Lucy Hale to Play Another Younger Sister in ‘Bionic Woman’
Teen Actress Replaces Original Cast Member Mae Whitman
On June 27, TV Guide reported that NBC executives had decided to replace actress Mae Whitman (Arrested Development, State of Grace, Thief), who appeared as the younger deaf sister of the title character Jaime Somers (Michelle Ryan) in the series pilot for Bionic Woman. The change was accompanied by speculation that the character would no longer be hearing impaired, although NBC would only clarify, “The decision was purely creatively driven. It is very common to change story lines, characters, actors after the initial pilot is shot.”
Now comes another announcement that the sibling role has been recast with 18-year-old Lucy Hale, an actress some TV watchers might remember from her January stint on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, where she played the younger sister of character Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders). While it should become clear later today following NBC’s Bionic Woman panel at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in California, there is no indication whether or not the character will remain deaf.
Since it makes more sense to me to give a genuinely deaf actress a chance to gain work and exposure playing a deaf character in a prominent series—à la Shoshannah Stern, the fourth-generation deaf actress who portrays Bonnie Richmond in CBS’ Jericho—the network and producers might as well just make the character hearing.
Update: The panel at the TCA press tour confirmed that the sister character will be a hearing hacker, as in computers.
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Lucy Hale photo courtesy of Lucy Hale
