Published: February 16, 2008 10:44 pm            

Actress from Dalton gets to shine in movie's title role

Lori Beth Edgeman’s first day on the set of “A Dance for Bethany” happened to be the most stressful — and the most rewarding — during her 30 days of filming.

The Dalton native plays the title character, Bethany, who struggles to free herself from a life of forced prostitution and stripping as a result of human trafficking. The first scene Edgeman filmed was the climactic scene of the movie: Bethany’s interview with a television station as she tells her harrowing story of life on the streets, and in the strip clubs, for the first time.

“It was the most important scene in the movie and also a very emotional scene for Bethany,” said Edgeman, a 1994 graduate of Dalton High School. “It’s also very dangerous for her because of the position she’s in. I couldn’t believe it was my first day on set. You know you can do it alone in your room, but when you’ve got a boom microphone and a director and a hair and makeup person beside you, it’s a little stressful experience. It was an awesome day.”

That adjective could also be used to describe Edgeman’s fledgling acting career. While she has worked steadily as a social worker since graduating from Georgia State University, the 32-year-old hasn’t stopped pursuing commercials, television shows and movies. Edgeman considers herself a singer first, but while in college acting piqued her interest.

Edgeman got her big break in 2004 when she played the role of Latane Brown, the first wife of NASCAR racing legend Dale Earnhardt in the television movie “3: The Dale Earnhardt Story.” Since then, she has appeared in two movies (“The Other Side” and “Two Weeks”) and landed a recurring role in Lifetime’s television show “Army Wives.” But an arrival of good news — she was pregnant with her first child — kept her from appearing in the first season. She hopes to be asked back for the second season.

Edgeman has performed small speaking roles in several of those films, and her performance in “3’ drew positive reviews. But “A Dance for Bethany” has by far been Edgeman’s largest acting project. She heard about the film through a friend who had a friend who is a casting director. Edgeman met the casting director at an event in Atlanta and was asked if she was a dancer. She had trained with the Dalton Ballet Theatre and portrayed “Clara” in “The Nutcracker” while a young girl. So Edgeman sent in her head shot and resume.

Things happened fairly quickly after that. She had her first audition in June 2006, then callbacks, then received word in July 2006 she had landed the role.

“I had such a great feeling about this part,” Edgeman said. “Sometimes you just have a good feeling about something. If God has this in the plans, I’m good to go, and if not, it wasn’t meant to be, I would still feel good about it.”

Edgeman moved to Asheville, N.C., for a month in August 2006 for filming and she was thrilled to stay in the South close to her roots.

“Professionally, it was an awesome leap because we often don’t get that opportunity living here,” Edgeman said. “You kind of have to sacrifice it all and move to New York or Los Angeles with hopes to get those types of parts. It was nothing but exciting.”

The movie is the brainchild of Marion and Yvonne Williams. It’s also their first “child” — so to speak — their first movie. Through their film company Raise The Bar Productions, they aim to make quality films devoid of sex, violence and foul language.

“A Dance with Bethany” deals with the serious topic of human trafficking, which traps men and women into forced situations. According to the U.S. Department of State, of the estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 80 percent are women and girls and up to 50 percent are minors.

The film is rated PG-13 and does not contain many of the unsavory Hollywood elements found in some of today’s movies, Marion Williams said. Bethany runs away from home at age 12 because of an abusive father. She resorts to living on the streets until she’s taken in by a man who forces her into a life of prostitution and stripping. A newspaper reporter befriends Bethany and helps her break away from the cycle. Along the way, Bethany finds a love interest.

“This is a romantic drama that touches people’s hearts,” Marion Williams said. “The Hollywood elements aren’t there. We call it the ‘Hollywood Formula.’ The film is not watered down in any way. It’s still a hard hitting drama. In a lot of films when you pull those elements out, the film itself ends up weak and flimsy. In the ‘40s and ‘50s, they made some great dramas and didn’t have the gratuitous sex scenes.”

And that appealed to Edgeman. Before filming started, she was anxious to read the entire script since she had only seen parts — or “sides” — during the audition phase. She also began to research human trafficking.

“Because of the subject matter, I wanted to make sure I was comfortable with the way it was going to be portrayed and filmed,” Edgeman said. “There are certain things I’m not comfortable doing on camera, be it language or nudity. Once I did get a hold of the script, I felt confident that I could walk in and definitely feel like my integrity was intact.”

There is a strip club scene that shows Bethany in her element. Edgeman called it “a hard day.”

“Yvonne was there to cheer me on and was watching all the footage on the monitor, making sure that things were done tactfully,” Edgeman said.

And they were, she said.

Edgeman said she connected with the character. As she pored over the script, she reflected on the young girls she has encountered as a social worker. Many of those girls have bounced around in foster care and may not have experienced the most favorable upbringing.

“I saw a lot of these girls I had worked with,” Edgeman said. “I understood where they had come from and she just melted my heart. The chance to get to play somebody who was fighting back, and she just has such awesome hope and spirit. She’s just what everybody would hope to be regardless of the background they came from.”

“A Dance for Bethany” will be shown at the Wink Theatre on Saturday, March 1, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are $10. Proceeds from the showing will go toward the Woman’s Enrichment Center in Dalton, which is a nonprofit providing free services such as pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and parenting programs.

“We use it as a vehicle to bring awareness to different communities of trafficking and sexual exploitation as an issue and hopefully prevent the youth from falling prey to traffickers,” Marion Williams said.

The film has won three awards since debuting last fall: “The Grand Jury Award” for Best Feature Film at the Nashville Faith and Film Festival; “Redemptive Storytellers Award” at the Redemptive Film Festival at Regent University in Virginia; and an “Award of Excellence” for the score from the Accolade Film Festival in Los Angeles.

For more information, visit www.adanceforbethany.com.



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Lori Beth Edgeman

Education: 1994 graduate of Dalton High School; graduate of Georgia State University

Family: Husband, Steve; 9-month-old daughter, Emery; parents Caren and Kerry Sikes; in-laws Wallace and Mary Edgeman

Acting credits include:

� “A Dance for Bethany” (2007) as the title character

� “Two Weeks” (2006) as Suzanne, wife of Tom Cavanaugh’s character (Cavanaugh played the title role in the television series “Ed”)

� “Warm Springs” (2005) as a therapist

� “3: The Dale Earnhardt Story” (2004) as Latane Brown, the first wife of the NASCAR racing legend

� “Road Trip” (2000) as a party guest

        

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