Austinite stars in ‘Barbie with ASL’ to increase the blockbuster’s accessibility

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — A deaf Austinite is inviting even more people into Barbie world, as she stars in the blockbuster’s version of the film available in American Sign Language.

It’s part of an effort to make Greta Gerwig’s smash hit more accessible to the deaf community and is the first movie available in ASL on Max, formerly known as HBO Max.

Austin’s own Leila Hanaumi stars in the “Barbie with ASL” — where she interprets and performs the full two hour movie, taking on the roles of dozens of characters in Barbie.

“My hope is that the Barbie movie will set an example and a standard of what accessibility and inclusive experience looks like not just for deaf children, but for adults as well for the community at large,” Hanaumi told Nexstar via an interpreter.

Born deaf to two deaf parents, Hanaumi said her mother used to sign movies for her in order to enhance her watching experience as a child. She said that closed captioning is helpful, but doesn’t have the same ability to the nuance of language like ASL does, where tone and emotion are better translated to those who cannot hear it.

“Ninety percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents and the vast majority of them don’t ever have access to sign language. So that leads to language deprivation from that child, it’s a huge issue in the deaf community. And that’s why I wanted to do this,” she said.

She said the opportunity fell into her lap, thanks to a friend who recommended Hanaumi for the job.

“It was a true sign of change of how the world is transforming. And how our world is beginning to understand the deaf community, what our needs are and what accessibility and inclusivity means,” she said. “Typically, it’s an afterthought. People forget to make things accessible until something comes up. They forget particular audiences.”

With the film’s themes of inclusion and acceptance, taking on the project was a no-brainer for Hanaumi. While she has worked on other major interpretations before, Hanaumi said that learning Barbie was her toughest gig yet. With fast-paced dialogue and punchy political references, Hanaumi had to quickly shift from character to character — even coming up with a sign for the compound words “Kenergy” and Kenough.”

Her favorite part to sign was actress America Ferrerra’s epic monologue about the often contradictory expectations and pressures society puts on women. While the message resonated with women across the world, it particularly hit home for Hanaumi.

“It truly showed how women, myself included, have to be not too much and not too little, we have to find that place to be just right in order to be accepted in the world. And that applies to my identity as a deaf person,” she said. “I try not to be too deaf. Even in this interview right now, I’m still mouthing English. I’m still expressing myself in a very clear way so that I can be accepted by hearing viewers.”

Hanaumi said she watched the movie about 50 times to ensure near-perfection in her performance. Warner Bros. even hired an ASL coach, Jac Cook, to work with her to help ensure the humor and themes of the movie were properly conveyed in sign language.

“Barbie is iconic and the message was so powerful. It was critical to capture every bit of what was in the movie… a lot of creative decisions went into how this was done.”

Together, Cook and Hanaumi spent several weeks perfecting the art of signing the Barbie movie. Unlike audible dialogue — where different voices signify to the viewer that a different character is speaking — interpreting the film in ASL required another layer of creativity.

In the film, Hanaumi uses role-shifting — a technique in ASL in which the performer shifts the position of their body on screen to match with the character they are signing for. The majority of the movie’s dialogue includes numerous characters in conversation, so Hanaumi would quickly shift her body to represent new characters speaking.

“Tone and nuance are contexts that show up on the face and we missed that whenever we only read the captions. We’re not getting any of that audio tone, that vocal intonation. Not only that, but I mentioned language deprivation being a major issue in our community. So the ability to read English very quickly is not accessible to everyone,” Hanaumi said of the difference between ASL and closed captioning.

Even for hearing audiences, it is entertaining and compelling to watch Hanaumi sign the two-hour spectacle. She said she imagined interpreting the film for her two children, who are also deaf.

“My greatest hope is that deaf kids can see themselves in this. I want people to see that deaf people exist, that sign language exists,” she said. “I hope it will encourage others in the broader community connect with deaf people. We’ve always been around and now we have the opportunity to be a part of each other’s worlds.”

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