Sensation. In her first interview, the former soap actress tells Samuel Fishwick this is just the start
who lives a silent life until a social worker, played by Shenton, teaches her how to communicate through sign language.
“We wanted to shine a light on deafness and raise the profile of deafness, but also put that light on the lack of access to education for deaf children,” says Shenton, who has been an ambassador for the National Deaf Children’s Society since 2011, and a patron of the charity dDeaflinks Staffordshire, for which she completed a ten-day fundraising trek across the Great Wall of China.
Qualified in British Sign Language, in 2014 she was cast in the American teen drama Switched at Birth, playing a student teacher who was fluent in sign language (a whole episode was also conducted entirely in American Sign Language while she was cast). “Millions of children all over the world live in silence, failed by education. In the film, Libby’s family is middle class and refuse to let her learn sign language, limiting her to lip reading at school. But, Shenton says, “it can happen in upper-class families, middle-class families, lowerclass families. These issues are universal, and they don’t discriminate — there’s a lack of awareness whatever your background.”
On discrimination, she says her own black Suzanne Neville dress was not entirely in solidarity with the Time’s Up movement. “I just love black — it’s flattering,” she says. But she does see International Women’s Day as “a celebration”. “Everyone — men and women — were saddened by all the stories that were coming out from the #MeToo campaign. It seemed like it was another day, another story. But I actually think from that a positive thing has happened, and it really does feel that times are changing. We had the first female cinematographer this year — and as much as that’s crazy in 2018, it does feel that we’ve turned a corner.”
Diversity, she says, is, however, about more than race and gender. “It’s really important to remember that disability is diversity, and that disabled actors and disabilities are something that is hugely underrepresented in film.”
NOT all men dominate the Oscars, as Overton had to talk over the exit music. “The autocue was flashing at me, ‘Get Off!’, and when the music starts playing you’re really in trouble. But the most important thing for me was Rachel, and thanking her. It really was her determination that drove us — me and the whole team.” They raised £10,000 to make the film via an Indiegogo fundraiser. “The writing, the fundraising and 12 years of work went into this film. It starts and ends with her. But we’d have worked on it for another decade. This had to get made.”
The story is personal for Shenton. “My dad lost his hearing very suddenly when I was 12, becoming profoundly deaf. As I said in my acceptance speech, it’s a silent disability. For me, I can understand that it’s so easy to go through life not quite registering this world around you, one where everyday things from car horns to telephone calls are taken for granted. But it gave me the impetus to learn sign language and I fell in love with it and the deaf community.” Her late father, she says, would have been proud.
The Hollyoaks-Hollywood connection ran strong this year. Shenton played Mitzeee Minniver in the Channel 4 soap, where she met Overton, AKA the cage fighter character Liam McAllister. “We owe a lot to that show”, says Shenton. “I’m extremely proud of Hollyoaks. No one could be flying the flag more happily. What I think is that it’s an excellent training ground, especially for actors who are starting out, because the schedules are so thick and fast, you have to adapt. It’s a really good way to learn your craft. I wouldn’t have met Chris if it wasn’t for Hollyoaks.”
Overton proposed to her a week before they started filming — “We’re private people, so I’m not going to go into details” — although there’s no date for the wedding. Instead, they’re focusing on turning their short film into a full feature after a holiday. As for Maisie, Shenton wants to teach the world to talk to her. “Everybody should learn sign language, or at least, ‘Hello, do you need help? How are you?’” That, she says, would break the silence.
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