BBC Radio Transcript -: Aleena Naylor / Emily Howlett 29/07/2010
ALEENA NAYLOR
I’m not going to beat about the bush and I’m certainly not going to take any credit but my guest in the next half hour is just phenomenal. So unassuming, so lovely, but such an engaging listen. She’s from Derby and she has pursued her dream to become an actress. A little bit later on; how she was persuaded against it as a teenager. She also happens to be profoundly deaf, and I have to admit… When I went to do the interview with her she’d emailed me and said, “Well, look, I lip-read and I do have pretty good speech so we wont need an interpreter to ork through.”
I’m thinking, “Hmmm will this be good enough though? Will there be too much of a delay, too much confusion? Will I be a clear enough speaker for her to lip-read me correctly? Surely she’s not going to beable to pick up on everything I’m saying?”
In fact I couldn’t actually believe I was sitting there with someone profoundly deaf and communicating with her as if she wasn’t! But that’s just part of the story. She’ll tell us more about her life, her career change… And I guess we’ll just get a flavour of who Emily Howlett is.
She’s a rather special young woman who I just happened to point my microphone in the direction of. And I’ve a very funny feeling you’ll be able to say you heard about her here first...
Right, she’s 26, and she always wanted to be an actress but Emily Howlett was persuaded to follow her other passion – horses. So, after studying at Broomfield School she went on to become a head groom but the acting bug had bitten and wouldn’t let go, so Emily decided to follow her dream a couple of years ago. Not an easy profession for anyone to break into at any age but when you are profoundly deaf the obstacles become even more apparent. So when I went to visit her I started by asking her about her hearing loss…
EMILY HOWLETT
Well, basically I could hear pretty well normally until I was about four and then I stopped paying attention in the classroom and got sent off to the hospital for hearing tests and fitted with hearing aids. But the hearing aids were good enough that I could go to normal school and everything like that. Which is how I learned to speak; by carrying on and living as a hearing person. But it went downhill from the age of four and then about six years ago both ears went. Pfft! While I was driving to Tescos. (both laugh) One went first and then the other went.
AN
And you actually had like an explosion or…?
EH
Not even anything as exciting as that, it was literally; “Ooh, hang on…me hearing’s gone a bit funny”…the little bit that I had left… and by the time I pulled up at Tescos there was nothing. It kind of went all bubbly. Five minutes to Tescos and I pulled into the car-park and there was nothing left.
AN
Were you not frightened? Scared?
EH
No, I didn’t think it was forever. I thought maybe I’d got an infection or something and the other one had done it a bit more slowly, the other ear. So, I thought it wasn’t long-term. Turned out it was, but, um, it was (sighs)… because I’d gone slightly deafer over three years anyway, well, it’s not as if I had perfect hearing and then one day woke up without it. It wasn’t scary at the time; it was more scary six months later.
AN
What had the experts said? What caused your hearing loss?
EH
Nobody really knows. They know it’s genetic because my sister’s had the same problems. Oh yeah, she’s older, went there, did it all before me, you know; been there, done that, got the t-shirt, had the interview… But I am still sort of involved with some of the charities and scientific research. I’m their guinea-pig, to see if they ever find out, obviously what it is, but also if there’s any treatment for it.
AN
We’ve done a lot with The Royal School for the Deaf in Derby and that must have been an option for you? Or was it never considered?
EH
I think it was more because when I was first school-age I had the hearing aids which… they didn’t give me perfect hearing but enough that I could keep up and pretend I was normal. (both laughing) You know…
AN
When it came to choosing a career, a job, you absolutely loved horses?
EH
Yes. I loved horses and I loved acting. I went to sixth form and did drama and they said, “You know, you’re quite good, but you know you’re deaf, don’t you?”
(AN laughs)
I went, “Yeah, I know, I’ve noticed…” But they said, “You know that you’ll really struggle if you try and act? Drama schools won’t take you and people wont want to train you because it’s too much effort.” Nowadays… I’m a bit older and I’d say, “Well you know what? I’m going to prove you wrong.” But I was only eighteen and I was like, “Alright then, I’ll do the other thing that I like, instead.” So I went to horse college at Broomfield Hall which was a good experience and a lot of fun. Basically studying something meant having the best laugh with friends and pretending we were studying at the same time (both laughing)
AN
That is still a difficult area to find work in. But you went to a local stables?
EH
After I left I actually got a job interview in a different county and I found out that through that job I would be doing NVQs which would be further qualifications. I actually rang up the training body and said, “I don’t want to move! I’m only little!”
(AN laughs)
And they found me one right by my home, five minutes away. So I got on my bike and pedalled up there and it was a lady who’d been teaching me to ride about five years earlier. She’d been teaching me for six years and taught me everything that I knew before I went to college… and there I was turning up on her doorstep. Fortunately she gave me the job. I stayed there for five years and had the best time ever. That was where I found my first horse, gorgeous grey Geoffrey.
AN
Oh wow!
EH
Lovely boy. But I haven’t got him anymore… I’ve got a little baby one. They’re easier! I can leave her in a field.
AN
Now, was it at this time you were writing your book?
EH
Yeah, it wasn’t supposed to be a book. At the time it was just when I came home and I was thinking, “I cant believe that really happened” or “That was so funny I have to remember that” or sometimes even just “I’m writing this down so that I can throw it back in their faces one day…” (laughing)
And then it was actually after I’d left the stable that I showed it to someone and she was saying, “Seriously you should put a bit more into this and make it into a book”. Then she sent it to her friend at a publishers and that was that.
AN
Do you know how many people dream of getting a publisher to read their work?
EH
I know! No, it feels quite…surreal. Very surreal. I didn’t even really push it, you know?
AN
Who’s reading it? What feedback are you getting?
EH
I’ve had so many different emails and comments. It’s random people! Since I was in the paper, my picture was in, random people in the street… So nice though. One man said to me that it should be bottled and put on the NHS as an antidote to depression. He hadn’t thought it would be his thing because he’s not a girl, he’s not into horses and he’s not deaf; then he read it, absolutely loved and said, “When’s the next one coming out?”
I said when some more stuff happened to me. (AN laughing)
AN
You’re with Aleena on BBC Radio Derby and I’m with Emily Howlett. We’ll talk a little bit more about her horses but also her move into acting after this on BBC Radio Derby.
Song plays
AH
Back to actress Emily Howlett . We were talking about her being very settled in the career she pursued, that she’d had since school, studying Equine Management and working her way up to head groom at a local yard.
EH
I was running the stables and loving it, but there was also that bit of, “Oh, I’m getting older, there’s this other thing I want to do…” And partly, you know, they said I couldn’t do it and I’d managed to do this job so why couldn’t I do the other? People always say about acting; “It’s this passion I’ve always had and I couldn’t put it to one side” – that is very true. It’s not a career you’d put yourself thorough unless you absolutely had to. But then it’s the same with writing and horses! (laughing)
AN
So how did you go about making the move into acting?
EH
I sent an email to the wrong person!
(both laughing)
No, really! I started, once I’d made the decision that I was going to have a go, sending emails and letters out and I sent an email to the wrong person and it ended up at The Brewhouse in Taunton! A lovely lady there whose since become a brilliant friend of mine, Jane at Firebird Theatre, she emailed me back saying, “You’re in Derby, I’m in Taunton, not a lot I can do for you. But, I’ve got this friend Dorothy Heathcote who lives in Spondon. She’s a world renowned drama trainer and I’m sure she’d like to meet you.” So I basically inflicted myself on Dorothy. She’s massively been my mentor through this, helping me with training, contacts, where to go, and then the next big thing for me was a screen test at the BBC. Since then, she’s been so lovely to me, recommending me and arranging meetings for me, sending me lots of lovely emails when I’m feeling like urgh...
But I’ve met so many people since; for an industry that’s so competitive and harsh, still there are so many lovely people out there who want you to do well. If you make it easy for people to help you then there’s so much out there. I don’t mean, you know, big massive success on screen but just… They’re on your side.
AN
We’ve recently seen The Silence on BBC1 and the central character is played by a deaf actress. Did you audition? Did you get a look in?
(EH laughing)
Were you watching thinking that should be me?
EH
I did get a call for audition but I had a family funeral on the day so I couldn’t go. But the girl who got the part, Genevieve Barr; I’ve been in contact with her recently. She’s running a course for young disabled actors in London, so she’s using what she’s got from The Silence to push that. She seems absolutely lovely. She did such a good job. I can’t ever say, “It should have been me” because she did it so well! Maybe if she’d been appalling (AN laughing) If only… but she’s just too lovely.
AN
Now, how do you get cast, get parts? There can’t be parts for a deaf actress in many things; you have to play a hearing person.
EH
Yeah. It is hard. I mean, it’s so hard in the business anyway to get cast. Even going for a hearing part; there are so many people out there for such few parts. There’s not many deaf parts
AN
What work have you done then?
EH
I’ve done mostly theatre. This year I did some fun outdoor theatre with children in Wales. It was fun but it was also in March!
(AN laughing)
We were doing it at castles in Wales; it was so beautiful, the setting, and lots of audience participation. It was a big challenge but also so much fun.
AN
How do you get round the difficulties? Because for anyone listening now… Your speech is perfect and yet you are profoundly deaf. How do you know your cues? How do you know when you’re speaking, when your scene is? How do you do it?
EH
It’s just really down to the other people I’m working with, more than me, if they’re open to helping me and looking at different ways of doing things. When I was in Wales for example, all of the actions I needed to take a cue from, we made sure it happened in front of me or at the side of me so that I could see what was going on. I’ve been in stage productions before where there’s been someone in the wings going “Do this, do that”. Every production is different. You’ve got to look at it from a different angle. “She can’t hear us, but she can see us, she can feel…” If you’re on camera it’s a lot easier because you can stick someone off the camera and you can see them out of the corner of your eye, so you’re not having to focus on them but they can wave a hand or something. Or go “No, no, stop, stay there!”
(both laughing)
But it’s also other people’s awareness; if I start talking over you just pretend that’s the way we meant it to be, you know…
AN
Would you like to do more television work in this country?
EH
I really would. I think… I do think television is hard for deaf actors. There are a lot of good deaf or inclusive theatre companies around and that’s brilliant, but there’s also definitely a gap on television for deaf and disabled actors. Especially parts where its not actually necessarily relevant; they just are deaf or disabled. That’s not what the story is about, it’s just that character, they’re… I mean, my life is not about me being deaf, it’s just my life. And I happen to be deaf.
AN
Have you got anything in the pipeline? What’s next?
EH
Mostly in the next few weeks I’m script writing… Collaborations going on… Hush, hush, I shan’t say too much! But generally taking on the world…
AN
I don’t doubt that for a second!
Emily Howlett speaking to me from her home there. If you want to find out more about her there is a website: http://www.ehowlett.co.uk//. There’s also details on there of how you can find out about the book that she wrote. She said to me, “My dad says I’m just jammy that I found a publisher so quickly”, but I’ve just posted my order on one of the online sites as I’m intrigued…
Emily Howlett joining me on the programme and I really, really hope that’s not the last time we hear from her… I’ve got a feeling we might be following this young lady’s career really closely, and very, very good luck to her.
I think it was more because when I was first school-age I had the hearing aids which… they didn’t give me perfect hearing but enough that I could keep up and pretend I was normal. (both laughing) You know…
AN
When it came to choosing a career, a job, you absolutely loved horses?
EH
Yes. I loved horses and I loved acting. I went to sixth form and did drama and they said, “You know, you’re quite good, but you know you’re deaf, don’t you?”
(AN laughs)
I went, “Yeah, I know, I’ve noticed…” But they said, “You know that you’ll really struggle if you try and act? Drama schools won’t take you and people wont want to train you because it’s too much effort.” Nowadays… I’m a bit older and I’d say, “Well you know what? I’m going to prove you wrong.” But I was only eighteen and I was like, “Alright then, I’ll do the other thing that I like, instead.” So I went to horse college at Broomfield Hall which was a good experience and a lot of fun. Basically studying something meant having the best laugh with friends and pretending we were studying at the same time (both laughing)
AN
That is still a difficult area to find work in. But you went to a local stables?
EH
After I left I actually got a job interview in a different county and I found out that through that job I would be doing NVQs which would be further qualifications. I actually rang up the training body and said, “I don’t want to move! I’m only little!”
(AN laughs)
And they found me one right by my home, five minutes away. So I got on my bike and pedalled up there and it was a lady who’d been teaching me to ride about five years earlier. She’d been teaching me for six years and taught me everything that I knew before I went to college… and there I was turning up on her doorstep. Fortunately she gave me the job. I stayed there for five years and had the best time ever. That was where I found my first horse, gorgeous grey Geoffrey.
AN
Oh wow!
EH
Lovely boy. But I haven’t got him anymore… I’ve got a little baby one. They’re easier! I can leave her in a field.
AN
Now, was it at this time you were writing your book?
EH
Yeah, it wasn’t supposed to be a book. At the time it was just when I came home and I was thinking, “I cant believe that really happened” or “That was so funny I have to remember that” or sometimes even just “I’m writing this down so that I can throw it back in their faces one day…” (laughing)
And then it was actually after I’d left the stable that I showed it to someone and she was saying, “Seriously you should put a bit more into this and make it into a book”. Then she sent it to her friend at a publishers and that was that.
AN
Do you know how many people dream of getting a publisher to read their work?
EH
I know! No, it feels quite…surreal. Very surreal. I didn’t even really push it, you know?
AN
Who’s reading it? What feedback are you getting?
EH
I’ve had so many different emails and comments. It’s random people! Since I was in the paper, my picture was in, random people in the street… So nice though. One man said to me that it should be bottled and put on the NHS as an antidote to depression. He hadn’t thought it would be his thing because he’s not a girl, he’s not into horses and he’s not deaf; then he read it, absolutely loved and said, “When’s the next one coming out?”
I said when some more stuff happened to me. (AN laughing)
AN
You’re with Aleena on BBC Radio Derby and I’m with Emily Howlett. We’ll talk a little bit more about her horses but also her move into acting after this on BBC Radio Derby.
Song plays
AH
Back to actress Emily Howlett . We were talking about her being very settled in the career she pursued, that she’d had since school, studying Equine Management and working her way up to head groom at a local yard.
EH
I was running the stables and loving it, but there was also that bit of, “Oh, I’m getting older, there’s this other thing I want to do…” And partly, you know, they said I couldn’t do it and I’d managed to do this job so why couldn’t I do the other? People always say about acting; “It’s this passion I’ve always had and I couldn’t put it to one side” – that is very true. It’s not a career you’d put yourself thorough unless you absolutely had to. But then it’s the same with writing and horses! (laughing)
AN
So how did you go about making the move into acting?
EH
I sent an email to the wrong person!
(both laughing)
No, really! I started, once I’d made the decision that I was going to have a go, sending emails and letters out and I sent an email to the wrong person and it ended up at The Brewhouse in Taunton! A lovely lady there whose since become a brilliant friend of mine, Jane at Firebird Theatre, she emailed me back saying, “You’re in Derby, I’m in Taunton, not a lot I can do for you. But, I’ve got this friend Dorothy Heathcote who lives in Spondon. She’s a world renowned drama trainer and I’m sure she’d like to meet you.” So I basically inflicted myself on Dorothy. She’s massively been my mentor through this, helping me with training, contacts, where to go, and then the next big thing for me was a screen test at the BBC. Since then, she’s been so lovely to me, recommending me and arranging meetings for me, sending me lots of lovely emails when I’m feeling like urgh...
But I’ve met so many people since; for an industry that’s so competitive and harsh, still there are so many lovely people out there who want you to do well. If you make it easy for people to help you then there’s so much out there. I don’t mean, you know, big massive success on screen but just… They’re on your side.
AN
We’ve recently seen The Silence on BBC1 and the central character is played by a deaf actress. Did you audition? Did you get a look in?
(EH laughing)
Were you watching thinking that should be me?
EH
I did get a call for audition but I had a family funeral on the day so I couldn’t go. But the girl who got the part, Genevieve Barr; I’ve been in contact with her recently. She’s running a course for young disabled actors in London, so she’s using what she’s got from The Silence to push that. She seems absolutely lovely. She did such a good job. I can’t ever say, “It should have been me” because she did it so well! Maybe if she’d been appalling (AN laughing) If only… but she’s just too lovely.
AN
Now, how do you get cast, get parts? There can’t be parts for a deaf actress in many things; you have to play a hearing person.
EH
Yeah. It is hard. I mean, it’s so hard in the business anyway to get cast. Even going for a hearing part; there are so many people out there for such few parts. There’s not many deaf parts
AN
What work have you done then?
EH
I’ve done mostly theatre. This year I did some fun outdoor theatre with children in Wales. It was fun but it was also in March!
(AN laughing)
We were doing it at castles in Wales; it was so beautiful, the setting, and lots of audience participation. It was a big challenge but also so much fun.
AN
How do you get round the difficulties? Because for anyone listening now… Your speech is perfect and yet you are profoundly deaf. How do you know your cues? How do you know when you’re speaking, when your scene is? How do you do it?
EH
It’s just really down to the other people I’m working with, more than me, if they’re open to helping me and looking at different ways of doing things. When I was in Wales for example, all of the actions I needed to take a cue from, we made sure it happened in front of me or at the side of me so that I could see what was going on. I’ve been in stage productions before where there’s been someone in the wings going “Do this, do that”. Every production is different. You’ve got to look at it from a different angle. “She can’t hear us, but she can see us, she can feel…” If you’re on camera it’s a lot easier because you can stick someone off the camera and you can see them out of the corner of your eye, so you’re not having to focus on them but they can wave a hand or something. Or go “No, no, stop, stay there!”
(both laughing)
But it’s also other people’s awareness; if I start talking over you just pretend that’s the way we meant it to be, you know…
AN
Would you like to do more television work in this country?
EH
I really would. I think… I do think television is hard for deaf actors. There are a lot of good deaf or inclusive theatre companies around and that’s brilliant, but there’s also definitely a gap on television for deaf and disabled actors. Especially parts where its not actually necessarily relevant; they just are deaf or disabled. That’s not what the story is about, it’s just that character, they’re… I mean, my life is not about me being deaf, it’s just my life. And I happen to be deaf.
AN
Have you got anything in the pipeline? What’s next?
EH
Mostly in the next few weeks I’m script writing… Collaborations going on… Hush, hush, I shan’t say too much! But generally taking on the world…
AN
I don’t doubt that for a second!
Emily Howlett speaking to me from her home there. If you want to find out more about her there is a website: http://www.ehowlett.co.uk//. There’s also details on there of how you can find out about the book that she wrote. She said to me, “My dad says I’m just jammy that I found a publisher so quickly”, but I’ve just posted my order on one of the online sites as I’m intrigued…
Emily Howlett joining me on the programme and I really, really hope that’s not the last time we hear from her… I’ve got a feeling we might be following this young lady’s career really closely, and very, very good luck to her.
