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V.O.: To present the next Crystal for Advocacy Award, a woman who is breaking down barriers with every speedy step she takes.
The first Deaf actress to play a superhero, in the upcoming Marvel film "Eternals;" please welcome Lauren Ridloff.
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LAUREN (via interpreter): Wherever I go, if I'm going out to see a movie or a TV show with a Deaf actor, I have this sense of excitement and thrill.
And also a bit of fear.
And I always wonder: will they do the Deaf community justice? How will we be portrayed?
So, that was the question when I sat down to watch "CODA."
I was thinking, "Hm, I don't know what's going to happen," and then—wow!
I laughed, I cried, I was so grateful.
Because what Siân Heder and Marlee Matlin were able to do was so beautiful, creative, and it just felt so normal.
And that's how it should be, right?
[ Applause ]
And Marlee—she has been an icon for myself. She was the first Deaf person to win an acting Academy Award.
Well actually, the only Deaf person to win an acting Academy Award. I mean, come on!
My parents actually took me to go see her in the movie "Children of a Lesser God" when I was young,
just so I could see a Deaf adult on the screen.
Mind-blowing!
It's just not like there was a lot of us at the time. Back then, there was just Marlee Matlin.
And the reason why there are more of us today is because of Marlee. Because of her!
[ Applause ]
She has constantly fought for Deaf inclusion and the rights of Deaf people to be on the stage and set,
and just to make sure that we have an American Sign Language interpreter on set.
And to make sure that all Academy screeners have closed captioning.
[ Applause ] Right, give her a round of applause!
And also, threaten to walk off a set when producers just shy away and want to hire a hearing person to portray a Deaf character.
Ugh...
I am working today because of the work that Marlee has done.
The trailblazer herself: Marlee Matlin.
[ Applause ]
Also, there's Siân Heder.
[ Cheers ]
She was a writer on "Orange is the New Black,"
"Men of a Certain Age," and also was the writer and director on the film "Tallulah,"
and executive producer of "Little America" on Apple TV. [ Cheers ]
And then she took on "CODA."
I mean, that's a hard thing to do, right?
And she just took it on, even though she knew that it would actually be extra difficult for a hearing writer and director.
But she did it anyway because she knew that it was an important story to tell.
And also because this is a world, in the hearing world, that a lot of people would never have seen before.
And it's something about that sacred, secret world of a Deaf family.
And this wasn't just any regular Deaf family; this family was one that actually lived outside of the hearing world.
They have their own unique tendencies, they are characters that kind of distance themselves as their core identity.
And this family doesn't worry too much about what the mainstream is thinking, so maybe they come off a little louder.
Maybe a little more bold in their physicality, maybe a bit more blunt in their comments.
So, how did Siân do it?
How did she know to represent those specific nuances of life?
And I asked her, and she had a very simple response.
She said, "I just asked myself, what do I need in order to be able to represent this Deaf family?"
She cares; she took the time and she actually gathered and built a strong wealth of resources.
And she learned American Sign Language, she immersed herself into Deaf culture, and she hired people who knew more about that world.
She hired Deaf actors, and it shows.
She got what she needed to show all that hard work of this hard-working Deaf family, and made it happen.
And in a very authentic way.
So it is my pleasure to present the Crystal Award
for establishing a new precedent for representation and accessibility in front and behind the camera
on their film "CODA." So please, welcome Marlee Matlin and Siân Heder.
[ Applause, Cheers ]
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MARLEE (via interpreter): Oh, a mic? Hmm, no mic. Right?
SIÂN: Don't give Marlee Matlin a mic.
[ Laughter ]
LAUREN: Okay, so I do have a list of questions that I obviously did not write because if you had me write the questions I know I'd probably just be like,
"How do you get up in the morning and do it?" But no, no, no, we won't go there... So here we go.
So I guess the first question that I have is, I know that you guys have worked together to make "CODA,"
and it was both authentic and also the priority was members of the Deaf cast and also the crew.
So could you give me some examples of how the two of you did that?
SIÂN: I mean, I think that there—first of all, thank you for your speech, Lauren. That was beautiful, and I'm so honored to get to tell this story.
[ Applause ]
And honestly, as an outsider coming into this community, I felt an incredible responsibility in surrounding myself with Deaf collaborators who could help me to tell it.
Because I am a hearing person coming into this community, I have that perspective, and so I was really grateful to have the collaborators that I had.
And honestly, the two most important people to me, aside from my cast, were my Directors of Artistic Sign Language.
And for those of you who don't know what that is, it's a DASL: a Director of Artistic Sign Language, or sometimes called an ASL Master.
That's a really important role on a set. And for me, yes, I had been taking sign class and I was conversational, a bit, although not great.
And honestly, 40% of this film was in ASL and I would not have been able to be on that set and direct those scenes
and been in the kind of nuanced conversations with my actors that I was without those two women.
So, Alexandria Wailes and Anne Tomasetti were my two DASLs who worked with me both on the translation of the script
in a very nuanced way, where obviously I wrote the script in English and then we had to do a big transformation to
sort of discover what it was in ASL, which is such an amazing and visual language.
And then Anne Tomasetti who was on set with me every step of the way.
And there were amazing conversations with our actors to figure out, you know, who is this family?
Like yes, their Deaf identity is one thing, but even more so: they're from Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Like, what's the sign for "lobster" in Gloucester, Massachusetts?
It's totally different, by the way, than it is everywhere else in the country.
So finding out the regionalisms—
LAUREN: So wait, do you remember the sign? How do you actually sign it from Gloucester?
SIÂN: I mean, this is "lobster" all the time, right? But there was some weird sign from Gloucester.
But also like, the name sign for Gloucester; this was the name of the town.
LAUREN: That's right.
SIÂN: Like, all these little nuances that I felt like we were discovering because I had these amazing collaborators.
And then with my actors, to kind of dig in. You know, Marlee to be like, "Who is Jackie?
Who is this fisherman's wife and how does she sign, and what has she picked up on that is local?"
There are regionalisms to ASL just like there's a dialect. You know, you have a Boston accent, or you have a regionalism to ASL.
And so, all of that work was about the authenticity,
and I couldn't have done it without those women, and I couldn't have done it without my cast.
And it was an incredible collaboration.
MARLEE: She's right. When I first read the script... it screamed my name. It really screamed my name.
I just saw the script, I had to do it. I had to do it, even before other wonderful, fine Deaf actors got the script, I had to do it first!
And you were probably one of them, I would imagine.
And I'm a huge fan of Lauren's, by the way, I have to say that.
But when I saw the script I was so elated because it's been a long time since a script like this came across my table
with three authentically Deaf characters carrying a film.
Probably since "Children of a Lesser God."
So I looked at the script and I met with Siân and the first thing I said was, "Thank you for writing this; thank you Siân, thank you for your brilliance."
Second thing I said is, "You have to, you have to hire and cast Deaf actors to play the roles."
Particularly the role of Frank Rossi.
Because my gut was saying to me, "You have to be protective of this script, Marlee."
Because casting—all these years, what we have suffered as Deaf actors...
First of all, it's not easy to get us cast, and not to denigrate actors who've played wonderful disabled characters in the past—
not to denigrate their work; they're wonderful. But authenticity is so important these days. It's time for it to happen now, now, now!
So that's how important it was to be able to have this role, Jackie, and Frank played authentically.
She said all the right things.
Siân is an actor's director, and she had no fear of learning, no hesitation when it came to working with all of us as actors.
The cast and the crew, everything, the entire package, we were one big happy boat of collaboration.
It's something I haven't seen in a long time.
[ Applause ]
LAUREN: Well, I do want to add something to this conversation.
You know, as a new actor in this industry, I have learned that
I feel like we're at a point where the industry is starting to realize the importance of having authentic representation,
which means having Deaf actors play Deaf roles.
MARLEE: Exactly. And we're not costumes that you can put on and take off at the end of the day.
LAUREN: Right, we're not costumes. And I think now I'm actually learning that there is a lack of resources
for directors, for the creative team, for people who are actually putting together the production.
And you know, they might be motivated and interested, but where do they start?
So I think that this is actually what is so amazing to me about Siân, is you started somewhere.
And you thought about, "Okay, what do I need?" And you mentioned this, you decided to actually build a team.
Can you tell us a little bit more about that process, and what that core team actually looked like to you?
SIÂN: Well it's so amazing to me that, you know, I get asked all the time now doing press about the movie, like,
"What were the challenges of having Deaf actors on set, and working with Deaf actors?" And I'm like,
"What are you talking—like, the challenge in this movie was going fishing!
Honestly, going out to sea with seven boats and actually fishing!" [ Laughter ]
MARLEE: And I'm so glad you didn't include Jackie in any of those scenes! So glad!
SIÂN: Guys, I almost puked. I barely made it through.
But to me, movie making is problem solving.
That's all we're doing all the time.
You need to do a stunt, you're like, "What do I need to do this stunt? Okay, we're going to flip a car, we're going to crash into that building,
we're going to set off fire in the building, how are we going to do it?"
Yet, Hollywood seems totally stumped by how to be inclusive on set. Why?
[ Applause ]
LAUREN: Exactly! I mean that is the big question: why?
And with that, we do need to wrap things up; ugh!
SIÂN: I will just say this: it's about asking the questions.
It's about going, "How many interpreters? Where do they need to be?
How do we facilitate collaboration between hearing artists and Deaf artists on set so we can all feel at home
and everybody can feel like they can just get what they need and participate?"
And there's not these silos of like, "You're a Deaf actor so you're supposed to fend for yourself with your interpreter."
Like, let the camera guys learn how to sign!
Let's change the way we do things so that we can really fully all experience this creative process.
[ Applause ]
MARLEE: We need more Siân Heders in the entertainment business!
Thank you all for your support over the years, especially for me and my career. Thank you so very much.
And there's so many more wonderful, wonderful actors like Lauren out there.
You have to be on the lookout for them; please do.
LAUREN: So again, congratulations to Siân and Marlee. Thank you so much.
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