It, kind of, made me think why don't we do that? Why are we losing that, you know?
It, it's so special and, and I think it's all, all of the crew too.
Great, so hi Amelia. I really enjoyed the film so it's an absolute pleasure to talk
to you. I suppose you've acted from, from a very young age. I, I have vivid memories
of watching you in an episode of Doctor Who, also doing some singing as you also
do in this film. I, so I suppose, Ruby's struggle to balance her family life with
chasing her creative dreams must be something that you're quite used to now.
How do you find the, the balance between those two aspects?
That's a great question. I actually didn't really think about that. I haven't seen my
family and friends for almost a year.
Luckily, my, my mum's here right now so I, I'm with my mum, but you're in this adult
world and you, you have to, kind of, be mature but also you are still quite young
and you do-, you do want your family and, and I guess I, I related with Ruby a lot.
You know, this film is a love letter to family and the Rossis are such a
tight-knit family. You know, they do everything together. Ruby interprets for
them 24/7 so they really are inseparable and I, I feel the same way towards my
family. I, I love them and I don't like being apart from them at all.
Sometimes,
I get a good feeling, yeah. Yeah. I get a feeling that I never, never, never, never
had before.
You are the girl with the deaf family? Yeah. Yeah. I just wanna tell you right
now. And you sing?
Interesting.
As an eighteen-year-old, about to head off to university, an awful lot of the plot
resonated with me.
Yeah.
And truthfully, you, you were effectively the same age as your character when you-,
when you shot the film. Do you find that, that that emotional connection helped you
with your performance?
I do. I think, you know, a lot of the time, people cast 25 or, or mid-twenties
to play seventeen, and I understand why. You know, they're older, they've got more
experience, they can work longer hours. But I think there is something so special,
I think especially with CODA, about casting someone that is, kind of, at that
moment in life where you're, kind of, in that transition to adulthood. You're not
quite there yet. You don't want to leave your childhood. You don't wanna take on
all that responsibility but also you feel like you are old and, you know, you feel
like you, you want to be an adult. And I think, you know, there's something so
nice-, the camera, it, it shows that youth, and so I was-, I was happy that
Sian wanted everything in this film to be authentic. And I was really happy that she
wanted Ruby to actually be seventeen.
One of the, the first decisions you seem to have made when you came onboard with
the project was to ensure that there was deaf representation by casting deaf actors
in the central roles. I was interested in the steps that you, you then took behind
the character, to ensure that the, the story was told as authentically and as
truthfully as possible.
I was always committed to casting deaf actors to play the deaf roles. That felt
important to me, not just, you know, in terms of the role and it being the right
thing to do, but also just creatively. Like the opportunity that lived in that as
a director, to me, was so beautiful and exciting and-, but I also was an outsider
coming into this community, and I was very aware of that and felt an enormous
responsibility to, to take care with the story and with the culture and make sure
that I had people around me who were from the community, who could speak to the
experience. You know, the lived experience, and so not only, you know, was
it important to me to have deaf actors in those roles, but to have deaf
collaborators behind the camera. And so those, those creative allies, for me, and,
and empowering those collaborators to, kind of, check my own hearing perspective,
as somebody coming in new to this community, it was important to know what I
didn't know and then make sure that I had people around me who could help me tell
this story in an authentic way that would feel reflective of the community that it
was representing.
I can't stay with you for the rest of my life.
I've never done anything without my family before.
So, in, in that, that period of preparation, you were-, you were learning
sign language, you were being taught how to use a professional fishing boat, you
were having singing lessons. So, when you get-, when you get to the set and you've
got all these new skills, how do you ensure that that preparation is actually
helping your performance and building the character, rather than just going to
waste? When you get on the set, how do you utilise what you've been taught?
You know, I learnt for such a long time. I learnt ASL for such a long time prior to
flying out but it wasn't really till I landed-, it wasn't till then that I really
learnt. I think, you know, it's like when you're learning French, go live in France
for a while. Surround yourself, you know. Immerse yourself into, into the world and
the culture. And I guess with singing, I had worked very hard on the songs and I
found a connection with them. I made sure that, as Ruby, I could relate to the
lyrics. And I think, you know, you, you work very hard and then you turn up and
you're like, 'Well, I now have to bring it. I have to bring all of these skills
the best that I can, you know.'
Given that, that intense, kind of, nine months of, of learning so many different
skills at the same time, I was interested if, through learning American Sign
Language, the way that you communicate with hearing people in your everyday life
has changed? Do you communicate in-, with more physical expression now?
100%. I think during filming, I definitely did. I used to-, I used to drive my mum
mad. I, if I was asking, say, 'What's for dinner?' and I'd just had a shower,
instead of shouting from room to room, I would walk water all the way through the
house just to come and be in the same room and, and talk to her. Working with Troy,
Daniel, Marlee, all of our amazing interpreters, everybody taught me the
real-,
the real meaning of communication. Everybody taught me connection and eye
contact. I think, you know, nowadays, everybody's on their phones and things
and, you know, someone might bring you a water or something and you're like, 'Oh,
thank you so much,' and, you know, you're looking down at your phone and-, Daniel
really taught me this in particular because he would always look and give the
person eye contact and say, 'Thank you so much.' And it, kind of, made me think why
don't we do that? Why are we losing that, you know? It, it's so special and, and I
think it taught all of the crew, too, the true meaning of communication. It taught
us all so much and it did make me more physical. It made me more emotional. I
felt I embodied what I was saying. It, it, it allowed me to get out of my head and
there were no words to hide behind. It kinda made me vulnerable and, and, and I
guess more truthful, in a way. And it was different. You know, normally when you
act, it, it's, kind of, less is more, in a way. You know, your-, if your film goes to
a cinema, your eye could be the size of a bus or something so you can internalise a
lot of emotions and you can still read them. So, it was very-, it was a very,
very different experience, but I love a challenge so I, I loved doing this, this
project.
I've been coaching for Berkley College of Music. I can help you get a scholarship.
And I won't let go. I said I won't let go, go, oh, oh, oh.
So, I, I suppose as, as the majority of the film is, is in American Sign Language,
did you shoot the scenes differently to how you shot scenes with spoken dialogue?
Is, is there a different approach to filming these conversations?
ASL's a very cinematic language, so you're literally watching a visual representation
of words and ideas and emotions, so in that way it's just, you know, you can put
your camera on a-, on a science (ph 08.12) scene and, and it's very alive. At the
same time, when people are in an ASL conversation, they are planted and looking
at each other and engaged and so a lot of the tools that you have as a director to,
you know, blocking or, you know, have a character walk out of the room as they're
talking and throw a line over their shoulder, turn around, it's like there
isn't the same kind of movement in a scene. You know, it really sort of-,
people are looking at each other and they're looking into each other's faces
and engaging and it's very human and connected and, and, you know, it meant
that there wasn't a lot of camera movement actually. That we were really, sort of,
finding ways to be in the intimacy of those scenes and, and capture the language
itself and make sure we were-, always had hands in frame which meant, you know, your
tool as a film-maker of going into a close-up in an emotional moment, you know,
you were like, 'Well, I'm not gonna do that, because actually I'm cutting off the
language.' So, what's another way to, kind of, be with a character and not be in
close-up? So, I actually love this question cause it really did affect, you
know, the cinematic choices of how we were gonna move the camera and use the camera
within scenes.
You mentioned the importance of the-, of the family dynamic in the film. I, I think
that's one of the aspects of the film that is so brilliant, brilliantly captured, is
how authentic and truthful the connection between, between the characters is. I was
interested in, with your character being a child of deaf adults, how did you work
with the director and, and the other actors that, that you were acting beside
to ensure that there was a believable dynamic at the centre of the family?
I was very lucky because on our film set, all of our interpreters were CODAs. So,
although I did a lot of prep and research prior to flying out to Massachusetts, I
then was surrounded by CODA, CODAs during the process. And it was nice for, for Sian
and I, actually because it meant that sometimes we would do a scene and Sian
would call, 'Cut,' and the CODAs would be crying. And that was, kind of, a moment
for us where we thought, 'Okay. We're telling something that is accurate, it's
truthful and people can relate.'