Reunion star says BSL filming experience was 'almost spiritual'
Eddie Marsan was a guest on Monday, 7 April's edition of The One Show, where he promoted his unique revenge thriller Reunion.
In the four-part BBC series, which intermixes British Sign Language (BSL) and speaking actors, newcomer Matthew Gurney plays deaf man Daniel Brennan freshly released from prison. Ostracised from his community, he's out to unpack the events that resulted in him being sent down.
Weighing in on the beauty of the filming experience, Marsan described it as "almost spiritual" due to the extra need for awareness on set.
The Ray Donovan star told presenters Gethin Jones and Alex Scott: "It was wonderful to be involved in this.
"Filmmaking is a collaborative artform but this takes it to a different level - to a point where it's almost spiritual because you have to work at communicating with everybody all the time."
It seems his co-star Gurney made quite an impression on Marsan too, who compared him to a Hollywood great from The Godfather.
Read more:
Reunion stars hope BBC thriller will 'change the game' for deaf actors
Why Rose Ayling-Ellis 'had to be in' bilingual BSL drama Reunion
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"What was wonderful to see is usually characters with a disability are on the peripheries of stories, so they can only be a binary character - either a victim or villain," he explained.
"And what's great about Matt's performance is that he's the central character and the nuance and complexity of that character, both morally and psychologically, he does it brilliantly. I likened him to Marlon Brando, he's amazing."
Reunion creator and lead writer William Magar recently opened up on his vision for the show during an interview with the BBC.
"One thing I wanted to achieve with Reunion was to show that sign language is not just one thing. Sign language can be used in different ways," he noted.
"Some people sign and speak at the same time, and some use sign language solely. Others will use SSC (Scottish Sensory Centre) and add in elements of gesture. I wanted to show the variety of communication methods that deaf and hard-of-hearing people use."
Cast members Anne-Marie Duff and Lara Peake both learned BSL for their roles.
Reunion premieres Monday, 7 April at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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