Why CODA breaks new ground whatever happens at the Oscars

Note: Throughout, "deaf" refers to people who cannot hear, while "Deaf" refers to people whose absence of hearing is pre-lingual.

It's just days before the Academy Awards, and something strange has happened.

Best Picture contenders like Kenneth Branagh's Belfast and Steven Spielberg's West Side Story seem to have been completely forgotten in 'Who will win?' conversations, and frontrunner The Power of the Dog now has a surprising rival for the golden statuette – a low-key comedy drama named CODA.

Released simultaneously in cinemas and on Apple TV+, CODA is a sweet coming-of-age remake of 2014 French movie La Famille Bélier, and follows the experiences of teenager Ruby (Emilia Jones) in the fishing town of Gloucester, Massachusetts.

What sets it apart from other similar dramas is that Ruby is a CODA – a Child Of Deaf Adults – and the movie's writer/director Sian Heder made the decision to cast Deaf/non-hearing actors Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur and Daniel Durant in the key roles of her Deaf parents Frank and Jackie and brother Leo.

That may not sound particularly ground-breaking, but casting d/Deaf actors to play d/Deaf characters is rarer than you'd think.

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Julianne Moore (Wonderstruck), Henry Zaga (2020's The Stand) and Kiernan Shipka (The Silence) are among the hearing actors who have rightly been criticised for playing Deaf characters in recent years. (Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal and Jeremy Renner in Hawkeye are excused as their characters aren't initially deaf – they suffer hearing loss during the course of their stories.)

It seems to be an acceptable practice in Hollywood. When Deaf actress Deanne Bray auditioned to play a Deaf FBI agent in the series Sue Thomas: FB Eye, she told The Wrap that she was upset when she turned up to find hearing actresses auditioning for the role as well.

"I remember showing up and waiting in the lobby witnessing voice coaches working with hearing actors to sound more deaf-like. To find places to lessen their speech skills. I was disappointed seeing that," she said. (Bray did win the role in the end, of course.)

Choosing to audition and cast hearing actors in d/Deaf roles makes it even more difficult for a d/Deaf actor to get a job (especially as there aren't that many d/Deaf roles in the first place). Even if you are CODA's Marlee Matlin, who won an Oscar for her debut role as a Deaf cleaner in 1986's Children of a Lesser God and is well known for her role as Joey Lucas in The West Wing.

emilia jones troy kotsur marlee matlin and daniel durant in coda

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As CODA director Sian Heder explained to the Los Angeles Times, Matlin has faced her own challenges in Hollywood and has even been asked to help hearing actors learn how to play deaf for movie roles.

"She's [Matlin] just this huge talent, an Oscar winner, but her opportunities have been limited because she's been in countless situations where she has been asked to consult on a role or to teach a hearing actress about Deaf culture," Heder says.

It was Matlin who pushed for the other two Deaf characters in CODA to be played by Deaf actors, and when financiers balked at the idea, she threatened to quit the project.

"I said: time out. This is not right," Matlin told The Guardian. "It's not authentic and it's not going to work. If you go down that route, I'm out, because I don't want to be part of that effort of faking Deaf. I'm glad they listened."

It is not just the Deaf casting in CODA that is important: the way d/Deafness is shown in the movie is inspiring and unusual, too.

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The Deaf characters use American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate and it is subtitled on screen rather than translated, something you would expect of any other language that isn't spoken English.

This is a welcome change from most movies featuring a Deaf person that usually feature some helpful character who can understand sign language 'speaking' for the Deaf character so the audience can follow.

"For the first time in a long time… in fact, for the first time since my first film, I felt that audiences would really see Deaf people in a film," Matlin told the Los Angeles Times. As Matlin noted in her interview, CODA also depicts Deaf people as, well, people.

"There are so many levels for people to identify with and, for people with no connection, who have never met a Deaf person, to see sign language, to see Deaf people in normal, day-to-day settings… People think that Deaf people are monolithic in terms of how they approach life. And this film bursts that myth,” she added.

She's absolutely right. So often on screen, d/Deaf and hard of hearing characters are portrayed as sweet, soundless, shy people when in truth – and, as an HOH writer, I include myself in this – they can be just as loud, selfish, rude and fun as any hearing person.

Ruby's parents in CODA are certainly all those things. Frank and Jackie swear profusely, have loud sex, much to their daughter's embarrassment, and are funny – "You know why God made farts smell?" Frank asks his daughter. "So deaf people could enjoy them too."

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They're not flawless, either, and struggle to understand when their hearing daughter reveals a love of singing that they will never hear. "If I was blind, would you like to paint?" Jackie says to her daughter, half-joking.

While Ruby's brother Leo wants to prove he can live his own life and cope among the hearing fishermen he works with, Frank and Jackie somewhat lazily rely on Ruby to be their translator, and to help them run their fishing business.

The story follows her struggle to strike out on her own and leave for college, but the best scenes are those with her family as they bicker and moan, support each other and drive each other crazy – just like any other family.

Of course, the film isn't perfect. There are some obvious coming-of-age movie moments, such as Ruby diving into a lake from one of the rocks above, because, you know, she feels free. But, at the same time, it does stomp on the movie cliché that people with disabilities are just waiting around to be fixed by some heroic, able-bodied saviour.

In Children of a Lesser God, for example, William Hurt's teacher James attempts to 'rescue' Matlin's character Sarah. Nope: Frank, Jackie and Leo in CODA are just fine as they are, thank you very much.

A movie that features d/Deaf characters just getting on with life is something to celebrate, as is CODA's history-making road to the Academy Awards red carpet. Most recently, that has included BAFTAs for Troy Kotsur for Best Supporting Actor (making him the first Deaf actor to win a BAFTA) and Best Adapted Screenplay for writer Sian Heder.

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"It took a long time for Hollywood to accept actors who happen to be deaf, there was so much fear, you have to cast A-listers and are afraid of losing money… we are trying to encourage filmmakers to fight for that authenticity," Kotsur said in his BAFTA acceptance speech.

"Hearing people are quite ignorant, but after this film it feels that separation is being pulled together… the only difference between us is language. Our film had such a great impact.

"Deaf people are not seen as a victim, my character was a hard-working father and he's fun, a vulgar sense of humour, and he is a hero. I hope it influences culture."

Helping to change the way deaf people are portrayed on screen – now, that would be better than any Oscar statuette CODA could win on Sunday night.

CODA is available to watch now on Apple TV+.

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Jo Berry

Freelance film & TV writer, Digital Spy
Critic and writer Jo Berry has been writing about TV and movies since she began her career at Time Out aged 18. A regular on BBC Radio, Jo has written for titles including Empire, Maxim, Radio Times, OK!, The Guardian and Grazia, is the author of books including Chick Flicks and The Parents’ Guide to Kids’ Movies.

She is also the editor of website Movies4Kids. In her career, Jo has interviewed well-known names including Beyonce, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Kiefer Sutherland, Tom Cruise and all the Avengers, spent many an hour crushed in the press areas of award show red carpets. Jo is also a self-proclaimed expert on Outlander and Brassic, and completely agrees that Die Hard is a Christmas movie.