The Silent Hourfollows two strangers who must work together in order to outsmart killers who are hot on their tail. When Boston Detective Frank Shaw (Joel Kinnaman) returns to duty after a career-altering injury leaves him with permanent hearing loss, he is tasked with interpreting for Ava Fremont (Sandra Mae Frank), a deaf witness to a brutal gang murder. They find themselves cornered in a soon-to-be-condemned apartment building as the killers hunt them down.
Sandra Mae Frank has starred in several other films, includingThe Sound of FearandSoul to Keep,and was aseries regular onNew Amsterdam. She enjoys being able to represent the Deaf community on screen, as well as in theater.The Silent Hourcomes to theaters and will be available on digital October 11.
Watch An Exciting Trailer For Joel Kinnaman’s New Action Thriller The Silent Hour
Exclusive: Screen Rant debuts trailer for The Silent Hour, starring For All Mankind’s Joel Kinnaman, Sandra Mae Frank, Mekhi Phifer, and Mark Strong.
Screen Rantinterviewed Sandra Mae Frank to discuss what drew her to the role of Ava inThe Silent Hour. She reveals how much fun she had on set withJoel Kinnamanand how the two of them instantly connected. Frank also compares her work in theater to her work in films and television, admitting that she loves them both for different reasons.
Several Key Things Drew Sandra Ma Frank To The Role Of Ava In The Silent Hour
“I don’t like an acting role where it’s so focused on only being able to hear or not hear.”
Screen Rant: What was it about Ava that made you want to play her?
Sandra Mae Frank: First of all, when I read that it was an action thriller, that is my thing. I am so passionate about this. This is what I love. And the movie is not focused on her being deaf. It’s just something about her. It’s more than just what she is. And I love that aspect. I don’t like an acting role where it’s so focused on only being able to hear or not hear. It’s not about that in this movie. So in this film, my character has a more in-depth layer.
She is deaf, yes, of course, but she’s also a recovering addict, and that was fascinating for me to research prior and learning as much as I could about that and how I could portray that. That was another layer. Yes, of course, she struggles with being able to communicate, but she kind of navigates through that within her daily life anyways. So it was very fascinating to me to build more and more layers. And there was a lot of action stuff involved too, which I enjoyed so much.
Screen Rant: Speaking of all the action, did you do your own stunts?
Sandra Mae Frank: Oh yes, but we did have a wonderful stunt team that was there and wow, they were great. They made sure everything was safe. They had an A to Z list of making sure that there was no miscommunication that happened. I did most of the stunts, but there were maybe two or three that had to have a true professional double fill in for me. They would teach me and give me feedback of how to perform some of the stunts, and they would see what I would do, and they would want to know what I could do, and so they would see my limits, and they’d be, ah, no, she could do more.
So they were very cautious about safety. And I learned a lot as well. Of course, I’ve done some short film action roles, a little bit here and there, but full-length feature film of just action, like this, The Silent Hour, for example, with a high intensity and energy and physicalness, I’ve never done that. I just loved every moment of it, and I soaked it all in.
“We would kind of have spats with each other and tease each other, and then we would run off together.”
Screen Rant: Can you talk about working with Joel Kinnaman?
Sandra Mae Frank: The second we met, we connected immediately, without saying hi or anything, when we looked at each other. Some people, you just know when you first see them that you’re going to get along great. That was me and Joel. He is one of those actors that he had to learn the translations of my lines. He’s not one of those actors that is like, I’m just going to learn how to translate the lines. That’s it. No, he was so passionate about learning it. He’s not fluent. Of course, that takes a few more years, and his character is not supposed to be fluent in sign, but in real life, he was portraying what his character would do.
He would not be able to be fluent, but he was able to communicate the basics. I had interpreters on set, but most of the time I would say, Nah, go ahead and take a break. I’m going to talk with Joel. So we did have interpreters the entire time, but I didn’t need to rely on them. I was able to talk to Joel just one on one. We would kind of have spats with each other and tease each other, and then we would run off together. It was such a great experience with Joel. It was so great.
Sandra Mae Frank Hopes Viewers Take Two Big Things Away From The Silent Hour
She hopes that viewers take away that there is a spectrum of deafness and that they learn not to underestimate deaf people.
Screen Rant: What do you hope that people take away from this movie?
Sandra Mae Frank: Two big things to understand. That there is a spectrum of deafness. There is deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing loss. There’s cultural deafness and not cultural deafness, or just not involved. There’s different variations of people. I want people to understand Ava is very much in the Deaf community, and Frank is not. It doesn’t mean that he can’t pick it up and be involved, but he’s just not a culturally Deaf person. How do those two worlds look like together and what is their parallel?
Secondly, I hope that people don’t underestimate deaf people. They can take care of themselves. They can save themselves. They don’t need it. The world is audio, and so for myself, being Deaf, I have to accommodate to the world. I kind of feel like I survived better than some hearing people in certain situations. Sometimes they might not be able to figure it out. So it makes me think, who’s the one that actually has the limitations?
I hope that people will able to understand that and have a little bit more of an open mindness and respect and understanding, and also learn little basics of sign. You never know who you’re going to bump into. “Hi. How are you?” is so small, but it is so heartwarming to see.
Sandra Mae Frank Loves Working In Both Theater & Movies
“I like being able to toggle between both worlds. I want to be able to keep doing both.”
Screen Rant: I know that you have a background in theater as well. So can you talk about the differences between performing theater and filming a movie?
Sandra Mae Frank: One thing I love about theater is that start to end, there is no stop. There is no pauses. There is no redo. It’s just life in the moment and you may’t replace that feeling. It’s big, it’s loud. But with film, if you mess up, you might be able to do it again, playing with the different angles, and the framing, and the sign language is so small as well. There’s different ways you can move the camera. So thinking of things like moving your hair to get those exact moments that you need, that’s what I like thinking about it.
And when it’s all said and done and finished, I like being able to see myself. I do enjoy it, but sometimes it does make me go, oh. There is two different aspects of it. I like being able to toggle between both worlds. I want to be able to keep doing both. I was doing a project right before filming The Silent Hour. I was in Cinderella. I was the lead actress in Cinderella in a play. It was a musical, and one week later, they had moved me to this film, and so I had to turn off my all of my senses and change roles. So it’s great to have that different direction to go to.
More About The Silent Hour (2024)
Boston Detective Frank Shaw (Joel Kinnaman) returns to duty after a career-altering injury leaves him with permanent hearing loss. Tasked with interpreting for Ava Fremont (Sandra Mae Frank), a deaf witness to a brutal gang murder, they find themselves cornered in a soon-to-be-condemned apartment building when the killers return to eliminate her. Cut off from the outside world, these two strangers must lean on each other to outsmart killers they can’t hear coming for their only hope of making it out alive.
The Silent Hourcomes to theaters and digital on October 11.
The Silent Hour
Cast
The Silent Hour is directed by Brad Anderson and follows a hearing-impaired police detective who must protect a deaf murder witness from a group of criminals in her apartment building while working as an interpreter on the case.
