Ex-EastEnders star Rose Ayling-Ellis has revealed how she dealt with a "shock" heckler experience during her time in London's West End.
Speaking to The Times, Rose Ayling-Ellis revealed that she was heckled during her final matinee performance as Celia in Shakespeare's As You Like at Soho Place Theatrein January 2023.
"It was a bit of a shock", she said. "I didn't know it was happening at all at the time, because he was shouting and of course I couldn't hear him. Then someone told me he was upset because I was using sign language and he couldn't understand what was going on."
The Strictly Come Dancing 2021 winner explained that the man had complained because the cast were were "discriminating against hearing people", even though they had made captions available for hearing people.
Despite feeling shaken up by the experience, she was determined not to let him spoil one of her final performances. What's more, she was inspired by a young girl who was enjoying the show in the front row to carry on.
"I didn't want him to stop the play. It was my last day. I didn't want him to ruin it. And then I saw a little girl in the front row whose parents were signing to her and I thought, 'I'm not going to show you an example of running away. I'm going to carry on", Ayling-Ellis continued.
"It was hard, I was trembling. I couldn't get that man out of my head and whether others felt the same as him. But carrying on was so special because it made every single scene so meaningful and the audience really understood what I was doing."
She is next due to appear in Rose Ayling-Ellis: Signs For Change, a one-off documentary where the star will share the reality of living as a deaf person in the UK. The show is described by the BBC as "a personal journey into the deaf experience" which "asks whether attitudes are finally changing".
She's also due to front a new ITV crime drama called Code of Silence, which is due to commence filming soon. In Code of Silence, she'll play Alison Woods, a deaf caterer who is recruited by a detective to lip-read conversations with some dangerous criminals.
Rose Ayling-Ellis: Signs for Change will air on BBC One on Monday, June 26 at 9 pm and will be available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
