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SCOTTSDALE PROGRESS | WWW.SCOTTSDALE.ORG | JANUARY 9, 2022
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Scottsdale native debuts sex traf�ic �ilm
BY ALEX GALLAGHER Progress Staff Writer
anet Craig has made a name for herself as a former professional tennis player who became an actress, but it is her latest venture that she feels is her most impactful. Craig is making her directorial debut in “Wake Up,” a �ilm based on real-life stories of sex traf�icking survivors and the ways that young adults end up entangled in the trade. “I want everybody to see themselves in this story,” said Craig. “It’s not a simple story about good versus evil. It’s a story about people capable of both and I want to show that we all really need to take a look in the mirror and see how this industry is taking place.” While the concept seems like a stretch for Craig, it is something the actor and Saguaro High School graduate has been working with for years. “My daughter asked us if we would go to a fundraiser for an organization that was getting started called Forever Found for her 16th birthday,” she said. “We heard this beautiful, articulate woman tell her story of being traf�icked and I knew at that moment I had to do something to �ight traf�icking.” Craig felt so moved that she almost instantaneously got involved with the nonpro�it. “After I heard that �irst story, I got involved with Forever Found and began to be a mentor,” she said. “I had to go through training to become a mentor to a girl who had been traf�icked and during the training I was exposed to different stories.” As a foster mom, Craig was also astounded by a startling statistic among victims of sex traf�icking. In the U.S., the FBI estimates that more than 100,000 children and teens are vic-
Scottsdale native Janet Craig is flanked by Zoe Noelle Baker and Judson Mills in this scene from her directorial debut with the film “Wake Up.” (Special to the Progress)
Janet Craig said that even though filming occurred during the 2020 election campaign and the pandemic, "this film united us in the aspect that everybody wanted to do this." (Special to the Progress)
tims of sex traf�icking and it is estimated that 60% of victims have been within
foster care or the child welfare system. While attending a prayer meeting, Craig made the connection between the foster system and traf�icking and decided it was her calling to merge her love of �ilm with this cause. With a central concept de�ined for the �ilm, Craig’s next step was to create a movie she felt would be engaging. “I hate movies where you feel trapped by someone trying to get a message across,” she said. “I wanted this to be a movie that is entertaining and a thriller where people see how everybody works together to create this atrocity that we have called human traf�icking.” A major way she was able to accomplish the feat was through collaborating with co-writer Dan Horan, a retired member of the Los Angeles Police force, and producer Kristen Wise, who has opened her home to hundreds of children in foster care. “My producing partner, Kristen Wise, has offered her home as a shelter home to over 100 kids and one of the stories
(in the �ilm) was inspired by a kid she had,” Craig said. “As a foster mom and someone who has been involved in �ighting against traf�icking for many years now, this was a story that I knew well.” On top of tackling a subject that can be hard to stomach, Craig also navigated �ilming the �lick through an arduous time in history. “We shot this �ilm during the pandemic and over the election and what I found was that this �ilm united us in the aspect that everybody wanted to do this,” she said. “I felt that this could be a unifying �ilm that will hopefully bring our nation and the world together in ways where we will all care about helping each other.” “Everybody that was involved with this �ilm was excited from the start that we did something to help other people,” she added. One of the main ways that Craig motivated the actors on set to provide a stellar performance was through a pledge she made prior to �ilming. All pro�its that Craig, husband Doug Grossman, producer Kristen Wise and her husband Mike generate from the �ilm will assist vital nonpro�its, including the foster care support organization RaisingHOPE, and the anti-traf�icking organizations Forever Found and ZOE International. Craig also hopes that after viewing the �ilm, viewers will do one thing: “I hope that everybody will wake up and be inspired to do something, hence the title ‘Wake Up.’ “This movie is my one thing and I’m hoping everyone leaves the movie and does their one thing to stop traf�icking and help those that are stuck in sexual addiction, traf�icking, foster care or being exploited in some way.” Information: of�icialwakeupmovie. com
