Meet: Rose Ayling-Ellis, star of BBC’s Summer of Rockets

By Rebecca-Anne Withey.

Hi Rose, I remember meeting you on an NDCS filming weekend a decade ago where you showed great promise as an actress – did this event inspire you to become an actress or did you always have this desire?

Thank you, that was a while ago now when I was 15 years old.

I knew that I wanted to work within the creative industry since I was very young. When I met you I was in the middle of my GCSEs deciding what to do next. I wanted to go to art college but wasn’t sure what I wanted to study but thought animation could be an option.

My amazing mum found out about a National Deaf Children’s Society filming weekend and encouraged me to go. It turned out I didn’t enjoy filming as such, it was too slow and technical for me, so I had a go at acting. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

At the time I was quite shy at school so I had never got involved with any performing, the thought of getting up on stage in front of the whole school made me feel physically sick! However in the privacy of my own home, growing up I was always the one who would put on a show and entertain the family.

I think through Art or performance I found a way to communicate and express my feelings visually.

The filming weekend was where I found a belief in myself and also where I met the film director Ted Evans who later asked me to play a part in his short film, The End.

Where did you decide to train as an actress or where did you learn most of your acting techniques from?

After coming back from filming The End, I realised that I’d fallen in love with acting so much and wanted to do more. I’d already decided that I was going to art college at this point. Acting was more of a hobby then. I hadn’t seen many deaf actors on screen so it never occurred to me that I could make a living from it.

I joined the Deafinately Youth Theatre and a year later moved up to the adult group. Through them I attended many valuable workshops run by different theatre companies. Without the group it would have been impossible to fund myself or also access the workshops as many are not accessible for deaf actors. One of the most memorable was a workshop run by Scott Williams on the Meisner technique with taught me a lot. I also learn a lot of my acting techniques on the job and am continually learning.

What have been your biggest challenges as an actress who is deaf?

The biggest challenge is trying to get the industry to see me as “an actress” rather than a “deaf actress.” It would be great for more roles to be written where the deafness isn’t part of the story line, but they just happen to be deaf.

Luckily I have a wonderful agent that is passionate about this. We are both aware of how huge the challenge is, she has been sending me to auditions that are not specifically for a deaf character. This has also given me the opportunity to get to meet different directors and casting directors etc.

Can you tell us what productions you have been involved in?

My first paid job was a Radio play called Early Warning by Richard Monks. I have performed in BSLBT productions The End (by Ted Evans) and Reverberations (by Samuel Dore.) I have done a number of research and development workshops with theatres such as The Lyric and National Theatre. I performed in Casualty and flew out to Berlin to perform in The Vamps music video, Middle of the Night.

Last summer I filmed for Stephen Poliakoff’s drama Summer of Rockets. Up to that point I did not have an agent but this introduced me to my agent and since then I got a part in my first theatre production playing Kattrin in a modern adaptation of Mother Courage at the Royal exchange Theatre, Manchester.

What has been your favourite or most memorable production, and why?

Ever since starting acting I have been told by other actors that you don’t really properly get to perform until you have done Theatre. I didn’t understand what they meant until I did Mother Courage, I now get it! I discovered a lot about myself and what my body and emotions can go through whilst performing. You start the play in character and stay in character right through until the end for 2 hours. Nothing can quite add up to that experience.

Don’t get me wrong I do love filming, the subtleties of it and playing around with the smallest of emotions that the camera cannot hide. Summer of Rockets was an experience I will never forget, I got to wear the most amazing costumes from the 1950s and the whole cast and crew were lovely people and great to work with. After a couple of weeks pretty much everyone had learnt how to say good morning in BSL.

The BBC production Summer of Rockets was a great success with viewers. How similar do you think you are to the character you played – Esther – and what did you do to get into character?

Esther is very positive and enjoys life as much as she can, she loves to party! That’s pretty much like me. However, she’s quite a dark horse and life was tough, especially in those times. She hides her inner emotions and no one knows how she feels towards her mother who is never home, or how frustrated she is with being deaf. She brushes it off and gets on with life or pretends to be okay. Yet she’s very interested in how others live their lives and is very nosey!

Esther and myself are worlds apart due to living in different eras. After researching what life was like for deaf people in the 1950’s it made me realise how much has changed for the better in terms of technology and society.

Sometimes it was a challenge to get into character when the filming was separated by weeks but once the costumes and wigs were on I really didn’t look like myself and that helped bring Esther out.

What were your high and low points about working on this huge BBC production?

Every time I turned up on set it was magical, you just didn’t know what was going to happen. One day 8 donkeys turned up and the next day 100 professional dancers turned up. The locations were unexpected too, a castle in the middle of nowhere or a huge prison.

The most difficult part of filming was all the waiting around, it’s such a normal part of the job sometimes you’d be ready to start acting and then be told to wait for 2 hours. It was tiring and then you’d have to motivate yourself.

What are your aspirations as an actress?

To be able to gain a platform from where I could make changes for deaf people.

What advice would you give to young budding actors and actresses who are deaf and would love to act, but don’t know where to start?

Do apply for that advert that you’ve seen, even if you think you’re not good enough, don’t put yourself down. Don’t be disheartened if you get rejection, it’s part of the actors life. Just don’t give up.

Sometimes you don’t get paid for your first acting job, but never underestimate how useful it is to gain experience and network. You never know who you are going to meet or where things may lead. Do look at Deafinitely Theatre website and see what you would be interested in and apply!

Summer of Rockets can be viewed via BBC iplayer https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p078h648/summer-of-rockets