Silent Witness star Liz Carr has left the hit BBC crime drama to appear in her first Hollywood movie.
The 47-year-old actress, who has played forensic examiner Clarissa Mullery since 2012, made her exit this week at the end of the show's 23rd series.
Speaking on the BBC Ouch podcast, Carr revealed that she will star in sci-fi drama Infinite alongside Mark Wahlberg and Oscar winner Chiwetel Ejiofor.
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Carr said that while she is immensely proud of how Silent Witness improved the representation of disabled people on screen, she spent a considerable amount of time "policing the show" and often refused to say certain lines that she deemed were "problematic".
"I think over the eight years I've kind of policed the show quite a lot and worked to make sure it was better and refused to say certain lines that I thought were problematic," Carr continued.
"I was asked recently if I was proud of what we achieved in terms of representation in Silent Witness - Oh, my goodness, of course I am."
Carr said she expressed interest in leaving the series in 2018, as she was "just doing the same thing [in terms of storyline] and, as an actor, that just wasn't that interesting".
Shortly after she had made the decision, a new producer was brought in and promised the actress the "most challenging series that you've ever had" and "he's delivered".
She added that the "irony" wasn't lost on her.
In the current series, Carr's Clarissa had to make some heartrending decision about her mother, who had dementia and terminal cancer.
"There's a lot of stuff there that we've not seen before," she reflected. "I think about that relationship of an ageing parent with a disabled child. But equally, seeing a disabled woman as the carer.
"It was everything about disability and it was nothing about disability. And it connected us in a way that said: 'We all experience this'. We're all going to lose parents or somebody that we love."
Meanwhile, Carr's blockbuster movie will be directed by Training Day's Antoine Fuqua and released in the summer.
"It's a great role. I'm ecstatic," she disclosed. "I thought, I bet they're just going to audition wheelchair-users and then they're going to give the role to Tom Cruise."
For now, Carr's role is top secret.
Carr will return to our TV screens in an upcoming episode of BBC's Who Do You Think You Are?
Silent Witness airs on BBC1 at 9pm.
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