At only 12 years old, Shaylee Mansfield is already breaking new ground with the animated series “Madagascar: A Little Wild.” Despite her youth, it still took her a while to get here.
In an interview with Salon, she said she started acting “by accident,” but according to her mother, Mansfield was “born with a camera.” At a young age, she began making videos with her family for their YouTube channel ASL Nook, which teaches American Sign Language (ASL) and aspects of Deaf culture.
Mansfield was born deaf to deaf parents. Her younger sister is hearing. The whole family was profiled in the documentary special “Born This Way Presents: Deaf Out Loud,” executive produced by Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin.
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Though Mansfield said she “loved being in front of the camera just hamming it out,” soon ASL Nook became an influential channel, especially among hearing families raising deaf children. In one of the most popular videos, a small Mansfield sits cross-legged in an armchair before a Christmas tree and performs the children’s book “The Polar Express” with the gravitas of a Shakespearean actor. She’s mesmerizing.
Her big acting break came with “Noelle,” the 2019 Disney+ holiday film starring Anna Kendrick. Mansfield plays a young girl who believes in Kendrick’s female Santa Claus. “We all thought it was a one-time thing because Deaf roles do not happen often,” Mansfield said.
But she started booking commercials. One for Disney World featuring her whole family in the amusement park, communicating with characters who know or are learning sign language, went viral and won the Gold Award at the LA Addys, the advertising industry’s largest award. Her first lead role came in the 2020 Netflix film “Feel the Beat,” where she portrayed a dancer.
The art of the sign-over
Shaylee interacts with Dave in “Madagascar: A Little Wild” (DreamWorks)
As if all that weren’t enough, Mansfield is even teaching the entertrainment industry new ways to incorporate deaf actors. She accomplished this latest milestone with her work in the series “Madagascar: A Little Wild,” a prequel to the DreamWorks Animation film franchise about animals at the Central Park Zoo who decide to escape.
In the show’s sixth season, Mansfield plays an animated character named and modeled after her. The show is billing it as the first time a signing performance (a sign-over) is credited alongside speaking performances (voice-overs).
“To be credited is a huge deal,” Mansfield said. “This should have happened a long time ago.”
Her acting for the animated series had to happen over Zoom, due to the pandemic. “No set, props, and people to bounce off,” Mansfield said. “I had to sign my lines several times, a bit slower, from different angles in order for the …….
Source: https://www.salon.com/2022/01/20/shaylee-mansfield-deaf-asl-sign-over-madgascar/