'Lady In Room 13' director spoke EXCLUSIVELY with HL concerning the late Anne Heche's 'phenomenal' efficiency and tackling human trafficking on this 'necessary' movie.
Lady In Room 13 will mark one in every of Anne Heche’s last roles. The actress sadly handed away on August 11 on the age of 53. HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with the Lifetime film’s director Elisabeth Röhm about working alongside the late actress.
“We had a fantastic relationship, and we had been each equally dedicated to collaborating on this undertaking. I do know she was very pleased with this movie, and she or he gave it the whole lot she had. Her efficiency is phenomenal,” Elisabeth mentioned.
Anne died after her automotive crashed into a house on August 5. Each the automotive and the house caught hearth. It took firefighters practically an hour to extinguish the flames and extract Anne from the automotive. The actress was in a coma for every week earlier than being declared legally lifeless. She died of smoke inhalation and thermal accidents.
Lady In Room 13 was a undertaking that meant a lot to Anne. The movie addresses the necessary and related matter of human trafficking. Grace, performed by Larissa Dias, is held captive by her ex in an try and promote her into human trafficking. Janie, performed by Anne, stops at nothing to seek out her daughter. She uncovers the darkish world of human trafficking and the stunning statistics about its widespread victims.
Elisabeth famous that she’s change into “actually impressed by Lifetime’s dedication to cease violence in opposition to ladies,” and that’s why she wished to direct Lady In Room 13. “They're telling the powerful tales, and so they’re not doing it in a means that’s irresponsible… It is a very tough matter. It’s a complicated matter. It’s a large matter. It’s a $150 billion matter and tens of millions of victims — males, ladies, and youngsters — endure due to human trafficking. That is our try at telling a small a part of that story. I like directing and performing for Lifetime as a result of I really feel they take a deep sense of accountability round these tales. The Lady In sequence additionally particularly will get into a number of the harder subjects, so we stay up for sharing this movie with the world and hope it makes an impression.”
For the position of Grace, Elisabeth particularly reached out to Larissa concerning the movie after having labored together with her beforehand. The director was frequently impressed with how the actors approached the fabric. “Each single day, all of them got here to set giving it the whole lot they needed to inform this necessary story about this main challenge,” she advised HollywoodLife. She added, “The actors had been courageous and truthful and dedicated to the larger trigger at hand.”
Along with the movie, Lifetime will likely be launching a PSA to attract consideration to Polaris and the Human Trafficking Hotline to attach victims with survivors. “It’s a very confidential hotline. We wish to proceed telling this narrative by way of this movie to attempt to make an impression,” Elisabeth famous. “The statistics are staggering — 25 million, they estimate, victims all through the world, and so they’re all very distinctive tales. This was our model of telling a narrative, and one that's far too widespread.” Lady In Room 13 airs September 17 at 8 p.m. on Lifetime.