attorney Alan Jackson said that it is “Karen Read’s story to tell.”

Banks will executive produce via her Brownstone Productions, as well as portray Read in the Prime Video potential series. Justin Noble will serve as the writer-showrunner, while David E. Kelley is executive producing. The logline states that the series will break down “society’s obsession with true crime, the allure of conspiracy, and the deepening crisis of trust in our institutions.”

Read was introduced to the public when she was accused of murdering boyfriend Boston police officer John O’Keefe in 2022. The autopsy revealed that he died from blunt-force trauma and hypothermia. During the trial, prosecutors claimed that Read struck him while backing up her SUV while intoxicated. Meanwhile, the defense argued that Read was framed after he was allegedly injured inside the house.

The case was first looked at during a 2024 trial, which ended in a mistrial. Read was acquitted during her second trial by a Massachusetts jury in June 2025. She was found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges, though she was found guilty of drunk driving.

During her first interview since the trial concluded, Read admitted she had experienced “little epiphanies” as she’s slowly readjusted to her normal life.

“There’s moments I have every day that have these little epiphanies of, ‘Wow, this is the first time I’ve done fill-in-the-blank in the last four years that I wasn’t living with this nightmare,’” she said. “It’s not quite as I expected. I was expecting a switch to be flipped … but it’s been more like a dimmer — the lights are coming on a little brighter each week.”

Read also took the opportunity to share a message with Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey and state investigators. “You lost. You lost big time, and you know what you did,” she said.

After her life was turned upside down, Read has started fresh by selling her Mansfield, Massachusetts, home and moved in with her parents. She also lost her position at Fidelity Investments, as well as her adjunct professor job at Bentley University.

“That job was not just a job — that was my career, and I still miss it,” she admitted. However, Read said she wasn’t sure that she could “hop back on the commuter rail and walk through South Station every day.”

Jackson shared that he and Read “damn well intend” to use the courts again to share their side of the story. Meanwhile, Read expressed interest in telling her story in a book.