Liz Carr has told of her pride that Silent Witness helped to improve the representation of disabled people on screen, saying she “policed” the show a lot during her time on it.
The actress left the BBC crime drama in the finale of the 23rd series, after eight years as forensic examiner Clarissa Mullery.
Carr told the BBC Ouch podcast that the corporation seemed “terrified” about what to do with a disabled actor in a prime-time drama when she first started, but made sure her voice was heard.
“I think over the eight years I’ve kind of policed the show quite a lot and worked to make sure it was better, and refused to say certain lines that I thought were problematic,” she said.
“I was asked recently if I was proud of what we achieved in terms of representation in Silent Witness – oh, my goodness, of course I am.”
Carr said she first indicated she wanted to leave Silent Witness in October 2018.
“It must seem like a ridiculous decision, but I was just doing the same thing and, as an actor, that just wasn’t that interesting,” Carr said.
She said the “irony” was that having made the decision to leave, a new producer was brought in who promised the most challenging series she’d had on the programme.
The actress also announced that she has bagged a part in her first Hollywood film.
She will star alongside Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor in Infinite, which will be released this summer.
“It’s a great role,” she said of the film.
“I’m ecstatic. I thought, ‘I bet they’re just going to audition wheelchair-users and then they’re going to give the role to Tom Cruise’.”
