While best known for her portrayal as the sympathetic ADA Serena Southerlyn on the long-running TV series Law & Order, Elisabeth Röhm’s focus has always been less about acting, and more about making the world around her a better place.
Besides being an accomplished author, and a newly minted mother, the German-born beauty is a passionate advocate for such humanitarian organizations as the American Red Cross, Global Green USA and Refugees International.
While it may seem as if there aren’t enough hours in a single day for a family life, a career and such diverse philanthropy, Röhm’s passion comes from the self-empowering credo, distilled from the lessons handed down to her by her mother, that says simply; “You can do it all.”
The actress, who is currently filming the John Singleton-directed Abduction with Taylor Lautner, is a trained Red Cross emergency volunteer who has done relief work in Cambodia and Vietnam, and has spent time visiting recovering soldiers at the Water Reed Army Medical Center.
Röhm sits down with Tonic for a Q&A that covers everything from Microcredit to red wine, public schools and beach cruisers, her dream of doing relief work for a year,and why the heart is never something to be trifled with.
Tonic: What cause is nearest and dearest to your heart? How did you first get involved?
ER: My cause is really the American Red Cross, and I’m incredibly passionate about it, and I’ve been involved for over five years. Basically, I do everything that my mother tells me to do (laughs), and now that I have a kid I really do understand the power of that. The Red Cross had reached out to me in 2005 to participate in a campaign in New York, but I got involved because I had a personal experience with them, and my mother basically told me that I owed them for all that they had done for her.
When I was in high school my mother had a house in Missouri that had a fire and the roof was severely damaged, and she was very financially challenged at the time and couldn’t afford to get it repaired and The Red Cross stepped in and replaced her roof. I just feel, from the ground level, whether it’s a hurricane, a fire, floods, the Red Cross and its volunteers really provide the basic necessities in a time of crisis and need. They do their job.
Tonic: Where (or from whom) did you first learn about giving back?
ER: Absolutely from my mom. My mother was my best friend, and she has always been my greatest guide; and whenever I’m lost, she is my core. She was an incredibly conscientious human being who didn’t feel that we have the right to live on this planet and be “renters.” This is our home, and we have to treat it as such, whether it’s sustaining it through advocacy of Human Rights or preservation of the earth itself. My mother passed away seven months ago, and she instilled in me that we need tolead a very pure and conscientious life. Even towards the end of her life she was living in Holland and she only ate what she grew in her garden, so as far as sustaining the Earth, she really walked the walk.
Tonic: What activist/philanthropist most inspires you?
ER: Muhammad Yunus, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his development of Microcredit. He believes in the empowerment of people, and comes from the philosophy of allowing people to be the authors of their own life and to be able to create businesses on their level. It’s now a billion dollar business, but it was based on his understanding of the power of the human spirit, that most everybody, given the chance, wants to do something good with their life. People don’t want to suffer, they don’t want to be failures, they don’t want to be homeless.
Tonic: As a relatively new mother, what are you most hopeful for?
ER: This may be my own paranoia, but I’m really just hopeful that I have great health so that I get to stick around for my daughter Easton’s great adventure. I want to be there as long as I can possibly be there with her, because at the end of the day it’s a blessing for us to have this life and experience it with each other.
Tonic: If you could change one thing about the world what would it be?
ER: What I would really love to change is our public school system, because if we don’t educate our kids, we’re going to have a lost generation. I’m obsessed with the documentary Waiting for ‘Superman’, by David Guggenheim who did An Inconvenient Truth, and it’s about public schools in the United States. I was a product of public schools, and from the time I was fourteen I definitely got lost within them, and I couldn’t survive in the system that they had set up, and now it’s even worse. It’s heartbreaking, all these kids who want to learn, all these kids who have hope, and all these parents who want to do right for their kids, and it all comes down to some bureaucratic gamble.
Tonic: You also do advocacy work for Global Green USA, how have you made your life “greener”?
ER: (laughs) I’ve learned a lot through my association with Global Green, but I have a long way to go,and I think everybody does. It’s a real challenge, because you have to really re-shape your life. One of the ways that I make a huge dent in my carbon footprint is that I very rarely drive a car, and I’m on my bicycle fifty percent of the time. (laughs) And of course, I always make sure that I only drink wine without a cork!
Tonic: What would be the one eco-offense that you feel guilty about?
ER: (laughs) Okay, maybe sometimes I drink wine that has a cork, but I’m making that transition to the twist-off bottles! There are some great twist-off wines out there, and together we can do it!
Tonic: What would be on top of your “bucket list” if you had one?
ER: I think, because I do enjoy my relationship with the Red Cross, and Global Green, I would really love to go and do relief work for a year, uninterrupted.
Tonic: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
ER: My mom always said to me; ‘Never let somebody be reckless with your heart, and never be reckless with other people’s hearts.’ It gave me an understanding of what felt right to me, and what didn’t, it gave me courage, and a strong marker as to how I should treat other people.