Emilia Jones about Best Picture Oscar Winner CODA: ‘Only deaf actors could have done these roles justice’

by Ella Harold, March 28, 2022.

Emilia Jones had her work cut out for her when she was cast in Sundance’s latest darling. In the film CODA (which stands for Child of Deaf Adults), she plays Ruby, a Massachusetts teenager who has a passion for singing soul songs and whose parents will never be able to hear her perform. Suffice to say, Jones — a Brit with no sign language skills and a delicate voice — was not the obvious choice.

But she put in the hours and spent nine months learning to sign, honing her New England accent and strengthening her voice. “I had auditioned with ‘Landslide’ by Fleetwood Mac, a very gentle cover that I did on my guitar,” she says. “Then, in my first singing lesson for the film, it was like, ‘Here’s Etta James and Aretha Franklin.’ They’re grown-ups — their voices are insane. And these are big songs. It was daunting to me because I was only 17 when I shot this movie and my voice was still maturing.”

Her efforts paid off. CODA was acquired by Apple for $25m (£18m — a Sundance record) and is the first film in history to win all of the Sundance Festival’s top prizes in the US dramatic category. It’s already predicted to be a 2022 Oscars contender. Gushing critics have called it “this summer’s most heartwarming film” and an “instant classic”.