memoir of the same name<\/a>, the film follows Genelle on that fateful day. While trapped, a mysterious man named Paul (Dondr\u00e9 T. Whitfield) stays with Genelle and promises that rescuers are coming. Genelle later searches for him, but no one could confirm his identity. She now believes he was an angel.<\/p>\nSherri was acutely aware of how difficult it would be to portray Genelle accurately.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t take it lightly that I had a responsibility,\u201d she told Good Housekeeping. \u201cThere were days when I had to cry because she thought she was going to die. I kept thinking, \u2018Oh my gosh\u2014one person had to go through so much and still be alive to tell the story.\u2019 I wanted to respect that and make sure her story would be an inspiration for viewers.\u201d<\/p>\n
To prepare for the role, Sherri met with Genelle to learn more about her life before 9\/11. In addition to being a Port Authority worker, she was also a mother\u2014something Sherri could relate to.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I got to speak with Genelle, so many aspects of her life mirrored my own,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m a mother, and because she was a mother at this time, I felt like I needed to bring a bit of that into my portrayal, since the situation was horrific for so many people. I wanted to honor that side of her, too\u2014not just the survivor.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two also spoke about what\u2019s helped Genelle persevere in the years since the attacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI talked to Genelle about survivor\u2019s remorse\u2014losing all of her co-workers, her best friend, and having to reconcile with that,\u201d Sherri said. \u201cThat\u2019s a heavy burden to carry. But she does it with such grace, and she came to the conclusion that she\u2019s using her life to inspire people to keep living. She\u2019s so resilient, and she loves life because she almost lost hers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sherri hopes Angel in the Rubble viewers leave the film reminded to be compassionate toward those around them.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never know what\u2019s going to happen,\u201d she said. \u201cBe kind to people. Be present. Live life. Laugh. We don\u2019t know what could happen, so we have to live life like it\u2019s a gift that we\u2019ve all been given. We also must not ever forget what the victims of 9\/11 went through. We have to honor them, because this was a time that everyone came together. We need to remember that, especially now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2 min read It\u2019s been 25 years since the September 11 attacks claimed the lives of almost 3,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,1105,263085,1107,93,61,60,184510,1106,142723,263084,223989,263086],"class_list":["post-619837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-4b8382d0-2548-423d-8489-65c0d72d2af8","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-read_time-3","tag-shorttitle-sherri-shepherd-honors-a-9-11-survivor-in-new-film","tag-sponsored-false","tag-subsection-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Estimated](\"https:\/\/www.goodhousekeeping.com\/_assets\/design-tokens\/fre\/static\/icons\/clock-regular.4ddebeb.svg\")
2 min read<\/p>\n