Actress-turned-director Elisabeth Röhm (pictured above, middle) once again steps behind the lens for Lifetime, directing Switched Before Birth, premiering this weekend. The film, starring Skyler Samuels and Justina Machado, follows the story of two strangers, Olivia Crawford (Samuels) and Anna Ramirez (Justina Machado), who befriend one another at a fertility clinic. As the two share their personal stories of troubles conceiving a child, they form a strong bond, vowing to be there for each other through thick and thin. After receiving their IVF treatments on the same day, both women are delighted to share their pregnancy journeys. However, when Anna suffers a painful miscarriage, both women are devastated. While Olivia eventually delivers twins, her newfound friend is there for her as much as possible. But when the fertility clinic reveals they made an error; implanting Olivia with one of Anna’s embryos, Olivia refuses to give up one of her babies. Anna is enraged, deciding only a court of law is fit to decide who the child’s biological mother is.
For Röhm, the project was personal. “I felt very privileged to be [allowed] to direct something about IVF because I really went through my own journey,” she shared while promoting the film. “It was painful and difficult, and these actresses really captured what is deeply personal to me. It's like lightning in a bottle, [watching] these two act together in this movie.
"Statistically speaking, 15% of couples will struggle with getting pregnant naturally," she continued. "I was one of those. It’s not a federally regulated industry, so it’s hard to say percentage-wise what kind of mishaps, or how many times a mishap like this one will happen, but it’s frequent enough that we really hope that this film makes you take a good, long, hard look at the fertility industry.”
Röhm, who made her directorial debut with Lifetime’s Girl in the Basement (2021), can’t help but feel grateful for the behind-the-camera opportunities the network has provided. Still, while directing Machado and Samuels, she found herself once again bitten by the acting bug. “Well, if I [got] to act with women like this, I’d want to be acting,” she laughed of her career switch. “But directing … I feel really privileged that Lifetime has the Broader Focus program and Tanya Lopez created this opportunity for me to pivot in my life and career. I really love directing, especially when you get to direct a friend like Justina Machado, who I starred opposite, and Skyler and all the actors in it. I have a big place in my heart for directing right now.
“To be honest, I probably would have accepted any job from Lifetime,” she added. “I have deep gratitude to the network and I'm excited about developing other projects with them. Actually, Justina and I have some exciting things we're working on together.”
“I don't necessarily think you have to be an actor to be a great director,” Machado said of Röhm when MediaVillage inquired about working with a friend. “But I do think [it’s] a big plus. There are things that actors- turned-directors understand. I feel like there's an understanding of how to deal with different personalities on set -- how to speak to people on set because they know how they like to be spoken to and dealt with. That always helps [when] somebody has been there.
“Then when you're working with a friend, you're even freer and more vulnerable," she continued. ">