Catherine Bell on Her New Ripped-from-the-Headlines Lifetime Movie "Jailbreak Lovers"

Bell portrays Toby Dorr a woman in Kansas whose nonprofit dog rescue and rehabilitation program enlists the aid of local prison inmates Believing companionship will benefit both the prisoners and the canines she teams with John Manard Tom Stevens pictured with Bell an affable inmate who makes her feel safe and with whom she bonds As the friendship turns amorous Toby becomes embroiled in an escape plan with hopes of beginning a new life with John albeit on the runOne thing Bell didn39t expect when accepting the role was that similar reallife events would be playing out that closely mirror the 2006 story of Toby and John In April of 2022 Alabama corrections officer Vicky White aided her inmate boyfriend Casey Cole White no relation in his escape from prison with tragic resultsquotIt was unbelievable that happenedquot Bell exclaimed while promoting the movie quotIt was like okay life imitating art imitating life Interestingly this happens a fair amount where these people are in this unusual situation in a prison and fall for each other The idea for me of crossing that line and going 39Yeah let39s break out of jail39 I mean really you39re never going to get away with it you know That one ended very tragically but it39s fascinatingquotHaving just endured those similar events on screen the reallife events unfolding after she39d wrapped production didn39t impact her opinion of the Alabama story quotI don39t think I was rooting for Vicky and Caseyquot she reflected quotNo I wasn39t really thinking about it either way But it was very very sad of course how that ended I would have preferred a happier ending than that for surequotquotWe kind of tell the fictitious fun side of thisquot Stevens explained quotThe true story between Toby and John is a little darker in reality than the story that we told I39m sure that that story was darker too I mean we can have with this because we39re making a movie about it but these people were going through something and it39s more serious when it39s realquotNeither star was familiar with 2006 events that inspired this film but their friends were quotI hadn39t heard of it at allquot admitted Bell quotWhen I started telling people about it a lot of them remembered seeing it on the news and on Dateline and Anderson CooperquotquotYeah the same for mequot Stevens said quotEscaping out of prison in a dog crate I think it maybe a rang a bell but maybe I39m like 39Yeah maybe that39s just a logical way to sneak out of prison39 But I hadn39t heard about the case itselfquotI easily fit in that dog cratequot he added quotIt was too easy and I wanted a smaller one I wanted to do contortionsquotFor Bell stepping back into the edgier world of Lifetime after wrapping Good Witch was a challenge she was ready to accept quotI love acting because it39s always challengingquot she shared quotIt39s never just a piece of cake Like it39s like oh who is this character In the beginning you don39t know who they are or how to become them Watching her interviews and trying to work on that was a beautiful challenge I loved stepping into this Toby is kind of withdrawn kind of a toneddown person who39s not so confident or whatever It was just a lot of fun for me to play all of those thingsquotShe also appreciates and understands why these truelifeinspired stories resonate with viewers quotIt39s just that natural curiosity that all humans have about what is going on in someone39s else worldquot she reflected quotAnd yes this is a crazy world It39s something that hopefully most people will never experience Then there39s that other concept of 39What were they thinking and why would someone do that39 Hopefully viewers will get a little taste of that with what Tom and I did how Toby and John fell in love and what led this to this crazy idea that they might get away with running away togetherquotBoth stars admitted to having formed a strong bond while making the movie and mutually growing as performers quotThere are a lot of layers to Johnquot Stevens said of the role quotWhen I ever felt like I was kind of lost in it I knew that all I had to do was connect with Catherine I learned that I could trust in Catherine whenever I felt lost in a scenequotquotI had such an incredible time working with Tom and our connection was really really specialquot concurred Bell in closing quotI just looked in his eyes and it was all there I also had the great realization that I can do this sort of a role which was so different for me and being able to trust in Tom and making that happen it was magicalquotJailbreak Lovers will be telecast Saturday July 2 at 8 pm on LifetimeClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Catherine Bell on Her New Ripped-from-the-Headlines Lifetime Movie "Jailbreak Lovers"

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Catherine Bell on Her New Ripped-from-the-Headlines Lifetime Movie "Jailbreak Lovers"

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