Savannah Knoop On JT LeRoy Hoax: 'At This Point, I Don't Remember That Much Of It'

(CBS Local)-- The JT LeRoy hoax is one of the wildest stories of this century and it has a San Francisco connection.

Almost 20 years ago, Savannah Knoop came to San Francisco to live with her brother and sister in law Laura Albert. Albert wrote books and created a literary persona named JT LeRoy. Albert played JT on the phone and over email while Knoop ended up playing JT in public for several years.

Knoop went all around the world as LeRoy rubbing elbows with people like Courtney Love and Asia Argento. The story has been turned into a movie called "JT LeRoy" starring Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern.

"In watching Kristen it was really interesting. One part that was really illuminating for me was seeing how separate the Savannah character and JT character are," said Knoop in an interview with CBS Local. "It seems fairly obvious now, but looking back it felt very blurry to me. I was 18 going on 19 when it all started. I was in community college in San Francisco and it's such an amazing place."

Stewart plays Savannah in the movie and during the film, questions several times whether it is time to end the whole hoax. Knoop went through this several times during the six years playing LeRoy in public.

"You feel the duration of this six year period through starts and stops," said Knoop. "It's about getting into the emotional desires of the Savannah character that would keep doing this for so many years because not everyone would. You'd go into JT land and you got to be an artist. You didn't even have to do the work. The stories were written. You do get the sense in the film that it's never a totally comfortable experience."

It took years before people realized JT LeRoy was Savannah Knoop. One of the reasons this went on for so long was the lack of social media at the time.

"People were just starting to get smart phones at the end. I had a flip phone halfway through," said Knoop. "We didn't have social media in the same way. A lot of the themes were there of living a full social media cyborg existence right before it struck. I'm playing the JT avatar for Laura and JT is my avatar. Things get really messy when there's not enough space. At this point, I don't remember that much of it."

"JT LeRoy" is in theaters now and available on digital and VOD.