Elisabeth Rohm

Law & Order Vet Sounds AMBER Alert

In Lifetime’s Amber’s Story (premiering tonight at 9 pm/ET), Law & Order alumna Elisabeth Röhm transforms herself to play Donna Hagerman, the Texas mom whose daughter was abducted in 1996. Nine-year-old Amber’s disappearance and tragic fate led to the founding of the AMBER (America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) Alert program, an early warning system designed to help track missing kids. TVGuide.com spoke with Röhm about this real-life drama, her own L&O past and her almost-Lost future.

TVGuide.com: You’re not a mom, so what drew you to this role?

Elisabeth Röhm: I remember seeing Schindler’s List and how the mothers responded when the kids were taken away from them on the train, and I have never heard screams like that - guttural, from their inner being. It’s the worst crime of all. More than anything, we should protect our children, and whether or not I have kids of my own, I have godchildren I’m really close to, friends’ children who I’m really close to.... It’s this primal pain that you can’t imagine playing as an actress.

TVGuide.com: As you researched the role, what were you surprised to learn?

Röhm: Donna became very well known through the media coverage [of Amber’s abduction], of course, but prior to that she was being followed around by a documentary crew for a local news channel’s look at women on welfare. And they were following her at the time that Amber was kidnapped. So I was surprised to learn about how much she had been through even before any of this went down. She’s an angel, a martyr.

TVGuide.com: I was surprised to see that the government’s first reaction to Donna’s AMBER Alert idea was, "How much is this gonna cost us?"

Röhm: In the movie when [a second] child gets kidnapped, you see the local sheriff finally decide to "pull the trigger," so to speak, on the AMBER Alert, and you pan to what looks like an FBI office for presidential protection, it’s so high-tech and efficient and connected to the government. Of course it cost a lot of money to ensure that it would be productive. But now when a child gets abducted, a local sheriff calls and the information is everywhere. At least it’s government dollars that aren’t going to waste.

TVGuide.com: I’ve heard two schools of thought on playing real people: Spend time with the person beforehand, or put off the meeting until the end. What was your approach?

Röhm: I would have put it off until the end because I would have assumed that I’d be self-conscious, but Donna was involved in the production, and that actually made me better. If she had sat there watching me with a look of disdain or judgment, it would have thrown me a bit, but because she was so mesmerized and emotional to see someone telling her story, that validated me.

TVGuide.com: Talk about the physical transformation you underwent for the role. At minimum you could have just changed your hair color and been done with it.

Röhm: Actually, at minimum I could have just stayed blonde, but because I am an actor and want to be taken seriously, I didn’t. Plus, wouldn’t that be an insult if Donna showed up on set and some blonde, thin version of her was crying through the moments of her biggest tragedy? I wanted her to feel as if Hollywood was taking her most personal story and telling it with integrity.

TVGuide.com: Switching topics, have you heard about the latest switch in lady ADAs on Law & Order? [Röhm played Serena Southerlyn from 2001 to 2005.]

Röhm: Yeah, I know. All I know is I was blessed with an amazing relationship with Dick Wolf and Jeff Zucker, and when I quit all they asked me to do was 13 more shows to transition Jerry Orbach’s [character’s] "retirement." But then they gave me a completely juicy watercooler moment of a departure scene, which they never do on Law & Order. I had an awesome relationship with them, and I was also there longer than anybody else.

TVGuide.com: What was the inside story on Serena’s one-foot-out-the-door lesbian reveal?

Röhm: [Laughs] Really, I can only say that Dick Wolf has a good sense of humor in life, and he understands what good television is. To this day, a year and a half later, I realize he was doing me a service by giving me a moment that would be indecipherable so people would keep talking about it. I go into meetings for new jobs and they’re like, "So... the lesbian thing. What happened there?" Dick Wolf obviously thought, "Let me give her something people will talk about."

TVGuide.com: Do you have any advice for the new lady ADA [CSI: Miami’s Alana De La Garza]?

Röhm: I would say "Less is more." Law & Order is very [David] Mamet-like. And Sam Waterston is a wonderful, warm mentor, but he can be intimidating those first couple days of working with him, because he’s legendary. Maybe that’s a little bit of what happened with [De La Garza’s predecessor] Annie Parisse? I don’t know any of the situation with Annie, I just know that they decided it wasn’t working out. But me, I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack when I met Saw Waterston. I had a lump in my throat and thought none of my words were going to come out!

TVGuide.com: Do you keep tabs on your Angel costar, David Boreanaz?

Röhm: Oh, absolutely. My friend Barry Josephson is producing Bones for Fox, and Fox wanted to give me my own show, so I almost did that with David. But they wanted to go with Emily [Deschanel], so they offered me another show called Briar & Grace. Unfortunately for me, David’s pilot was good and mine wasn’t! [Laughs] But I’m friends with him and we’ve stayed in touch. Somebody once asked me, "What’s the best memory you have of all your jobs?" and I said, "I’ve been lucky enough to make a friend from each. Not just an acquaintance, but a good friend."

TVGuide.com: What else do you have coming up?

Röhm: Aftermath is a movie in which I play Anthony Michael Hall’s wife. Did you ever see Pacific Heights? It’s kind of similar. It’s about a couple who are stalked, and the psychological ramifications of distrust. This week I’m starting a film called Ghost Image, where my character has this guilt about the deaths of her parents and her sister, and the subsequent death of her fiancé. Roma Maffia is trying to take me down; she thinks I’m the murderess.

TVGuide.com: It sounds like you are!

Röhm: Hey! And in January I have ABC’s Masters of Science Fiction. Terry O’Quinn and I are the leads [in one installment]. He was awesome to work with.

TVGuide.com: Did you pump him for Lost scoop?

Röhm: No, but I should have! I did push him for how amazing it is to live in Hawaii and do Lost. Now as I go off to St. Louis to do a film I’m thinking, "Why didn’t I audition for that new Lost character? Damn it!"

TVGuide.com: Last question: Do I have to put the umlaut over the "o" in Röhm?

Röhm: Absolutely. [Laughs]