Torn between helping deaf parents and chasing dream of being a singer

Festival favourite Coda is a film about a girl who is the only hearing member in a deaf family - also known as a "coda" (child of deaf adults).

And she finds herself having to choose between helping them and chasing her dream to become a singer.

Now on Apple TV+, the heartwarming movie sparked a bidding war this year at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the grand jury and audience prizes before the streaming service bought it for US$25 million (S$33.8 million), a Sundance record.

Writer-director Sian Heder and star Emilia Jones spoke to The Straits Times at a Zoom press event for the film. It is a remake of the 2014 movie La Famille Belier, a smash hit in France which was criticised for casting two hearing actors to play the girl's parents and for making fun of its deaf characters.

Heder, 44, took those critiques to heart when crafting her version, which cast deaf performers Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur and Daniel Durant as Ruby's family.

She also took pains to acknowledge what is known as "Deaf culture", with a capital "D" - a term that includes those actively engaged with the community, like Ruby, even though they do not have hearing loss.

To be "culturally Deaf", the film-maker explains, "is something that people don't understand is a cultural identity".

"When people talk about hearing actors play deaf roles, it's mostly about them learning to sign.

"But Deaf culture is so much more than the language. It's very rooted in ASL (American Sign Language), but it's also about the community, its long history and its behaviours - like the way a Deaf party or a Deaf dinner table functions.

"There are a lot of cultural things you don't really learn until you're in the community and functioning in that way," adds Heder, a writer on the acclaimed prison drama Orange Is The New Black (2013 to 2019).

And as an outsider, she wanted to get those nuances right. "So I made sure I not only had deaf actors in those roles, but also deaf collaborators behind the camera every step of the way."

Those collaborators informed the film's depiction of everything from how deaf people behave at a gathering to the arrangement of furniture in a deaf home.

"Those little subtleties became really important because they lent authenticity to this family," Heder says.

To play Ruby, Jones leaned heavily on the six ASL interpreters on set, who were all codas themselves.

Their teenage experiences mirrored those of her character, whose clashes with mother Jackie (Matlin) are complicated by the fact that only one of them can hear.

The 19-year-old, who stars in the supernatural series Locke & Key (2020 to present), spoke extensively with ASL interpreter Heather Rossi, who was like "the real-life Ruby", she says, "because her parents are deaf and her family has a fishing boat that she used to go out on, just like Ruby".

Rossi too had moments of rebelliousness and feeling unfairly treated while growing up.

"Heather said there were times, like at the dinner table, when she was signing for everybody and she just wanted to take a break and eat her meal. But then her dad would say, 'That's rude - we're left out now.'

"But both sides are correct and it's hard because Ruby is only 17 - she's resenting that she can't be a kid, but she also wouldn't have it any other way."

In the story, Ruby eventually learns that "it is not her parents holding her back from becoming a singer - it's her", says Jones.

The actress recalls that the bittersweet moments between Ruby and her family are so emotionally authentic that when they called "Cut" on set, the codas would be crying.

"And Sian and I would look at each other and be, like, 'Okay, we're telling something that's truthful and accurate here.'"