One of the staples of Christmas-time television is the original 1947 movie “Miracle on 34th Street.” Since it was a successful and long-lasting classic, it was inevitable that Hollywood would get around to remaking it, which actually happened a few times before a big-budget remake was released in 1994. The remake featured Richard Attenborough playing the role originated by Edmund Gwynn as “Kris Kringle.”
In the original, there is a scene where Santa Claus is set up at Macy’s Department store receiving a line of children. they plop onto his knee, he asks them what they want for Christmas, and so on. But at one point a little girl is brought to him, her guardian telling Santa that she is a Dutch war orphan (this was 1947, after all) and that she doesn’t speak English; she just wanted to see him. Without missing a beat, Santa begins to speak to her in Dutch, eventually singing with her. It’s a nice scene, and sets up the possibility that Santa might not be just some slightly wacky nice old man, but might be the real Santa Claus. In the 1994 remake, a very similar scene ensues… but instead of a foreign war orphan, the little girl is said to be deaf. Santa, so says the mother, doesn’t need to talk to her; she just wanted to see him. Without missing a beat, Santa starts talking to her in American Sign Language. Like in the original, it’s a nice scene. But there is a detail that makes it nicer if you know it. The little girl was born deaf and was apparently treated like a celebrity on the set… but she was not given any rehearsal with Attenborough. She was told that her job was to just sit there and smile at him for a moment. But then Attenborough busts out the ASL, and the look of sheer joy on the little actresses face was genuine. When he asks her his name, she answers “Sami,” because that was the actresses actual name.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dvqM5P6Fv4
(Hmmm… for some reason the above clip from 1994 won’t embed)