Hollywood can be insensitive. Oftentimes, directors prefer actors with no hearing difficulty to play hearing-impaired characters or when hearing-impaired actors land breakthrough roles, it’s the characters with sound hearing that end up speaking a hearing-impaired person’s lines. Perhaps film-makers are not always ready to take on a challenge or perhaps they worry too much about the arrangements that need to be made on set.
CODA is an exception and an exceptional film that has three dates at this year’s Academy Awards — to be held in March — in way of Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay, besides a few pending nominations at the British Academy Film Award and the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards.
Speaking in the voice of togetherness, which has become a cornerstone of familial stories around the globe, CODA — an acronym for Child of Deaf Adult — is the coming-of-age story of Ruby Rossi, the daughter with sound hearing of a hearing-impaired fishing family. Not only that, the three characters Ruby loves and confronts are played by actors who are hearing-impaired in real life.
Ruby’s father is Frank, played by the emotive Troy Kotsur, who is up for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. The young girl’s mother is Jackie, played by the versatile Marlee Matlin, the only hearing-impaired performer to have won an Academy Award so far (for 1986’s Children of a Lesser God). The Rossi household is completed by their son Leo, essayed by Daniel Durant, who is also a member of the hearing-impaired community.
Getting into the skin of Ruby is 19-year-old Emilia Jones whose natural singing voice has been used extensively in the film even though she hasn’t had any formal training. On landing the role of Ruby, however, she had to do training of a different kind — in ASL or American Sign Language.
Playing two characters
Emilia Jones, Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin in CODA
The Westminster-born actress, in a way, plays two roles in this Apple TV+ film — a confident Ruby and her shy counterpart. “It was fun actually. As an actor to play and challenge yourself… I loved playing two characters at the same time. I related to Ruby in the sense that I haven’t had a singing lesson before. I was nervous about the singing side of the movie. I was aware that Ruby had to get through to one of the best music colleges in the country, so that was nerve-wracking… I kind of relate to that Ruby, who is nervous. But it was super fun to be confident, be a tomboy and be out on a fishing boat. Ruby is confident when she is translating for her family because that’s her first language. And she knows it very well,” she said over a video call organised by Apple TV+.
Movies and entertainment have been in her blood. Aled Jones, her father, Welsh singer and TV presenter, is well known for the cover version of Walking in the Air as well as a lot of Christmas and choir music. Emilia has been a part of successful films like Horrible Histories: The Movie — Rotten Romans as well as Kinsey Locke in the Netflix series Locke & Key.
What makes CODA a must-watch is its approach to a very difficult subject. Ruby has spent all her life helping her brother and father on the fishing boat because there has to be at least one individual who can listen to announcements made on radio or via police patrol boats. She doesn’t have any dreams and hasn’t even heard of Berklee College of Music. Ruby’s ambitions come alive when her eyes land on her high-school classmate Miles (played by Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), to the point she throws caution to the wind and joins the choir, something that Miles also enjoys. She can carry a tune but doesn’t have a clue about her brilliance until choir director Bernardo (the brilliant Eugenio Derbez) hears her and offers guidance.
Some of the best moments Emilia has in the film are with her emotive father. If not anything else, Troy’s Oscar nomination is a confidence booster for his tribe.
“I was on an extremely tough and extremely long journey but I was doing what I loved, that is, my craft. There was no stopping me and so when this opportunity came up and all these nominations and recognitions… I think Hollywood is beginning to think outside the box and there is a lot of talent out there. This is my opportunity to be a part of this cultural transformation. And it just happens to happen with the right team, the right cast, the right producers — Patrick Wachsberger, Fabrice Gianfermi, Philippe Rousselet and Jerôme Seydoux… they really supported our project and made it happen,” said the 53-year-old.
He is no stranger to rejection as during auditions it’s mostly the actor who can speak better that gets the part. Troy is completely hearing impaired. In the 1990s he used to buy $300 worth of envelopes and stamps and send headshots to 300 different casting directors and maybe land one audition. Life has changed slightly after CODA. Not just for Troy but hopefully also for Daniel Durant, who plays his son and Ruby’s brother. Much before the Oscar nominations, the film got its due by winning the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, generating enough buzz to be acquired by Apple TV+ for a largish sum, and then winning viewers around the world with its big heart at the centre of which is family.
“Family is extremely important not just to the Rossi family but all families around the world with children. It’s important to cherish and love and learn how to let go. We portrayed those moments. It’s like a bird leaving the nest. The parents, of course, hope the bird comes back to visit. What we showed in the film is that communication barriers didn’t matter. Whatever we overcame over the years helped our family grow,” said Troy.
Growth for Ruby comes also in the form of finding her singing voice. “The scenes were not shot in order, like it’s usually the case. For example, a lot of the scenes with the family towards the end were shot in the second week. But the music scenes were mostly in order. As Ruby’s voice grew, so did my voice. I got stronger and I sang every day. There was nine months of singing training. I was suddenly reaching notes that I hadn’t reached before. It was super fun. When I was singing Both Sides Now, it was probably the last week of filming and I got emotional because the movie was coming to an end,” said Emilia.
Troy later says that when he was shooting the scenes on the boat, he didn’t know that Ruby was singing. Only in the theatres did he realise that his on-screen daughter was singing.
Meanwhile, Emilia will soon be seen in a psychological thriller titled Cat Person, directed by Susanna Fogel, besides, of course, keeping an eye on what happens at the Oscars. Whatever the result, Ruby stays on with her. “I would like to think that Ruby is pursuing music because she loves it so much. But I also hope she goes to see her family every weekend. Ruby is very close to her family and there is so much love that she won’t be able to keep away from them more than a couple of months. She loves being on the boat,” the actor said.
CODA is not another blatantly feel-good movie that wants to make you cry or laugh. True, at the end of it you will wear a smile as vulnerability gives way to determination.
CODA is streaming on Apple TV+
5 other power performances
Sound And Fury (2000)
Six-year-old Heather, who is hearing impaired, is at the heart of the movie and a family battle in which her parents (both hearing impaired) argue with Heather’s uncle with no hearing impairment over the consequences of implanting a cochlear device in the little girl.
Children Of A Lesser God (1986)
James Leeds (William Hurt) plays a teacher of the hearing impaired who finds himself where Sarah (played by the brilliant Marlee Matlin, also a star in CODA) used to attend. She was one of the brightest graduates but now she’s a janitor there.
Sound Of Metal (2020)
After the brief concert performance that opens the film we hear the sounds Ruben (Riz Ahmed) hears and loves but it soon turns into a story of a drummer who loses his hearing. And then it moves from a tale of self-hatred to a journey of self-introspection.
A Quiet Place (2018)
Aliens who are unable to see but have supernatural hearing are here. The Abbotts — played by Krasinski and Emily Blunt — lead a mostly silent life, communicating with their three children (sons Marcus and Beau, and daughter Regan, who has hearing impairment) in sign language.
The Silent Child (2017)
Written and directed by ex-Hollyoaks stars Rachel Shenton and Chris Overton, the 20-minute film is the story of a young hearing impaired girl who struggles to communicate. Maisie Sly plays the title role. The film won an Oscar for Live Action Short Film.