Gina Gershon’s filmography spans decades and now she’s making her way to the director’s chair.
For the first time ever, she’s directing a full-length movie for Lifetime called “12 Desperate Hours.”
The movie is based on a true story and is an adaption of Ann Rule’s true crime collection “Last Chance, Last Dance.” It follows a mother and her young children who are held hostage when a man forces his way into her house after committing murder earlier that day.
Gershon said Lifetime would often send her projects, but this one stood out.
“It moved me,” she said to KTLA 5’s Sam Rubin. “I’m just so sick of looking at the paper and reading about another mass shooting. I’m so disheartened to feel like these kids go to school and they may never get out of school. It’s just horrible, we’ve failed as a society in America and it’s just not getting better.”
“There are many alienated, depressed, lonely guys who can so easily get their hands on guns, and especially when they have mental issues, it’s a really bad combination,” she said of the film’s plot. “I thought it would be interesting to tell it from almost his point of view to see how someone gets there.”
The movie’s main actress, Samantha Mathis, whom Gershon credited with embodying “compassion and empathy,” plays a woman who prevents the criminal from killing others and himself.
“I just thought ‘maybe it’s a fantasy,’ with a little kindness and compassion we could prevent some of these mass shootings,” Gershon explained of her thought process.
While the “Riverdale” actress is used to being in front of the camera, she did enjoy being behind the scenes.
“I liked having a say about the costumes and production.”
She had a crash course in directing as the movie was slated for 15 days, but it ended up wrapping in 13 with no overtime.
The “Showgirls” actress has dabbled in directing here and there before the film.
In the middle of lockdown during the pandemic, the actress directed an anthology of short stories called “Within.”
“That was just me and my cat, basically whoever was at home. He was a big problem,” she joked.
“12 Desperate Hours” premieres Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. on Lifetime.
