Millicent Simmonds and Rachel Brosnahan have been cast in the upcoming Helen Keller biopic, Helen & Teacher.
The film will be directed by Wash Westmoreland, from a script written by him and Laetitia Mikles, with Simmonds playing Deafblind trailblazer Keller and Brosnahan as her translator and companion Anne Sullivan.
The film will follow Keller’s time at Radcliffe College of Harvard University in the early 1900s, when her expanding view of the world puts her in contact with Sullivan, a far more conservative woman whose friendship with Helen is soon threatened when she begins a courtship with young publisher John Macy.
This casting will make Simmonds the first deaf actress to play Keller on screen, with able-bodied actors having portrayed her up until now, with Patty Duke notably winning an Oscar for her performance in 1962’s The Miracle Worker.
That film is a prime example of most movies about Keller covering only her childhood, so it will be interesting to see her as an adult developing a political voice. Helen & Teacher is being produced in consultation with the Helen Keller National Center for Youth and Adults, and production is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2022.
Simmonds is still a teenager and is currently best known for her roles in A Quiet Place and its sequel, while she had a two season arc on Disney comedy-drama series Andi Mack, as well as an appearance on This Close, a dramedy series written by and starring deaf creators.
Brosnahan is best known for her award-winning lead role in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but she also starred in 2020 crime thriller I’m Your Woman and historical spy thriller The Courier.
She’s currently filming Walter Hill‘s western Dead For A Dollar, which also stars Christoph Waltz and Willem Dafoe.
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