This week, we are highlighting the work of Sophie Woolley, who recently starred in the incredibly popular Netflix hit, Bridgerton. Sophie expands on her experience as Lady Stowell and the ways BSL and fingerspelling was brought to life from the 1800s. Additionally, Sophie shares some of her advice to those who might be apprehensive about pursuing a career in the creative sphere. Be sure to carry on reading for more information:
- Hi Sophie, first, could you introduce yourself to our Signature weekly readers?
I’m an actor, writer, comedian, and director. I am currently in Bridgerton Season 3, out now on Netflix, playing Lady Stowell, the Deaf, aristocratic mother of a hearing debutante. I am so proud of the show!
- Can you tell us a bit more about where your passion for writing and acting derived from. Was there anyone in particular who inspired you?
I was a writer and performer from a very young age.
I went to state school in Brent in London. Harlesden Primary School teachers encouraged me to act and write, but not my secondary school. In my 20s I got back into writing and performing again.
At the same time as I was going deaf, I was inspired by the clubs I went to, to write about nightlife culture. I was performing my characters in clubs, pubs, and festivals. I wrote a regular, satirical column as a fictional DJ’s girlfriend. “D.J. Bird” for Sleaze Nation Magazine.
I wrote this alter ego under a pen name, so I really relate to Bridgerton’s Lady Whistledown/Penelope storyline, as well as my Lady Stowell character! I also performed the D.J Bird character live. The popularity of the column gave me confidence to continue, and I poured everything into my writing and performing work. I got into theatre and a TV director spotted me performing in one of my stage plays and I was cast in Channel 4 mock documentary, Cast Offs.
I was also very inspired by TV comedians Kathy Burke, Lenny Henry, Steve Coogan, Julia Davis, Chris Morris, and the Smack the Pony comedians. Later, I wrote a BBC radio 4 play and a sitcom starring two of them, Doon Mackinchan and Sally Phillips. It was amazing to write scripts my heroes performed, even if I could not hear them when they aired. I also acted in other radio 4 plays myself.
Another hero was my own mum, Maggie Woolley, who trained and worked as an actor and presented See Hear, a Deaf TV show on the BBC. She was later CEO at Shape.
- How was your experience of being deaf influenced your approach to acting and writing?
I come from a proud Deaf family, and we use SSE and some BSL. Mum traced back our deaf ancestors for seven generation, to the 1700s. We are born hearing and go deaf from childhood and teenage years. I am almost totally deaf in both ears, and I got a cochlear implant in 2013.
Sometimes my work includes BSL or SSE, sometimes not. It also centres creative captioning. Due to progressive deafness, I have been many different types of Deaf person over the last 32 years of being Deafened. I performed a big solo show about becoming a Deaf Cyborg just before the first lockdown. It’s a moving, powerful sci-fi comedy with stunning projected creative captions.
After that I did some archive research about Deaf and disabled people in history, and loved imagining what it was like to be Deaf back then. Playing Lady Stowell on Bridgerton felt like the next step, it was incredible to immerse in 1815 on all of those detailed sets and beautiful historical locations! It’s an amazing world to be a part of.
Camilla Arnold, our consultant from The Deaf Set, led our retro fingerspelling. In the UK the British manual alphabet was spready by deaf educationalists in Scotland and London before and during the 1800s. Of course, there is no film footage from back then, so we used some licence too. Camila showed us archive materials and rehearsed us to use discreet fingerspelling of whole words and sentences with minimal mouth shapes, and occasional modern BSL signs, but with a smaller, more formal signing space. The Stowell’s grammar used more English grammar than modern BSL, which has its own distinct grammar.
It’s not one of the Stowell moments that people are sharing online but one example of using my own deaf experience in Bridgerton is a scene in episode 8 of Bridgerton. Queen Charlotte and Penelope make dramatic revelatory speeches ay the butterfly ball. The Stowell’s are but a small part of that huge scene, and I am grateful to Tom Verica for giving us the space to ad lib our Deaf mum and hearing daughter response during the speech, supported by Camilla. It felt authentic to show Lady Stowell missing information. Lady Stowell receives some bits from her daughters fingerspelled paraphrasing, and backchannels and comments to Miss Stowell during the speeches.
I could reply more about my other work, but Bridgerton is such a wonderful show, it feels right to focus on that today.
- What are some of the biggest misconceptions about deafness that you have personally encountered in the entertainment industry?
My experience on Bridgerton was positive all the way through and everyone’s attitudes were welcoming and open. What Shonda Rhimes herself and Shondaland has done for diversity in all its forms in TV cannot be understated. Also, I understand an exec producer Sarah Fischer, and 1 in 4 Coalition advised on designing the Deaf and disabled characters in season 3 of Bridgerton. Our characters are interwoven with the story, just like we are in real life.
TV and film culture is the biggest influence on how everyone thinks of us as Deaf people. Whatever we show on screen will influence the basic attitudes and beliefs society has toward Deaf people. In the past, there were some misconceptions and tropes on other TV shows. Now that more Deaf people are working across the board in TV, this is improving.
Thanks to Rose Ayling Ellis’s advocacy and campaigning work as well as her brilliant work in Eastenders and Strictly Come Dancing, the industry has been more inspired and motivated to work with more Deaf people. There has been a huge shift in attitudes in TV and beyond. We have to keep pushing.
- What key pieces of advice would you give to someone who is apprehensive about pursuing their passion for writing and acting, deaf or hearing?
Make your own work. If you don’t like to write, you can devise and improvise. Make an ambition plan for where you want to get to and what steps to get there. Keep in touch with people you meet. Invite them to things.
Find your own way to manage your fears and apprehensions so they don’t overshadow your passion and the time you have available to do your work. A creative career happens step by step. There are ups and downs. Things happen very slowly, then very fast, then slowly again. There is a lot of rejection, and you have to work hard to believe in yourself and be kind to yourself.
Get some training, some technique and continue to polish your craft.
- How did it feel to get the Bridgerton role of Lady Stowell. What are some of your highlights from filming?
I was so excited! I couldn’t be more proud of Bridgerton Season 3. When I got the role of Lady Stowell, I felt a great sense of responsibility for the Deaf representation. Bridgerton is high end TV, watched and loved by so many people globally, including deaf people. So, it felt like a creative opportunity to show a bit of British Deaf history.
I asked the producers to recruit a consultant to suit the production, via The Deaf Set. Camilla Arnold was perfect as she already knew and loved Bridgerton, so she was really on it right away, creatively, and tonally. On the shoot, Camilla sat behind the monitors, and came on set to make adjustments, and monitored the rushes and checked subtitles on the final scenes in the edit phase.
Another highlight was working with Kitty Devlin (Miss Stowell). I will never forget our first face to face meeting, the explosion of positive energy she brought into my trailer on location was joyous and uplifting. We soon became close friends. Kitty is so talented. Her portrayal of Dolores Stowell was funny and marvellous storytelling. It was a lovely mother-daughter double act to play with.
It’s hard to pick a highlight on a shoot like Bridgerton!
Spending days and nights in lovely makeup, regency dresses, and wigs, was just as fun as you might imagine. It was a highlight to meet showrunner Jess Brownell, and to work with directors, Andrew Ahn, Tricia Brook, Tom Verica, Billie Woodruff and the whole cast and crew, and their crafts people, every one of them so highly skilled, the production values so high.
Kitty had to dance on the first day with Luke Thompson, who plays Benedict Bridgerton, and he was lovely and made sure we felt included from day one. Everyone did in fact.
Lady Stowell and her daughter, Miss Stowell
- What has been a personal highlight of your career, from your script writing to your acting?
Bridgerton is up there at number one right now in my top three career highlights for sure! As an artist I always want to work with good people and good stories, and so as long as I’m doing that, the highlights will keep coming.
- Here at Signature, we are incredibly excited about the prospect of a BSL GCSE. What are your opinions on this qualification and is this something you wish you had access to during your time in education?
Yes. There is a gap in BSL lessons for children and young people who go deaf later on. There are courses for parents of newborn deaf children or for adults, however, there is limited information for teenagers who go deaf but are not at deaf schools.