Dylan Ratzlaff Previews Lifetime’s ‘An Amish Sin’ [Interview]

Everybody, make way for the next leading lady, Dylan Ratzlaff. Ratzlaff stars as Rachel in the upcoming Lifetime movie, An Amish Sin.

Ratzlaff’s character is a young woman who is being asked by her family to marry a man who has previously assaulted her. In the Amish community, sins such as this are not spoken about, and most women just live with the trauma on their own.

I recently spoke with Ratzlaff about the overall message of this film and how she found herself connecting to it.

“I do have a Mennonite background, which is kind of similar to Amish. I don’t really associate with it, but I just found it so interesting that [it’s] very similar to kind of where I came from in a sense. So that’s kind of what drew me to [this role],” Ratzlaff began.

Ratzlaff also said that her grandmother is still really connected to her family’s Mennonite background, which helped her as she prepared for this role that was so far out of her comfort zone.

“She said ‘I totally remember the times where in the church the men and women were separate.’ And I had asked her ‘Would it be okay for a woman to speak in church?’ And she replied, ‘Not at all.’ And so just to see her kind of have that response, I was like, ‘Oh, this is really serious.'”

One of the major moments from An Amish Sin is when Rachel chooses to speak out against her parents’ wishes because of how much their decision will negatively impact her life. It’s not something that women in the Amish community do, and so we discussed that a bit as well.

“I think [her faith helped her] 100%. I was twirling with the idea of, is she mad at God? Is this something that she’s gonna resent her whole life?”

I was talking to people who had similar experiences, [who] truly felt the hand of God in their life, in a sense. So I wanted to bring that to Rachel because I think the biggest thing is that it’s such a heavy film. I wanted to give a bit of light to Rachel, and her faith was that light through all of the tough circumstances,” Ratzlaff continued.

“I truly wanted to show that even though she was going through these horrible things, her faith only grew stronger and actually helped her find the courage in every situation.”

And while we don’t want to give too much away, Ratzlaff discussed how the bond between Rachel and her mother changes over the course of the film.

“There is no lovey-dovey ness between the two of them. It’s very, ‘this is your role in society. I had to give up my life so you have to do the same.’ But toward the end, her mother was able to say ‘I see you’ in her own way, to the best of her ability.”

Sexual assault does play a major role in this film, so that’s something for audiences to be aware of before watching. Ratzlaff discussed how that element affected not just Rachel’s story, but the community overall.

“The biggest thing is that Rachel wanted to make a difference and really tell all of the men that this was not okay and that they were gonna be held accountable. And I really felt that after filming [that important scene].”

“Because when you’re acting, your body doesn’t know the difference, it’s still getting put through the emotions. And so I felt through my body like I had just gone through this serious part of my life and this wasn’t the end, but it was the beginning of the end for me in a sense. And, and the start of healing. And I really felt that all on day two of filming,” Ratzlaff said.

Ratzlaff also wanted to leave everyone with some final thoughts about the film’s message.

“I think the biggest thing [to takeaway] is if anyone is in a situation that is causing them to suppress who they really are, I hope they find the courage to leave that situation, whether that be abuse or anything else. I think this is a movie about the Amish, but it can apply to so many things in life and how sometimes we as women, or even men, can feel that they are being shadowed and not being heard. And I think the biggest thing is just having the courage to really find out who you are.”

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An Amish Sin airs Saturday, October 29th on Lifetime.

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