Rinko Kikuchi, an actress, was nominated for “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” at the recent Academy Awards for her role as a punky deaf schoolgirl in Tokyo in the movie, Babel. While she did not win the award, her nomination raises some interesting questions about the opinions and priorities of the American deaf and hard of hearing community.
In an interview prior to the Academy Awards, Rinko explained:
At one point, Alejandro remarked that he preferred to have a real deaf-mute woman play the character and, sure enough, on the next audition every candidate was deaf-mute except me! Alejandro is very frank. He speaks his mind and doesn’t hide his feelings, but sometimes that put a lot of extra pressure on me. I believed that, compared to those other candidates, I had the ability to approach the character as a professional actress.
If Rinko was the only hearing person at the audition, perhaps the director found it more convenient to work with a hearing person or the acting quality of the deaf-mute candidates at the audition was sub par. Or maybe the interpreters at the auditions were incompetent. In another interview, Rinko stresses the importance and language and communication in a movie:
The first thing I thought of when I heard of him [the director of Babel] coming to Japan and shoot the film was obviously this issue of language. I think for obvious reasons, it’s one of the most important elements in communicating with the director, and for the film, as well.
The implication here is that common language or effective communication is important to a successful film. Ironically, the word Babel is commonly used with the concept of the “Tower of Babel” which was, “a tower built by Noah’s descendants (probably in Babylon) who intended it to reach up to heaven; God foiled them by confusing their language so they could no longer understand one another.” Rather than attempting to reconcile language differences, the director of Babel sought a workaround to avoid language and communication difficulties in a linguistically diverse movie. He would not have cast a Japanese person in a Mexican character in Babel, would he?
To portray a deaf person, Rinko said that she went to a “deaf-mute” school to learn sign language. While the effort by the director to find a deaf actress to fit the role and by Rinko to learn sign language and behavior of deaf people were commendable, should a deaf person still have been cast in this role, despite the communication barriers or lack of professionalism?
Perhaps, or perhaps not. The community can argue that each new deaf role assigned to a hearing person equates one less opportunity for deaf actors and actresses. Who better than a deaf person to understand and perform the role of a deaf person? Some argue that this is precisely what actors and actresses are supposed to do; pretend to be someone that they are not. Well, if that is the case, then directors should consider casting deaf people for hearing roles. That probably will not happen anytime soon, so the only opportunity for deaf people to truly act, without a predetermined role as a deaf person, is probably in movies where everyone signs. Mosdeux, a deaf-owned and operated film-making company is making tremendous progress towards this goal.
Expecting a widespread outrage at the selection of a hearing person for a deaf role in a major motion picture, I was surprised to read some blogs and comments by deaf people who provided excuses for the director’s decision. For example, one commenter said:
I’m fine with hearing acting in deaf roles because the day we damn that from happening, the day we damn everyone from being an “actor”. It’s important that AT least deaf characters remain on our screens - that itself exposes our culture somewhat to those who are clueless about it to begin with.
Really? Let’s suppose that Deanne Bray doesn’t get her role in Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye., instead it is given to another hearing up and coming actress who does a good job “imitating” a deaf person. Let’s do the same thing for actors and actresses like Tyrone Giordano, Shoshannah Stern, Phyllis Frelich, Howie Seago, Anthony Natale, Marlee Matlin (who won an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role), and more. Where would that attitude leave aspiring deaf actors and actresses today?
Looking back, the deaf community was up in arms in 1993 when they protested a movie called “Calendar Girl” which cast a hearing woman in a deaf role. This protest was led by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) in sixty cities nationwide under current NAD President Bobbie Beth Scoggins who was the National Coordinator of that effort. Some cinemas pulled the movie from their screens because of the protest.
What can the community do? The NAACP has been leading a tremendous effort to bring more minorities and diverse people to the big screen with its Hollywood Bureau. The Diversity Report released by the Hollywood Bureau focuses on the following groups, African American, Hispanic, Asian American, and Native American.
Perhaps the NAACP could add a disability category since it is also a “minority population.” Maybe the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) could take a lead on this issue. Or the deaf community could take it into its own hands again like they did during the Calendar Girl protests?
Rather than making excuses for the film maker or director, the deaf community might look at the NAACP and the African American community as an example of what they can do to ensure that movies like Calendar Girl and Babel do not set back the hiring of deaf actors and actresses.
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A deaf person that pretends to be a hearing person in a major motion picture? Maybe Mosdeux could do this in one of their future films to turn the tables on the hearing world. :-)
Why on earth is this actress using the world “deaf-mute”???
Wait a minute, wait a minute! RE: AAPD-Disabilities? Have you forgotten that we do not consider ourselves disabled? I think this is a fight that we have to do on our own terms, as a Deaf community. Or at least add a “linguistic minority” catagory under NAACP. The more we use the label ‘disabled,’ the more that the hearing community will associate that label with us. We are never going to be recognized as a linguistic minority if we continue to associate ourselves with the disability community.
As for Rinko, I seriously doubt she acted better than the deaf actors who tried out. It is of my opinion that one has to live within and be a member of the cultural minority before they can accurately represent that minority. Besides, it is the responsibility of hearing people to recognize that they are not the right person for a job where a Deaf person would be the best person, i.e. ASL instructor. I am just so appalled with hearing people taking over such jobs when they can barely sign! But of course, when Hollywood comes calling, the claws come out which probably happened in the case of Rinko.
I’m curious to hear from the Japanese Deaf community about this issue. Did Rinko use Japanese Sign Language accurately in the film? Was there a JSL consultant on set? Etc.
There was an article that provided some information about the participation of deaf Japanese in the film (the article says that the scenes in Japanese were not subtitled in Japan, sigh).
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/fe.....Y19004.htm
Here’s the relevant part:
“many deaf Japanese cooperated in the project as extras and as assistants. They helped to make more realistic the scenes featuring actress Rinko Kikuchi, who plays the deaf character and has been nominated for the Oscar for best supporting actress.”
As for the “disability” argument, I understand, empathize, and relate to your concerns. That’s a whole other blog though.
To add insult to injury, no subtitle was available for the Japanese Deaf community. Not even Rinko did anything to ensure or help that the movie would be available out of respect for the Japanese Deaf audience. Here’s the link of the article:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/fe.....DY19004.ht
Rinko was obviously brought on board, as an established Japanese actress, to bring more “Star power” and attract a wider Japanese audience to the film.
Obviously, it would have been better to have a Deaf Japanese actrress in the role. Let’s just hope her experience with the Japanese Deaf community brings more Deaf awareness to Japan as William Hurt did as a big name actor as a star in “Children of a Lesser God.”
Not sure. See here. The first paragraph says she was “propelled… from obscurity to an Oscar nomination.”
On a tangent, for everyone else, go down to the fourth paragraph (3rd Q&A): “In order not to diminish my concentration, Alejandro would ask me to communicate in sign language and had it interpreted into English.” So, the director was bent on working with a sign language user. I wish a deaf actor was the beneficiary of this rare willingness by a film director.
I approach this topic with trepidation as it is very difficult to determine the answer to this dilemma. I thought Jared Evans’ comment about a deaf person playing a hearing person was interesting, and in the future I don’t see why a deaf person has to be “pigeon-holed” as a deaf character. We also have witnessed acclaimed movies with very talented actors that portrayed various disabilities while they did not possess it themselves.
In the end, the only thing I really found offensive in this whole situation was the actor’s repetitive use of the terminology of “deaf-mute.” To me the word mute implies inability to communicate at all, which is far from the truth for any deaf person I’ve met whether they rely on sign language solely or are oral deaf person. I would even venture to say that to apply the term, “mute” to modern day deaf people irregardless of its diversity and range, would be an oxymoron.
I generally deplore the fact that Hollywood has its biases in selecting hearing people to play deaf folks. I wish that there would be more “casting against type” plays and movies so that deaf people could play hearing people. I just love multicultural movies and plays that were written for white men originally. There was a Shakespeare based movie with Denzel Washington a few years back. The Shakespeare Theater here in Washington, D.C. is pretty good about that as well.
One of my pet peeves is the saintly deaf person who is a minor character, whether it is in a novel, movie, or TV show. A good example would be that deaf brother in “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” and that girl in the TV show, “Jericho.” These characters are always good and there’s very little complexity in their characterization or hint of drama in their lives. Almost, but not quite cardboard characters.
What I’d like to see are more complex characters who happen to be deaf. I don’t think that being a deaf person should be the first aspect of identity that people should see. I remember a quote by Sidney Poitier in, I think, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” where he said, “You think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man.”
That said, I think it would be awesome to seea movie with an all deaf cast of “Middlemarch,” or “Pride and Prejudice.” Or even something out of Shakespeare. That’d be a blast.
But knowing Hollywood economics, it won’t be anything but an indie production.
I have to agree that it is sad that in Hollywood there is a tendency for deaf characters to be 2-dimensional. Speaking on the subject of complex deaf characters, there was a fascinating BBC movie-drama not that long ago based on a suspected deaf murderer. The name of the show eludes me right now, I’ll see if I can find it later and reference it here.
I didn’t watch the BBC movie because I’m not a fan of British dramas, which tends to come at me as too dark for me to enjoy. But the few moments I watched it was an interesting glimspe into this particular deaf person’s character as a potential murderer that ardently denied the charge. So there’s hope yet that are at least some people in the entertainment industry who seek to create character that may be disabled but have much more complexity to their characters.
Hi DC Boots ~
Could it possibly be that you are referring to the Inspector Lynley series with Nathaniel Parker, in which that particular program was called “For the Sake of Elena?” In this program, the murder victim was a young deaf woman, and one of the suspects was indeed a deaf individual.
If in fact I am wrong, my apologies. However, I must say that I did enjoy this program, and it gave an interesting view of deafness, and in particular the struggle between the parents, who viewed deafness as a pathological condition which they never quite accepted, and the deaf daughter who was beginning to accept her Deaf identity. I also liked the way it portrayed the interaction between the Deaf characters and the police, although I wasn’t impressed with the behavior of the hearing “interpreter.” Since this was a BBC production, I don’t know if the deaf characters actually were deaf, but judging from the signing skills and behavior, I would be inclined to say they were (not sure about the deaf murder victim herself).
Interestingly enough, the deaf victim was not portrayed as “saintly” in this program, but came across more as being…well, something of a slut (In fact, she was pregnant at the time of her murder, and there was some question as to who the father might be).
By the way, this program is available through Netflix - just type in Inspector Lynley or For the Sake of Elena.
This is the interesting thing I have seen in a lot of movies and television programs - they way they portray the sexuality of deaf characters. Remember Johnny Belinda? While the deaf character was played by a hearing actress (Jane Wyman), one of the central themes of the movie is the fact that Belinda becomes pregnant. Granted, it was a case of rape, but what is interesting is how they indicated she didn’t understand about pregnancy and was considered an unfit mother, which seems to suggest that Deaf people don’t know anything about sex or child-rearing. Of course, this movie was made many years ago, but I can’t help wondering if people’s attitudes about deaf individuals has changed all that much since then.
Then we go on to other movies and television programs that do suggest there is either a lack of knowledge about sex within the Deaf Community, or else Deaf people are portrayed as possibly being sexually promiscuous and even getting pregant outside of wedlock. (The recent CSI television program comes to mind… and I also think about Marlee Matlin in “Children of a Lesser God” where she talks about having sex with hearing boys, and it being the one thing she could do better than hearing girls.)
Maybe it’s just me, but I come away from a lot of these Hollywood portrayals of Deaf people wondering if any of them are going to get it right - that the vast majority of us are just plain ordinary folks who get up in the morning, go to work, come home to spouses and children, have a pretty good understanding of the “birds and the bees,” and do know how to use birth control.
Ahhh…we can always dream, can’t we?
Haha. Yeah. Either we’re sex fiends, or we’re sexually naive. Gotta make us extreme!
We can dream, and make our dreams a reality. Shane’s suggestion about copying NAACP’s tactics is very valid, and I hope NAD and us deaf take it to heart. That’s how we can do change.
Virginia,
You nailed the name of the program I was trying to think of. It is interesting you pointed out the portrayal of sexuality for deaf characters, I have noticed that also. I have also noticed it in popular literature and that it is actually a myth for many hearing people that deaf girls are either “easy” or “innocent” or even both.
That seems to be the way of entertainment industry, generalization and stereotypes.
Virginia,
Wow, you opened my eyes about the deaf characters and their sexual relationships in various movies. I didn’t think of it!
Can anyone name a movie that demonstrated deaf characters in the most positive or authentic way? How about “Love is Never Silent”?
No problem, DCBoots. It came to me quickly and easily because I happen to have just finished watching a couple of DVDs of that series - I like BBC Mysteries, and happen to think that’s a pretty good one. (Besides, Nathaniel Parker makes for pretty nice eye candy!)
Thanks, WAD. That whole sexuality thing is interesting to think about, isn’t it?
As for positive or authentic portrayals…it’s been a long time since I saw “Love Is Never Silent”, and it doesn’t appear to be available on DVD, but I do seem to recall it was pretty authentic, if not the most positive of movies. There have been a couple of television programs that did show Deaf people in “somewhat” positive means…Marlee Matlin did that TV program “Reasonable Doubts” where she was a Deaf assistant district attorney, I think…
But when it comes to feature films shown in movie theaters, overall I think Hollywood still has a lot to learn.
perhaps, deaf characters appear to be more attractively vulnerable population than a MR woman or woman in wheelchairs being used for sex or be watonly….
Kaybee,
That’s an interesting statement. There is, I think, a tendency for the hearing population to place hearing impaired in a vulnerable lighting. There’s a certain romance for them involved in that positional process, where they can be almost a “savior” in that light. Or even the “corrupter” or “educator.” This is a generalization though, and doesn’t apply to every hearing person.
Good for Rinko losing her Oscar chance! I have no sympathy for her!
Audism clearly exists within the Hollywood and other film community. No excuse for hiring deaf performer! No buts!!
I lose my respect for Brad Pitt and other performers and the film director associated with “Babel”. I would not bother to view “Babel” on DVD.
I disagreed with Rex Reed, film critic about MM’s Oscar winning which she really wasn’t acting as a deaf person.
Enough is enough about casting a hearing person as a deaf person. Where are the real economic and career opporunity for talented deaf performers???
We must be vigorously active in opposing any Hollywood film or television programming to cast hearing person as a deaf character. That is definitely INSULTING and “SLAP ON THE FACE” to deaf people everywhere.
I never respect Amy Irving after she performed in “Voices”. Good for her divorced from Steven Spielberg!
I do respect Jane Wyman for her role in “Johnny Belinda” since she regularly visit residential schools of the deaf and gave finanical donations to those schools.
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
Kinda off this particular topic, but still on the subject…
Has anyone seen the movie “What the Bleep Do We Know?” with Marlee Matlin?
I thought the movie itself was interesting…a bit “out there” at times, but it certainly generated a lot of food for thought.
However, I can’t say that I was all that impressed with Marlee’s acting, or the way she was portrayed in this film.
Any thoughts?
Yuck. I am fascinated with quantum physics and all and there were good parts, but as a whole - would I buy it? No.
Virginia Beach, I have seen “What the Bleep Do We Know” film with Marlee Maltin (MM) few years ago. I found it to be somewhat okay. I could not remmy the whole storyline/plot along with the film.
RLM