In the infamous 1994 attack on ice skater Nancy Kerrigan, her rival, Tonya Harding, is the clear villain of the piece, with most believing she masterminded the attack.
But the triple Oscar-nominated film, I, Tonya - which is showing in Singapore and stars Australian actress Margot Robbie as Harding - flips that well-worn story on its head.
The lively dark comedy shines a more sympathetic light on the champion figure skater, who has long been pilloried in the media.
It uncovers the violence Harding suffered at the hands of her ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan); how she was marked down by ice-skating judges because of her blue-collar background; and how she was continually abused by her mother, played by Allison Janney in a performance that won her a Golden Globe last month and an Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actress.
Speaking at a screening of the film in Hollywood last year, Robbie - who is up for a Best Actress Oscar for the role - says this was a passion project for her.
This despite the fact that when she first read the script, she "thought it was fiction", admits the 27-year-old, who starred in Suicide Squad (2016) and The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013).
With this script, if you try and please everyone, you end up polishing off all the hard edges and it turns into this shiny, careful thing and that doesn't suit this story at all.
MARGOT ROBBIE on making I, Tonya as an independent movie
Robbie was four years old in 1994 and thus completely missed the international headlines about Harding and whether she was behind the vicious attack on Kerrigan that had been instigated by Gillooly.
"I'm from a coastal town (in Australia) and we watched surfing on television, not ice skating. But I fell in love with the script - it felt so rebellious. It didn't follow any of the formulaic structures.
"The character (of Harding) herself I was keen to play immediately. She seemed so misunderstood, complicated and all the things that scare and excite me."
Robbie also took it upon herself to co-produce I, Tonya through her production company. The film-makers decided to make it as an independent movie, for a relatively modest budget of US$11 million (S$14.5 million) "because a script like this would never have survived the studio system", she says.
"Some scripts thrive in the studio system - I've been a part of some and that's where their home is.
"But with this script, if you try and please everyone, you end up polishing off all the hard edges and it turns into this shiny, careful thing and that doesn't suit this story at all," says the actress, who is married to British assistant film director Tom Ackerley, 28.
"Tonya's rough around the edges, as is LaVona (her mother, played by Janney), Jeff and all these characters.
"So, in the end, we took a lot less money so we could maintain creative control," she says of the film, which is also up for an Oscar for Best Film Editing.
"Every step of the way, we didn't have to answer to a higher person on set - we were the team. If there was a decision, it was us who got to make it," she says, nodding at fellow film-makers director Craig Gillespie and writer Steven Rogers.
The trio describe a "scrappy" film shoot in which the tight time frame and budget meant little margin for error. Gillespie says he knew he could count on Robbie - who had also spent five months learning to skate - to nail each scene in three takes or fewer.
"She would stay on the set and throw a different wig on and be back in 15 minutes to shoot the next one," he says of Robbie, who reveals she picked up "lots of bumps and bruises and a herniated disc in my neck" from all the skating.
The film-makers argue that the story is relevant today because of what it says about society's relationship with the media, the class divide and sexism.
Gillespie notes that the media frenzy over Harding marked the advent of the so-called 24-hour news cycle, in which reporters are constantly racing to find content - whatever the quality - to meet a near-constant demand for news.
"We know this woman as the villain in our society - she's been a punchline for 25 years. But on top of being able to look at her as a human being and all the nuances that informed her choices, (the film) was also the opportunity to hold the mirror up to ourselves because we are so judgmental," he says.
"It's not just condemning the media, but the way we consume the media. With the 24-hour news cycle, we get fed and we don't investigate it and, since then, it's spiralled out of control. We churn through stories and people's lives with complete disregard. I thought it would be interesting to take one of these moments, see what they were going through and how much more complex it was."
Rogers adds that the film is also "about class in America, the disenfranchised and what we tell women they're supposed to be".
He says "it's about truth and the perception of truth", later referring to the fact that the story shows Harding, her husband and her mother all recounting their versions of what happened.
Rogers tracked down the real Harding and Gillooly and "wore them down" into giving him the rights to the story, which ends with Harding's career falling apart after she was banned from the United States Figure Skating Association.
When Rogers interviewed them for his research, Harding and Gillooly's stories were "so wildly contradictory - they don't remember anything the same" and this is reflected in the film.
"I thought I'd just put all the different points up there and let the audience decide."
• I, Tonya is showing in cinemas
