Avenged filmmaker defends decision not to use deaf actress as his lead

Filmmaker Michael Ojeda has defended his decision to cast Amanda Adrienne as a deaf rape victim seeking revenge in his new film Avenged, insisting a real hearing-impaired actress would have been at risk during action scenes. Ojeda tells WENN he was considering a deaf leading lady but when she turned the role down, he asked Adrienne to play Zoe in his gruesome new horror film.
And he’s glad he did, explaining, “There’s so much action in the film, it wouldn’t have worked. When you’re doing fight choreography, your reactions and timing are based on your opponent’s shouting, so you don’t get hit. It really wouldn’t have been logical to have a deaf girl playing the role because it was so action intensive; she would have got hurt.
“Amanda is a great performer and she studied at a school for the deaf and observed the students there and she nailed it. I was blessed to find her.”
In the gory new film, Adrienne’s deaf character is possessed by the spirit of an Apache warrior who helps her wreak revenge on the thugs who abducted and raped her and then left her for dead.