To prepare for her iconic, Academy Award-winning role as Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker (1962), Anne Bancroft undertook a deeply immersive and physically grueling preparation process. Because she first originated the character in the 1959 Broadway stage production, much of her foundational research took place during that time and seamlessly transferred to her cinematic performance.
Bancroft was determined to authentically capture the psychological and physical realities of navigating the world with severe visual impairment, mirroring the history of Annie Sullivan herself. She spent extended periods completely depriving herself of sight by covering her eyes. She used these exercises to gain insight into how to move, react, and navigate spaces purely through touch, sound, and spatial awareness.
She visited a camp for blind individuals as well as the renowned Perkins School for the Blind, the exact institution where the real Annie Sullivan was educated. While there, she observed disabled children and studied their communication patterns. To communicate authentically with her co-star, she mastered the tactile manual alphabet used by deafblind individuals.
Director Arthur Penn and writer William Gibson decided to give the character an Irish brogue during early theater rehearsals. This vocal choice helped Bancroft mentally separate Annie Sullivan from her previous stage role in Two for the Seesaw, and it ultimately became a defining trait of her performance.
The role of Annie Sullivan was famously violent and exhausting. Bancroft and her 12-year-old co-star, Patty Duke (who played Helen Keller), had to engage in intense, un-choreographed choreography that required immense stamina. For the legendary, multi-minute dining room battle scene, where Annie attempts to teach Helen table manners, both actresses had to wear heavy concealment padding beneath their costumes to minimize severe bruising and injuries from all the slapping, wrestling, and falling.
Bancroft’s intense dedication to finding the “human truth” of the character was famously captured in a 1959 photo essay by Nina Leen for Life magazine, which documented her practicing daily tasks completely blindfolded. Her dedication paid off immensely; she won both a Tony Award for the stage play and the 1962 Academy Award for Best Actress for the film.
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