When he was in the process of making A Quiet Place, director John Krasinski insisted on casting deaf actress Millicent Simmonds to play the role of a deaf person. Among other reasons, one of his main ones for doing so was, by having someone on-set who actually knew what it was like to live as a deaf person, he and by extension the production at large would gain a better understanding of it and how to portray it. As a result, Simmonds’ knowledge not only helped shape what the film would eventually become, but also helped highlight just how fucking brilliant her performance was all on its own. I bring all of this up because, if that production is an example of the right way to go about such things, The Silence is an example of the wrong way to do it.
