'Eternals' Star Lauren Ridloff Opens Up About Adding Captions To The Movie

Eternals star Lauren Ridloff is opening up about the benefits of having captions during big screen movies in theaters.

The actress, who plays the fastest woman in the universe Makkari, in the new Marvel movie, spoke to press about how having the captions doesn’t hurt anyone.

Click inside to read what she said…

Lauren, who is deaf in real life, spoke about how adding captions to movies doesn’t hurt anyone.

“It is a step forward,” she says. “I don’t think that we’re there yet, but I would love to see captioning and subtitles really become the norm. I think that subtitles benefit everyone: deaf, hard of hearing, hearing.”

AMC has recently announced that their theaters will start permanently offering open caption screenings in an effort to be more accessible to the deaf community and audiences where English may not be the first language.

Following the casting announcement in 2019, fans urged Marvel and many privately owned theaters to make the switch.

During the world premiere, it was noted that when Lauren‘s Makkari appears on screen, or another character communicated in sign language, captions did appear.

She has also recalled having discussions with Disney and Marvel about subtitling movies after she signed on for the flick, too.

“It’s been an ongoing conversation since I’ve joined and they are aware of how important it is to subtitle, how important subtitling is to me, and to the deaf community,” Lauren said. “I am really proud of how accessible the premiere was. We had interpreters floating, ready for any deaf and hard of hearing audience viewers to participate.”

As of right now, 35 states (plus Washington, DC) offer open caption screenings at 240 different locations at AMC Theaters.

For Regal Cinemas, there are nine theaters across five states, plus DC, that currently offer open caption screenings.

Closed captions for Eternals, where moviegoers can receive either cup holder units or glasses that project captions depending on the location, are available in every state.

Eternals is out in theaters on Friday, November 5.