The Tension at the Heart of <em>CODA</em>

In a 1993 episode of Seinfeld, Jerry dates a deaf woman named Laura. Naturally, George views Laura’s disability as something to be exploited. He wants her to read lips from across the room at a party so he can find out what, if anything, others are saying about him. It’s George’s gall, not Laura’s deafness, that’s the butt of the joke. But the episode is illustrative of a larger phenomenon: For decades, whenever disabled characters have appeared on-screen, they’ve typically been defined by their disability and little else.

Marlee Matlin, the deaf actress who played Laura, is part of the ensemble of deaf actors in the movie CODA. By now readers may be familiar with CODA’s origin story: Filmed for a reported $10 million on location in Gloucester, Massachusetts, CODA won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, sold to Apple Studios for a record $25 million, and has since nabbed three Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.

Roughly takes place in American Sign Language (ASL)..