Vanessa and Laura Marano Are Using Their Platform to Shed a Light on the Issue of Online Sexual Exploitation in Their Film ‘Saving Zoë’

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“Things truly change through conversation and through speaking up...”

Through the sounds of classic LA traffic, Vanessa and Laura Marano gave us a glimpse of themselves, their lives, and their latest project, Saving Zoë. “It’s been 12 years altogether to get the film out there to the public and into theaters and on VOD which is all very, very, very exciting.” Vanessa Marano says. “We are pumped for the world to see it.”

Years ago, the Marano sisters and their mother, Ellen Marano, had decided that if they were going to be successful in the entertainment industry, and it was beginning to look like they were, they were going to option a book. “I was 11 and Vanessa was 14,” Laura Marano starts. “I read Saving Zoë and I thought it was so intensely special. My mom read it and she loved it, and Vanessa read it and she loved it. We met the author, Alyson Noël, and had such an amazing conversation and dialogue with her, and she gave us the rights.”

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Both Laura and Vanessa began their acting careers at a very young age, even though Ellen wasn’t sure she wanted her daughters in the entertainment industry, having been a member for many years herself. “When I was about six is when I started asking if I could do it professionally,” Vanessa says, “and keep in mind I’m six—I don’t really know what professionally means. I also wanted to professionally be a unicorn. I just knew that I liked performing at the children’s theater, and I just wanted to continue doing that. After two years of asking my mom, because she was very anti us being in the industry, I wore her down.” 

Ellen packed her two young daughters in the car and drove them to an agency known for turning down kids and “crushing their dreams,” as Vanessa explains, in hopes that they would crush young Vanessa’s and Laura’s dreams and steer them away from the industry. “But that didn’t go the way that it was planned,” Vanessa laughs. “The agent ended up taking me and Laura because it’s frowned upon to leave your five-year-old child at home by herself so she was there too. Laura was like, ‘Oh man, I don’t have an agent,’ and then the agent was like ‘I’ll take that one, too.’ Two for the price of one.”

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The sisters began their careers with small roles, and eventually, both ended up starring in wildly successful TV shows, skyrocketing their careers. Laura Marano landed the role of Ally on Austin and Ally, while Vanessa played Bay on Switched at Birth. Following those roles, they both wanted the opportunity to find a place on the other side of the camera as well. “It’s our first attempt at the producing world and kind of switching our career trajectory a little with getting involved behind the scenes, as well as still being in front of the camera,” Vanessa explains. Saving Zoë gave them the perfect chance.

Their first film playing a large role behind the scenes takes on the complexities and heartache of dealing with online sexual exploitation, sex trafficking, and murder. “The online sexual exploitation world is not super different from the way that most of us, if not all of us, are living on a regular basis, between the social media that we use constantly and the different websites that we use in our regular day-to-day lives,” Laura explains. “That’s kind of the point made in this movie; it’s that when we think of sex trafficking or online sexual exploitation, we usually think of it in the way of like Liam Neeson’s Taken—you’re kidnapped and in a foreign country and that’s how people think it happens—when it’s actually way more insidious than that.”

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At first, it was difficult for the girls to find a company to partner with in order to get their movie made. “It’s a dark YA novel, so it’s not, you know, the easiest sell,” Vanessa says. “We kept being told teenage girls want fluff, they want romance, and they want happy endings. And we were like no, teenage girls want real stories that reflect their lives. Teenage girls have opinions and political views, and they want to say something. We know that,” she continues, “because we are young women.”

The idea that young women don’t want anything but fluff and happy endings is something that both Vanessa and Laura Marano are vehemently opposed to. “People underestimate young girls. People underestimate women, in general, and we’re seeing as a part of this generation and the part of many generations now that women are finally speaking up and saying women are not to be underestimated. They have something to say and a point of view. That is something that is very important to my mom, my sister, and myself,” Vanessa goes on to say. “Even more importantly, it’s hilarious how many people who are not young women like to tell young women what young women don’t want to see or watch.”

This, Vanessa and Laura explain, is one of the reasons they wanted to make Saving Zoë in the first place. “There’s something interesting, too, in the fact that obviously, not all young women are the same,” Vanessa says. “There are different points of view and different opinions and different tastes in things, but overall, this story that we connected to was that this is a story about two young girls, and it’s a story that could happen to anybody, and that’s what we connected to so much.”

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Though the subject matter of the movie was a difficult sell, at the end of the day, Laura and Vanessa knew it was a story that needed to be told and an issue that needed to be discussed. “We don’t really talk about how we explore the world now in this modern era and how it can turn and go wrong,” they say. “It was really important for us to open up a dialogue and a conversation about a difficult topic that doesn’t always get discussed. At the end of the day, it affects so many people, no matter who you are.” It’s the Maranos’ hope that their movie and the story they’re telling will raise awareness around this issue and help others learn the dangers the Internet can bring if they’re not careful.

The Marano sisters are not the only ones who believe this issue is one that needs to be discussed far more often than it is now. “We were really lucky that we got paired up with an amazing organization called ‘Equality Now,’” Vanessa says, “which is a legal advocacy group fighting for the rights of young women here, domestically, and also internationally as well. It was very, very important to us to have partners who are dealing with the issues of women’s rights and the rights of children throughout the world because our film is so intertwined in that respect, in what we’re trying to say politically and in what we are trying to get out there. It was incredibly awesome to learn from them and be partnered with them and to have them believe in this project as much as we believe in the project.”

The story told through Saving Zoë is a difficult one to take in, but for Laura and Vanessa Marano, it hit even closer to home. Laura plays a character whose sister, played by her actual sister, don’t forget, is murdered at the hands of sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. “It was definitely a very emotionally and psychologically taxing experience,” Laura explains. “But I think, overall, it gave me one of the best performances that I’ve ever given before.”

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Before the film’s release on July 12th, the Maranos got the chance to show their movie to survivors of online sexual exploitation. “That was probably the most terrifying thing,” Vanessa reveals, “because we wanted to be truthful to their experience and honor them. Hopefully, they would feel that their experience was authentically represented. We were so touched and honored that after we showed them the film they were so proud of it and felt so connected to it. They said to us that everybody’s story is different and unique and has its own details and specifics, but at the end of the day when you’re exploited in any way, it is the same situation. There are emotions that you go through, and it’s not just one thing, it’s a variety of different things that you experience. A predator is a predator no matter who they are and no matter how seemingly small or large an exploitation can seem.”

For Vanessa and Laura Marano, that was the ultimate goal and the highest praise for their hard work. The two are extremely proud of Saving Zoë and the message they’re sending to the world. “We’re so lucky to have the support that we have from people who admire our work and have followed our careers,” they say. “We’re hoping that it inspires them to have conversations. Things truly change through conversation and through speaking up and so through being able to show the film to members of the UN and show the film, almost more importantly, to the people who watch me and Laura on-screen, it’s really that public perception that can change things and start a revolution.”

STORY GINA DECICCO
PHOTOS ALLEGRA MESSINA
VANESSA’S MAKEUP BETHANY GARITA for EXCLUSIVE ARTIST using URBAN DECAY
LAURA’S MAKEUP KATELIN GAN for STARWORKS ARTISTS
VANESSA’S HAIR GUI SCHOEDLER for EXCLUSIVE ARTISTS using ORIBE HAIRCARE
LAURA’S HAIR EMILY ZEMPEL for EXCLUSIVE ARTISTS using ORIBE HAIRCARE
STYLIST RYANN LANEL REDMAN and LISA CAMERON
CREATIVE DIRECTION ANNA ZHANG