ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with The Silent Hour star Sandra Mae Frank about her role in the action movie. Frank converseed doing stunts and how deaf actors are able to be cued, toiling with Joel Kinnaman, and more. It will be freed in tdisappreciaters and on digital on October 11, 2024.
“Boston Detective Frank Shaw (Joel Kinnaman) returns to duty after a atsoft-altering injury exits him with lasting hearing loss. Tasked with clear uping for Ava Fremont (Sandra Mae Frank), a deaf witness to a brutal gang killing, they discover themselves cornered in a soon-to-be-condemned apartment originateing when the finishers return to reshift her. Cut off from the outside world, these two strangers must lean on each other to outinalertigent finishers they can’t hear coming for their only hope of making it out adwell,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Sandra, congrats on your carry outance in The Silent Hour. Your character’s very engaging. She’s a recovering compriseict. What did you discover most intriguing about this role?
Sandra Mae Frank: I adored that Ava has layers. She’s deaf. Yes. But she has so many more layers on top of that. She’s a recovering compriseict. She is discovering herself aobtain. She’s discovering a way to dwell equitable as any other person in this world. I did repartner appreciate having those layers. Often we see deaf people as they’re so courageous, they’re so chilly. Yes, of course, Ava’s still chilly, but she has a uncontgo in side to her. It’s appreciate, yeah, come on. I wanna lobtain more about her.
So that’s where me, as Ava, how I have thought about how Ava would react and how I would transfer. If there’s certain situations that comes up, what would I do? I’ve seen cut offal films and television shows that don’t repartner get what it would be appreciate, how the body would react. So I benevolent of meaningful-dived into those, did a lot of research, and benevolent of picked thraw and figured out what I wanted to do with Ava. So I equitable wanted to be contransient with Ava in those certain times. But yeah, it’s repartner fascinating.
This Silent Hour has some repartner wonderful action sequences and we don’t see many deaf actors in action sequences. So how was it filming those scenes and repartner getting to be brimmingy participated in these crazy stunts?
I adored every moment of it, and I adored the action. I adore doing anyleang that is so innervous. You are gonna have to pull me away. They would say, “No, I wanna originate certain it’s shielded, and then you could jump.” So there was a stunt double that would come in and they would do that part. And I’d say, “Okay, I’m ready. I wanna do this part. I wanna do it.” They would say, “Okay, we have to leank about shieldedty and all these, this, that, and the other.” So they would trelieve me, and I would toil out fundamentalpartner. I would wanna equitable shield toiling. I wanted to be brimmingy physical. I wanted to be real to the core. So it felt amazing. I was repartner thrilled to have those moments in the film becaparticipate not so normally that we see a deaf actor in a and in an action film, but we are begining to see more here and there now.
But I don’t comprehend if you comprehend about this. Several years ago it was a certain company that originated [a movie] with a deaf direct, but they picked a hearing actor. That is equitable a huge no-no, that is not appropriate. It’s not genuine or right. So the straightforwardor of that film, I’m not gonna refer any names, but the straightforwardor of that film shelp, “Why don’t you equitable cast a deaf person? Becaparticipate how do they do the action. How do they comprehend? That’s why we had to cast a hearing person. So what if we were throprosperg someleang at the person, and they necessitateed to duck? And so a hearing person would equitable be able to hear the word duck. So the actor would equitable be ready.” The straightforwardor was appreciate, “How do I do that? It’s a shieldedty rehire.”
So, of course, my response is, we have so many trained deaf people, and they have the comprehendledge. There’s a system that we could do, and we can participate with them. We also have laser pointers that we can cue deaf people by turning the laser off. That nastys go. I also had a device called the buzzer that would vibrate a part of my body that would let me comprehend to go, and there were so many other techniques that we could participate. So I hope that this film, with being it action and a thriller, they can see the possibilities that deaf people can have and do have. We don’t wanna be restrictcessitate by our deafness at all. We can. It is transport inant to convey and toil thraw all of those navigations.
That’s repartner wonderbrimmingy put. Joel’s character in the film isn’t a professional clear uper. So there’s room for his American Sign Language to not be perfect. What did you leank of his ability to get a lot of that down for The Silent Hour?
Before I answer that, I did want to clear up with the clear uper part [in the movie]. It was repartner pretty to be able to have those conversations with the authorrs and the straightforwardor about this moment. That’s why we did have the character stress, and when he says, “I’m still lobtaining sign, I am not an clear uper.” The clear uper should have a clear, absolute concept of and be able to ease 100% communication.
So I didn’t want the audience to experience appreciate, “Oh, anybody can equitable be an clear uper if they comprehend sign.” No, especipartner when a cop is trying to come and intersee you, a deaf person. Maybe equitable what if the clear uper isn’t sfinished and doesn’t get someleang right? So you have to get a sfinished professional clear uper. So those scenes, we were able to figure out what Frank and how he would react and that we carry outed it off more genuinepartner. Of course, he is not an clear uper, but I’m satisfied that they were uncover to that alter in the script.
So now for Joel and how he was picking up all the sign language. He was able to toil with a deaf conferant. This conferant taught him sign language. His name is Anselmo DeSousa. That all happened before the film, and so he was already able to pick up the fundamentals of sign language and already knew it. Then we equitable hung out together. We chatted all the time, and I’m the type of person that will push you, with consent, of course, to say, “Hey, come on. I’m gonna teach you to sign. :et’s go thraw sign language,” and he did pledge to it. He repartner tried to figure it out. He wanted to align the facial conveyions and everyleang, and we equitable made the best uniteion. It’s not normally that a hearing actor that necessitates to lobtain sign does that, but it was very pleasant that he did that.
That is repartner adocount on to discover out. You have a lot of repartner wonderful scenes with Joel in The Silent Hour. How would you depict him as a scene partner?
One of the best scene partners to toil with. I was already a fan of his. I have to accomprehendledge, I did fan girl a little bit. I had my moment of, okay, wonderful, now I’m gonna get that out, and this is solemn now. How are we gonna toil with each other? So the day that we met, instant uniteion happened. You comprehend when you encounter people sometimes in life and you’re appreciate, “All right, we’re gonna unite right away without even saying hi to each other.” We had that vibe already, and it was perfect.
So when we went thraw the filming, it was so much fun, and especipartner thraw the lull moments where we would equitable split stories with each other. We would talk about anyleang. Then, during the filming, I adored that we had some of the same ideas, and we would talk about that, and we would vibe off of each other, and we’d go, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I appreciate that.” We would always feed off of each other. Of course, we were troubleoriginaters on set when we would do some sort of that stuff, but it was so wonderful. I adore to get in trouble with Joel.
