Where’s Wanda star spills on challenges of bringing authentic sign language to screen

Where’s Wanda?’s breakout star Leo Simon sat down with Express.co.uk for an enlightening chat about his deaf character Ole Klatt in Apple TV+’s first German-language show.

The eight-part dark comedy premiered last week and introduced subscribers to Carlotta (played by Heike Makatsch) and Dedo Klatt (Axel Stein), who begin a desperate search for their missing daughter Wanda (Lea Drinda).

Ole gets roped in when their plan spirals out of control, leading the family to bug several of their neighbours' houses in the hope of digging up more clues.

While Carlotta and Dedo have adapted well to using sign language around the house, Leo opened up about being hands-on with certain challenges that came from being hearing-impaired on a film set.

He revealed some of these hurdles arose when it came to adapting particular moments from the script into fully formed scenes.

“Some of the scenes that were about signing… we had some problems. But that’s part of it,” he shared. “You can’t translate [the script] one-to-one into a [series], that’s impossible.

“I think it’s difficult to use sign language for a long conversation in a movie. Simply because you can’t add sound. I don’t say anything, I’m signing and it’s really difficult to convert this into a long scene in a movie.

“Which is why we tried to always use short scenes when we were signing. However, we always wanted to show us using sign language and it’s not just some winking around, but we show that it’s real sign language.”

Leo took on his first-ever acting role for Where’s Wanda? and revealed he already handles some major responsibilities behind the scenes by consulting with the writers and producers about his experience being deaf.

“Of course, I love to share my experience with other people,” he shared. “It’s important to promote the fact that other people using sign languages are allowed to do that and show that in public.”

He also had to correct the writers about certain script moments at one point, adding: “Yes, it is difficult to have sign language and talking language simultaneously.

“Usually other people sign or they talk. Putting the two together in one scene, it’s a difficult issue because of the grammar and everything.”

Leo pointed out that German Sign Language is not the same as American Sign Language and, in fact, there are some “remarkable” differences between the two forms of communication.

As with many nations across the world, there is still more that can be done to ensure the deaf community is represented in German media.

For example, the actor explained: “I saw a few shows from the US where signing happens on the side of the screen.

“That’s something which in Germany you don’t find regularly, like subtitles, for example. However, certain shows and media libraries, like GDF, offer a sign language interpreter and he’ll be on the side and he’ll translate everything into sign language.”

Find out how the Klatts’ treacherous investigation to find Wanda pans out with a new episode coming each Wednesday.

Where’s Wanda? continues Wednesdays on Apple TV+.