(logo whooshing)
- Hey, Emilia, how are you?
- Hey, I'm good, thank you. How are you?
- I'm good, I'm good, thanks.
I thought it'd be nice to come in as a Brit.
You can talk to a Brit for a time.
- Honestly, I was literally just about to say,
oh, keep talking, I miss the accent.
(both laughing)
Have I still got mine?
- Why, where are you from originally?
- I'm from London, but I haven't been home for a year.
- Oh, okay, yeah, you still sound from London to me.
- I've been out in Toronto filming...
- Yeah. - Okay, good.
- Yeah, that's where I am right now, so you sound like it.
Congratulations on the film anyway.
- Thank you. - Congratulations.
One thing I was gonna say,
the first question I was gonna ask you
was I thought for all the money in the world,
while I was watching the film, that you were American
and it was only afterwards,
that I think on the Sundance Q&A,
that I was like, oh, she's British. (laughs)
- No way!
- Yeah, yeah, I did, honestly. - That's a compliment.
- So that's a good compliment, yeah.
So my first question is how difficult was the accent
and could you do it before you were going to do the film
or was that just another thing you had to learn
to be able to take this role on?
- I don't know, I mean, I've done a TV show
called "Locke & Key" in American, so I think that may be,
and I filmed that right before "CODA,"
so I think maybe that kind of helped me.
I don't know, I love acting in American,
I kind of find it more natural in a way,
I find it easier to make lines sound natural.
I don't know if it's because we kind of accentuate,
you know, we'd say, hello, how are you
and your mouth is kind of dropping a lot,
whereas Americans, their mouth's kind of flat
and they don't open it a lot, so maybe that's why,
it's kind of everything merges together,
I'm really not quite sure.
But even when I was younger and I would role play as a kid,
I would always role play in American, always.
I couldn't role play in British, I don't know why.
I just don't. (laughs)
- Yes, I mean, also in terms of the script
and reading it for the first time,
Sian [Heder, director], I just spoke to Sian and she said she's interviewed
maybe 100 different people for this one.
When you read it for the first time,
why did it stick out for you?
And why did all those, I guess it doesn't,
when you like a character that much,
it didn't seem like such of a challenge
to have to do all the other stuff.
I imagine it was just like, if I'm gonna do it,
I'm gonna do it in the best possible way.
- Yeah, I think the minute I read the script,
I fell in love with the story,
I fell in love with the Rossi family,
I loved that they were dysfunctional and relatable
and I just loved Ruby and you know,
when I first read the script, I thought,
well, whoever gets to play this role
is an incredibly lucky actress,
because it's really not every role,
like it's not every day that you get to learn three skills,
you're lucky if you get to learn one.
And I think also, I never learned ASL,
I didn't know about deaf culture.
I had never had a singing lesson.
I sing around the house all the time
and I did a Western show when I was like eight,
but I'd never had a singing lesson
and I guess fishing was just a bonus in a way.
I was just excited,
because I love a challenge
and I knew that this would be definitely
the most challenging thing I would ever have do.
But so much, I guess, talking to Sian too,
before I was cast, hearing her talk about the project
and I loved that there was such emphasis on authenticity
and Sian wanted deaf actors in these roles.
I just loved how she spoke about the project
and I loved that she wanted to learn sign language too
and I was just so happy, that we were able
to kind of learn and grow together in a way.
- I mean, the film's done pretty well so far
out of Sundance, you know, it's won some awards
and had loads of people buzzing about it
and some great reviews.
Are you prepared for it to come out into the world now,
given that not only is it coming
with, I guess, a slight expectation,
but also it's gonna be available on streaming,
so the audience might be bigger than, you know,
a typical independent film like this
might get at the cinema?
- Yeah, I guess I'm just so excited.
This movie, I guess kind of changed my life in a way,
it helped me and it taught me so much
and I love Troy [Kotsur], Daniel [Durant], Marlee [Matlin] and Sian
and all the cast and crew were a very, very close cast,
this movie was very special to make
and so I guess I'm just excited for people to see it.
It's nice, because everyone's kind of been enjoying it
as much as we enjoyed making it,
which is such a lovely feeling.
I guess I'm a bit nervous, because you know,
when something's hyped up or, you know,
people have said really lovely things, people expect a lot
and we didn't have a lot of time and a lot of money,
so I hope people don't expect too much,
but I'm just so excited for it to come out
and I feel very lucky, that Apple picked it up
and they've been so amazing
and yeah, I guess I'm just very excited
and it's all very new to me. (laughs)
- Absolutely, although I wouldn't leave it
till the last minute to put some money aside,
just in case you need a fancy dress in a few months,
you never know. - Oh, gosh, I hope so,
I've been in sweatpants for a year now.
- [Scott] (laughs) Good excuse, good excuse.
- You can tell, I'm like it's only an interview
and I'm like dressed up, I'm loving it.
(both laughing) - Yeah.
I've got my shirt on in my bedroom, so it's all good.
I mean, I wish you all the best for the movie.
Thank you so much and yeah thanks for your time.
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- "HeyUGuys," huh? - "HeyUGuys."
- Is that from "The Goonies?"
- It is indeed, yeah. - Right.
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