Elisabeth Röhm Makes Her Directorial Debut with Lifetime's "Girl in the Basement"

Yes their children those born to this deranged villain and his daughter The film premiering Saturday February 27 chronicles the abject terror of rape incest and kidnapping It39s inspired by the true story of an Austrian father and his daughter who was imprisoned for 24 years There39s nothing light or breezy about this and it is the sort of movie that could easily become too dark to watch Yet by pacing it correctly amp160it is taut throughout but offers some welcome breaks viewers will find they need to watch if only to discover who survives and howquotMy goal was to really not sensationalize something that is so horrifying but to really ground it in truth and to get into a real narrative about ancestral and familial abusequot firsttime filmmaker and longtime actor Elisabeth Ramp246hm tells MediaVillage in an exclusive interview Best known for playing ADA Serena Sotherlyn on Law ampamp Order and Eileen on Jane the Virgin Ramp246hm pictured at top and below is now putting her energy into directing In addition to this movie part of the network39s robust quotRipped from the Headlinesquot slate Ramp246hm is developing three other movies for LifetimequotGrowing up in this business so to speak you don39t see a lot of you reflected back to youquot Ramp246hm says quotYou don39t see the women running the studios or directing or operating the camera My passion for story and narrative got wrapped into my acting and writing The business wasn39t reflected back to me I thought it was a man39s world In the last four or five years we have seen the landscape begin to change I began to think 39Why not me and her and her and her being reflected back39quotShe credits Tanya Lopez Executive Vice President Movies Limited Series and Original Movie Acquisitions for Lifetime and LMN for ensuring far more women are behind the camera Ramp246hm is proud to be joining actresses including Kyra Sedgwick Angela Bassett Eva Longoria and Robin Givens who broke into the directing ranks with a Lifetime movieIn Girl in the Basement the tone is set early The first hint of the darkness to come is the extent to which Don Judd Nelson is extraordinarily controlling Dictatorial he alone must make the decisions for their teenage daughters and is angry at his wife Irene Joely Fisher for allowing their younger more rebellious daughter Sara Stefanie Scott to go to a party When Don overrules Irene the girl sneaks out anywayFights ensue when Sara rolls in the next morning Soon the father locks his daughter in a concrete chamber in the basement He is the only one who knows of its existence While it may seem unbelievable that someone could be locked up downstairs while life continues upstairs the room is hidden behind a bookcase on tracks He even muffles sounds traveling through the air vents When Sara fights her father and tries to escape he overpowers her And rapes her Repeatedly For 24 yearsNelson reflects on playing this felonious father and how he found some humanity in himquotI think that villain is not something that someone thinks about themselvesquot he said during a recent 2021 Virtual Television Critics Association panel quotI don39t think Manson thought he was a bad guy For all we know Jeffery Dahmer didn39t think he was a bad guy Don doesn39t think he39s a bad guyquotDuring the harrowing two hours Sara gives birth by herself to several children They all live in the subterranean room Recognizing that such tension and repugnant behavior could repel an audience Ramp246hm explained that she very consciously moved the action from the windowless cell to the upstairs where life was as normal as it got for that familyquotI think it was very challenging to have to be in the room for half of the moviequot Ramp246hm acknowledged adding that she worked to ensure that the story would never become boring as it spanned over twenty years of torment and confinementThat was quota lot to capturequot she added quotI wanted to let the movie breathe when you are in the upstairs world Myself and my team really churned up the wind and birds chirping and nature That would really help the basement breathe in a sense That was cinematically the choice to help the viewerquotSince this is Lifetime there will be a documentary following In Beyond the Headlines Surviving Child Abduction and Imprisonment two survivors recount their stories on overcoming childhood trauma Lori Poland kidnapped at 3 was left for dead in an outhouse in 1983 Katie Beers was abducted and imprisoned for 17 days by a family friend in 1992Ramp246hm is determined to use the platform of directing for good telling stories that need to be toldquotI want to tell movies that are part of movementsquot she says quotWhy do anything if it is not going to change the world It is a movement a call to action Hopefully it represents voices similar to this characterquotGirl in the Basement will be telecast on Saturday February 27 at 8 pm on LifetimeClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and 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Elisabeth Röhm Makes Her Directorial Debut with Lifetime's "Girl in the Basement"

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