That search for self is what is at the heart of Redefining Juliet”. If you’re expected to be a role model when you don’t even know who you really are, that’s really difficult. It was especially difficult for me as I was still fighting to know myself. When you make it as a disabled person you are automatically told you must comment on everything, whether you know anything about it or not. “I love doing press about my work, but I didn’t feel comfortable going on things like Good Morning Britain being asked to talk about accessible public transport or Breaking Bad or whatever. Then I was expected to be a spokesperson, and I was like ‘I didn’t sign up for this’.” I was raised in a mainstream environment, going to a mainstream school, and fell into being an actress. “Some people are powerhouses at fighting for disability, but I found it such a huge responsibility to be the spokesperson for all disabled people. I felt like I was being expected to become an activist.” “Alongside the lack of roles for disabled actors, the struggle to find work and be seen as talented in your own right and the continuous worry about income, the major reason for giving up the stage and acting was I kept being asked to be knowledgeable about things that I knew nothing about. What was behind the decision to leave acting? All alongside training to be an English teacher.” I plan to use it as a franchise, a movement and a show to take it to the world. Redefining Juliet is the project I’m most passionate about and that I enjoy the most, so I wanted to continue doing it just in more of a Director/ CEO-type role, allowing me to carry on being involved but not appear in it. In October last year I decided I was quitting acting to be a teacher. “Redefining Juliet is returning but it will not have a Storme Toolis appearing in it, so don’t fall over. She has decided to give up her acting career! Sat nursing a cup of tea in the gloom of the Cafe in the Crypt at St Martin’s in the Fields in Central London, Storme hits me with shocking news. Retrieved 10 November 2020.Storme Toolis in an earlier production of Redefining Juliet
"WATCH: The 'brilliantly filthy' Maltesers advert that's got everybody talking". "Should only disabled actors be allowed to play disabled roles on TV?". "New Tricks' Storme Toolis: What you need to know about actress with cerebral palsy set to feature in 'TV's first disabled character sex scene' ".
"My daughter stars in The Inbetweeners Movie – so does her wheelchair".
^ "Kennington actress Storme Toolis breaks TV taboos".Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. ^ "Daughter of Achill native hits small screen".^ "Storme Toolis: We need more disabled actors".Toolis was the first disabled actress to take on the title role of Josephine in the West End version of the play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. The advert was praised for its portrayal of people with disabilities.
Toolis also partook in the Malteser series of adverts for the Paralympics. įor her role in New Tricks, Toolis was described as "one of the few disabled actors in Britain, and across the world, to play a minor role in a mainstream drama where the disability of her character is not a feature of the plot, and her role has been compared to Walt Jr in the US Breaking Bad series." She is an advocate of the rights of disabled actors to play disabled roles. Toolis has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. She first appeared on film in Channel 4's The Inbetweeners as an extra, and then as a minor character in The Inbetweeners Movie, based on the earlier television series, subsequently joining the cast of New Tricks as Holly Griffin in August 2013 in series 10 episode 5, "Cry Me a River", of the show.
Toolis spent seven years as an aspiring actress at the Ovalhouse. Her mother is Dea Birkett, is a British television and print journalist from Surrey she has a younger brother and a younger sister. Her father journalist Kevin Toolis was born in Edinburgh his parents originated from Achill Island in County Mayo, Ireland.