BBC casts deaf actress in lead role

[Miss-Delectable]

BBC casts deaf actress in lead role - mirror.co.uk

An untried deaf actress has been handed the lead role in in a primetime BBC thriller.

Genevieve Barr will play deaf teenager Amelia Edwards, who witnesses a murder while staying with relatives in a new BBC1 fourpart series called The Silence. It is her first major role, which she won while on the Teach First training scheme, teaching in a challenging inner London school.

Last night Genevieve said: "The Silence is a fantastic opportunity to explore life through a deaf person's eyes and I am thrilled to have been offered the role.

"I have my hands full with Amelia! I have had my first day of filming and it was exhausting but amazing playing my first scenes opposite Gina McKee, who plays my mother."

Genevieve, 23, will be surrounded by an experienced cast for the production, including acclaimed actor Douglas Henshall, McKee and Hugh Bonneville.

 

[TWA]

"The Silence" is the title? :roll: ugh. Hopefully this does not cast her in a stereotypically deaf role.

 

[Bottesini]

Great! I hope it makes it over here for Masterpiece Theater.

 

[CJB]

I have to admit this makes me a bit nervous... the last movie I heard about with a deaf character in it involved her watching her psychopathic adopted sister kill people and set buildings on fire. (The Orphan, anyone?)

 

[Bottesini]

"The Silence" is the title? :roll: ugh. Hopefully this does not cast her in a stereotypically deaf role.

Roles for deaf actors are few! And it is a mystery! Be HAPPY!!!!!!

 

[Bottesini]

I have to admit this makes me a bit nervous... the last movie I heard about with a deaf character in it involved her watching her psychopathic adopted sister kill people and set buildings on fire. (The Orphan, anyone?)

The Orphan was really pretty good as deaf characters in movies go. She was no miracle kid, just a normal little girl and plenty of sign was included.

It was a dumb movie but the deaf side plot was not the part that made it dumb. It was the medical condition of the villian which is not plausible in the modern age.

 

[CJB]

The Orphan was really pretty good as deaf characters in movies go. She was no miracle kid, just a normal little girl and plenty of sign was included.

It was a dumb movie but the deaf side plot was not the part that made it dumb. It was the medical condition of the villian which is not plausible in the modern age.

I know but the bit about her not telling anyone what she witnessed and being deaf is a bit tacky. The whole deaf/being silenced metaphor is as old as the whole being emotionally ignorant/blind metaphor.

Just my opinion, though.

 

[Bottesini]

I know but the bit about her not telling anyone what she witnessed and being deaf is a bit tacky. The whole deaf/being silenced metaphor is as old as the whole being emotionally ignorant/blind metaphor.

Just my opinion, though.

Oh, it didn't occur to me. She was so young like 5, and she was threatened. I thought that part was realistic.

 

[TWA]

Roles for deaf actors are few! And it is a mystery! Be HAPPY!!!!!!

Ohhh fine. *huff*


I guess I have more aversion to the title as a writer than as a deaf person. "The Silence" I mean, c'mon. Can it get more cliche'd than that?

 

[Bottesini]

Ohhh fine. *huff*


I guess I have more aversion to the title as a writer than as a deaf person. "The Silence" I mean, c'mon. Can it get more cliche'd than that?

When "The Silence" was written "It was a dark and stormy night."

 

[TWA]

When "The Silence" was written "It was a dark and stormy night."

And something was just not right in the sleepy little town.

 

[Bottesini]

And something was just not right in the sleepy little town.

The deaf girl awoke, wondering if she had just felt something brush wisplike across her face.

 

[CJB]

And something was just not right in the sleepy little town.

 

[Bottesini]

"Oh, no," thought the deaf girl, "I think I feel the breath of insane laughter on my face."
She reached out to turn on her bedside light........