John Krasinski fought for a deaf actress Millicent Simmonds to be cast in ‘A Quiet Place’ and she taught everyone sign language on set

John Krasinski fought for a deaf actress Millicent Simmonds to be cast in ‘A Quiet Place’ and she taught everyone sign language on set

Millicent Simmonds (Wonderstruck) delivers a powerful performance as part of a family trying to survive in utter silence. Like her character Regan Abbott, the actress is deaf in real life.

“We always had a deaf character in the script, but John really pushed for them to hire Millicent,” says Quiet Place co-screenwriter Scott Beck. “She came to set and taught everyone sign language. It was really amazing and brought an extra depth to the film.”

Beck penned the script with longtime friend Bryan Woods, and the duo share a credit with Krasinski.

“The kernel of the idea came to us when we were in college. We were making microbudget films and studying film history,” recalls Woods, who has been best friends with Beck since sixth grade. “We fell in love with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and all the things that can be accomplished without sound. We wanted to do a modern-day silent film that lived in the suspense genre.”

A Quiet Place centers on the Abbott family as they live in silence due to an invasion of blind, sound-hunting monsters. The creatures are lightning-fast and heavily armored, leaving little hope of a resistance effort. Krasinski and his real-life wife, Emily Blunt, play parents to two young children: a fearful son with emotional issues (Noah Jupe) and a frustrated, deaf daughter (Simmonds).

“After we landed on the concept, we had to define how people interacted in that world. How do you survive without sound?” says Woods. “The most important part of the film outside of its concept is the family and its issues. In our minds, the issues predate the monster event.”