'A Quiet Place' Actress Millicent Simmonds To Star As Disability Rights Activist Helen Keller In Biopic

A Quiet Place actress Millicent Simmonds will portray deaf, blind, and disability rights activist Helen Keller in the upcoming biopic film, Helen & Teacher. The film will follow Keller's life as a young adult during the early 1900s while pursuing higher education at Radcliffe College of Harvard University.

According to PEOPLE, she was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Born in 1880 in Alabama, she lost her sight and hearing after an illness at just two years old. With guidance from her tutor Anne Sullivan she began communicating through sign language and also learned to read and write in braille, touch-lip read, and speak. She graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College in 1904 and ended up becoming a world-renowned author, speaker, educator, and activist. Keller retired from public life in 1961 and died in 1968 at age 87 after suffering a stroke. 

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Millicent Simmonds is a distant cousin of Keller’s and will be playing the activist on screen. The plot of the film will shed light on Keller’s tumultuous time at Radcliffe College when her rapidly expanding worldview and sexual awakening bring her into direct conflict with her conservative translator, Anne Sullivan. In the upcoming biopic, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star Rachel Brosnahan will play Sullivan.

Helen & Teacher is based on the original screenplay by Laetitia Mikles and Wash Westmoreland, in consultation with a team at the Helen Keller National Center for Youth and Adults. Writer-director Wash Westmoreland is an acclaimed filmmaker whose previous film Still Alice earned Julianne Moore the best actress award at the Oscars. He told the outlet, “Most people only know of Helen Keller’s story from when she was a child. Helen & Teacher will look at her as a young adult when she developed a radical, world-changing political voice. Today, when some TikTok threads dispute Helen Keller’s achievements and even her existence, it is time for a film that shows her relevance, her brilliance and her unbreakable spirit.”

Cornerstone will take care of international sales and distribution. “We are looking forward to reintroduce one of the most famous teacher-student relationships in modern history,” said Cornerstone’s Alison Thompson and Mark Gooder. “The lifelong work on disability rights by these two remarkable women paved the way for future generations. What better way to do it than with this talented creative team.”

Principal photography on Helen & Teacher is slated to begin in 2022, with a release date yet to be announced.