Lauren Ridloff on Entertainment Weekly cover
Deaf actress Lauren Ridloff is on the cover of “Entertainment Weekly” in her role in the upcoming Marvel film, “Eternals.” The film will be released in theaters November 5. Ridloff’s character is Makkari.
It is the second time in a couple of weeks that there are deaf actors on the cover of a Hollywood-area magazine, with the first one being the actors of “CODA.”
Ridloff’s cover is one of 10 special edition covers.
The EW article said the film director, Chloé Zhao, preferred to film on location instead of filming in front of blue screens in studios.
One of the locations is at a rugged location in the Canary Islands. You can see Makkari (Ridloff) on the left in the red-gray outfit.
Ridloff told EW that she’s the first deaf hero to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but she won’t be last, pointing to Deaf actress Alaqua Cox, who will be on a new Disney+ series called “Hawkeye.”
Ridloff explained that the character of Makkari was originally created (in comics) as a white male, but the film role swaps the gender. Ridloff said it was so interesting how they considered her, a “woman, black, deaf” to play this role.
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CNET explained in an article that Ridloff was on a virtual panel yesterday hosted by “The 19th” in which she said she hopes to use her platform to raise more awareness about deaf communities around the world. She is predicting that her role will have a massive impact because there is a global audience that follows the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Ridloff became a breakout deaf actress when she was on Broadway for a remake of “Children of a Lesser God” in 2018. She then became a recurring character on “The Walking Dead” as Connie.