Alaqua Cox’s Journey To The Role Of Hawkeye’s Maya Lopez
Becoming an actor is not easy to achieve, but for one person, the stars aligned perfectly. Alaqua Cox was an Amazon employee a few years ago that has dealt with being deaf all her life. She also battled through her right lower leg being amputated. Now, she’s an actor starring as Maya Lopez, aka Echo, in the Disney+ series, Hawkeye.
Alaqua Cox shares with People magazine:
I had no acting experience. I was only involved in one school play in high school, but I was a background actor.
Her friends found the casting notice for the role. Disney was looking for someone very specific and Cox definitely fit the bill. Cox grew up in Wisconsin on the Menominee Indian Reservation and has been deaf her entire life.
They saw the casting call looking for a Native American actress and female deaf actress. It just matched so perfectly, so I decided to go for it, Cox said. I had never seen anybody on the screen that maybe looked like me … deaf, an amputee.
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When Disney cast Cox as Maya Lopez, Cox shared how excited her parents were:
My dad actually cried, and it is rare to see my dad cry. My mom got the champagne — everybody was so excited. It’s crazy how much my life has already changed because I was a college dropout. I worked at a factory. I’m so excited to show people who I am and what I can do, what anybody can do.
I can’t wait to see the series. Check out Hawkeye on Disney+ on November 24.
What do you think of Hawkeye’s Alaqua Cox’s journey to being cast as Maya Lopez? Let me know in the comments.
Source: People
