“Trafficking doesn’t happen in a vacuum, it is the pretty predictable end result of a host of other situations and the ability of somebody, somewhere, to figure out how to make money from those situations,” explained Caren Benjamin, Chief Communications Officer of the Polaris Project, a non-profit that seeks to end human trafficking. Lifetime will air a PSA for the Polaris Foundation during the broadcast of Girl in Room 13, which debuts tonight at 8/7c. Caren joined a recent TCA press conference to promote the film, which is inspired by a true story and stars Larissa Dias and Anne Heche. “The vast majority of situations of sex trafficking that we are aware of, the person is trafficked by somebody who they know and very often love and trust.”
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“I was privileged to tell the story of Girl In the Basement, inspired by true events much like Girl In Room 13,” said director Elisabeth Rohm, who leads the project and holds its message close to her heart. One of the biggest challenges on both films was keeping the film visually exciting while remaining mostly confined to one room. “We were literally in a hotel room, it wasn't a built set, for a week. And you have to be inventive and creative and subtle and really rely on the performance and really getting in there bravely together because we didn't have a lot of space. But the ‘Girl In’ series is all about drawing attention to stopping violence against women. And so that's really what inspires me to continue to do another ‘Girl In’ film. And I actually think the circumstances of a very claustrophobic set and environment were truthful. That's exactly what happened in this myriad of events that we were inspired by in regards to this film.”
Larissa Dias stars as Grace, a recovering opioid addict who moves back home with her mother Janie (Anne Heche), but is lured into her old habits by her ex-boyfriend Richie (Max Montesi) and finds herself imprisoned in a hotel room. “Sometimes when you bring up all this emotion, you can’t get out of it,” Larissa shared about the value of having an Intimacy Coordinator on the set to help coach her and Max through some intense scenes. “To have someone that is really making eye contact with you, she would have a signal like, ‘Give me one of these if you’re good, give me one of these if you’re not good and you need time to get out,’ because Elisabeth was there for me 100%, but sometimes she’d have to check the scene and make sure the take was there. And so having that intimacy coordinator was a little bit like a big sister or like a mom that was on set making sure that I was good. And I think even coordinating, choreographing scenes with Max, my costar, to make sure I was comfortable where he was touching me. This is a job that we do but we also live a life and there’s people that are coming into this situation with real-life trauma and so to have someone that understands that and values that we as actors are humans and we can be triggered in different ways, is just phenomenal.”
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At the time of the press conference, Anne Heche was in critical condition and passed away shortly after. “We are all so dedicated to the cause Stop Violence Against Women,” Elisabeth Rohm said of Lifetime’s organization that was important to Anne Heche, who starred in three original films for the network (Gracie’s Choice, Fatal Desire, and Girl Fight). “Her performance is so riveting, it’s so painful and so inspiring… It took me some time to let this one go. And when you’re thinking about it again as we’re here, especially with somebody like Caren with the Polaris Foundation really talking about the real victims, I’m reminded of how we all wanted to go as far as possible in this storytelling to portray this in the most real way so that we had integrity around this topic. So that we can really draw attention to these crimes and continue to draw attention to organizations like Polaris Foundation and the incredible research that they do, as well as access to the human trafficking hotline for all of the people who are suffering right now. We felt a sense of responsibility for that.”
“Trafficking actually has nothing to do with transportation at all,” concluded Caren Benjamin, wrapping the conversation up. “A person can and often is trafficked from and within their very own home, so there is no transport necessary. Trafficking is the process of recruiting somebody to be in this situation. In the film the recruitment period was feeding her addiction and making her feel loved and none of those things require transport. Polaris works solely in North America on human trafficking in North America, Mexico, Canada, and obviously in the United States… In labor trafficking, generally speaking, there are far more male cases than women. In sex trafficking, we tend to hear from people who identify as female, but trans people, LGBTQ people, particularly young, gay men and boys are extremely vulnerable to trafficking. They’re probably one of the highest vulnerability populations.”
You can visit polarisproject.org to learn more about ways you can help fight human trafficking in North America. For more information on Lifetime’s initiative, visit mylifetime.com/stop-violence-against-women. Girl in Room 13 premieres Saturday, September 17th, at 8/7c on Lifetime.
Lifetime is a division of A+E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company.