'The Witcher: Blood Origin' star Lenny Henry says sign language lessons should be 'mandatory' after performing with deaf co-star Amy Murray
- "The Witcher: Blood Origin" star Sir Lenny Henry said he learned sign language while filming the show.
- In the series, his character's wife is deaf and they communicate using sign language.
"The Witcher: Blood Origin" star Sir Lenny Henry said that sign language lessons should be 'mandatory' after working with co-star Amy Murray.
In the new Netflix prequel series, they play a couple that communicates using sign language because Murray's character Fenrick and the actor herself are both deaf.
In a roundtable interview for the series, which Insider attended, Henry said that while they were acting together, he attempted to learn sign language for their scenes.
"I had to do lots of scenes where she was signing, and I don't sign," he said. "So there was quite a lot of laughing as she was saying things, and I was missing my cues because I was fascinated with her fingers, and I wasn't really listening to what the interpreter was saying. I was trying to figure it out for myself because [his character Balor was] supposed to be able to understand sign language, so it was very difficult."
He continued: "We live in a world where signing should be a language that's mandatory at school."
Henry said that Murray taught him how to sign his name and a couple of rude words in sign language. He said that his co-star inspired a character in his new kid's book "The Book of Legends," which was released earlier this year.
"It was inspired by Amy," he said. "One of the kids is deaf. He's called Brown, and he's deaf, and he signs all the way through, and there's a page for signing in the book."
In a later roundtable, the series showrunner Declan De Barra said that he deliberately wrote Fenrick as a deaf character because he believes everyone should be represented in fantasy stories.
"I wanted that world deliberately to reflect our world," He said. "I've got queer friends, disabled friends, friends of every race, and that's how I interact with my world. So it felt natural to me to write that."
"The Witcher: Blood Origin" premieres on Netflix on December 25.