Word: deafness
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Rinko Kikuchi's breakthrough performance as Chieko, a deaf-mute teenager in Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel, was so convincing that co-star Cate Blanchett at first assumed the 26-year-old Japanese actress really couldn't speak. It's the kind of talent that has propelled Kikuchi from obscurity to an Oscar nomination-the first for a Japanese actress in 49 years. Kikuchi talks to Time's Michiko Toyama about Babel, isolation and her newfound fame...
...Amores Perros and 21 Grams and loved them. When I learned he was to make a movie in Japan, I thought it would be his first and last here. I spent about a year auditioning and learning sign language. I came to make friends with girls that were deaf...
...Apparently, there was a lot of uncertainty about whether you'd get the part. Alejandro told me he would give me the role only a week before shooting began, which if I think about it now is quite amazing. [Laughs.] He initially wanted a real deaf girl for the role of Chieko. I fully understood that, but I was also trying to find what I could bring into the role as an actress. I was constructing the character of Chieko, feeling how she would have felt...
...such “drop in the ocean” objections often fall on deaf ears...
...Kikuchi: I spent about a year auditioning and learning sign language, I came to make friends with girls that were deaf. More importantly, as I was given the script scene by scene for the audition, I was constructing the character of Chieko feeling how she would have felt...