John Krasinski:

Deaf actress was non-negotiable in A

Quiet Place

ohn Krasinski wouldn’t have filmed ‘A Quiet Place’ without using a deaf actress. The 39year-old star says it was “non-negotiable” having someone with the disability in real life portraying Regan Abbott in the horror movie because they could be his “guide”. Millicent Simmonds played the daughter of John and his wife Emily Blunt’s characters Lee and Evelyn Abbott in the film, which follows the married couple who must protect their children - including son Marcus (Noah Jupe) - from monsters who are blind but have an acute sense of hearing. In an interview with Variety, he admitted: “It was a non-negotiable thing for me. “The more important reason to me was I needed a guide. “I was writing a movie about a family who had a deaf child, and I know nothing about that. “I needed someone to walk me through, ‘What do you feel when you wake up in the morning to be the only person who can’t hear in your family?’” One of the most rewarding experiences for Krasinski - who has daughters Hazel, four and two-year-old Violet with Emily - was filming in silence from the perspective of Simmonds’, which made her mother burst into tears because it allowed her to experience just what it’s like for her daughter to not hear. He admitted: “To see her mom come up to me crying as hard as she was, was the most moving experience. “She said, ‘I’ve always wanted to know what the experience was with my daughter and I finally have it.’” The ‘Office’ actor previously admitted he doesn’t think a film will ever have the same effect on him again. He said: “This movie has changed my life in every single way, not just my career; I’ve not given my total sense to anything before, and I don’t mean that I’ve been lazy, but there was something extremely personal about this movie. I said to my wife, ‘I don’t think it ever will be like this again’. And my wife, who is a brilliant sage, said, ‘Of course there won’t. This is special and we did it together and there was something about it for your daughters.’

Jaron Egerton is “quite nervous” around horses and was thrown by one of the beasts on the set of ‘Robin Hood’. The 29-year-old actor had to learn to ride for his title role in ‘Robin Hood’ and he found it very “challenging”, especially after being thrown off one of the creatures at the beginning of his lessons. He shared with Empire magazine: “Learning to ride was probably the most challenging thing. I’m actually quite nervous of horses and they sense that. I like things that I’m perched on the top of to be reliable and solid. I was thrown off the horse in the first couple of weeks, which was pretty intense. “But that’s the joy of being an actor - having these new challenges to mount. Quite literally in this case.” Taron also endured more “challenging” preparations in the form of archery. He said: “I trained in traditional Saracen archery with a recurve bow. You load alternating arrows on the opposite side of the bow, which allows you to hold another four in your hand at any one time, fire them, grab another four and repeat fire. “I was taught by a Danish guy, Lars Anderson - he’s quite a stern taskmaster. “We spent quite a few hours together. It was very challenging.” Taron had a slightly easier time with the fight scenes, thanks to his role in spy franchise ‘Kingsman’, but he still got accidentally hit on a few occasions. He said: “There’s quite a lot of hand-to-hand combat in the film. “It’s something I’ve done a lot of with ‘Kingsman’. It’s essentially choreography, the trick is making it edgy and like it’s the first time you’ve done it that involves a lot of rehearsal beforehand to make sure you can do it safely and also make it look real. I’ve been hit in the face many times.” — Bang Showbiz

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