Nyle DiMarco Explains Why Casting Hearing Actors for Deaf Roles Is Problematic

From Oprah Magazine

When Nyle DiMarco learned that Henry Zaga, a hearing actor, was cast in CBS ALL Access’s new series The Stand as Nick Andros, who is described as a “deaf-mute” in the Stephen King novel the show is based on, he was angered.

At 30, the Queens-born model and TV personality is best known for winning America’s Next Top Model in 2015 and taking home the Dancing with the Stars Mirrorball Trophy in 2016. But perhaps most importantly, DiMarco, who identifies as sexually fluid, is also an activist for Deaf people like himself. He’s used to addressing issues central to the Deaf community, but Zaga’s upcoming role flummoxed him for a number of reasons.

For one, he began to think that the tide was shifting on this sort of negligent casting. In January, The Good Place’s Jameela Jamil turned down a Deaf role telling the Press Association it “wouldn’t be appropriate” for her to take on the part, and that she hopes the role will go to “a brilliant Deaf woman.” And in July, Marvel announced that they had cast Lauren Ridloff, a Deaf actress who is Mexican and Black, in the role of Makkari in their upcoming Eternals movie, a role that was written as a hearing white man in the original 1976 comic.

But despite these advancements, DiMarco predicted the wrong person could be cast in The Stand and reached out to Josh Boone—its executive producer, writer, and director—in an effort to circumvent what he considers a grave misstep. Boone ignored his outreach. When DiMarco then tried reaching out to Zaga, both publicly and privately, his messages also went ignored, his comments hastily deleted.

OprahMag.com sat down with DiMarco to gain his perspective on the problem, the solution, and, in a slight but relevant pivot, what Democratic candidates he’s got his eye on ahead of the 2020 election.

On August 2nd, you tweeted that Hollywood “continues to exclude people with disabilities” in response to Zaga’s casting. First, had you known about the role and submitted yourself for consideration?

I have known about this project for more than two years now. When I saw that it was in development with director Josh Boone, I reached out and mentioned that I truly hoped he’d choose a Deaf person to play the role. And over the last two years, I have not received any kind of response back. So either he didn’t receive it, or he was ignoring my comments altogether. I’ve known the story of The Stand for many years growing up. I’m very familiar with Rob Lowe’s acting as Nick Andros in the 1994 miniseries. So I was prepared to contact them and navigate them through that process—only to see that I was ignored and that this was the casting decision that they made.

Before reaching out, what was your initial reaction to the news?

Truly this felt like a slap in the face. We’ve seen a lot more deaf talent over the last four years, myself included, and yet we’re still seeing this problem continue in 2019. The conversation seems to always link back to diversity and inclusion, specifically surrounding race and gender, but disability as being a part of diversity seems to take a backseat.

How would you react to someone saying that Nick Andros should not be your target, and instead CBS?

It’s important that we make an impact in as many areas as we can, not just CBS All Access. All Access is part of a large corporation, making it much easier to ignore small commentary in the process of creating content. It takes everyone to stand up in their own role to make this bigger than people themselves, and to encourage actors to step down from these roles. The film Hellboy, for example, had a white actor who stepped down so that an Asian person could take that role, which is an incredibly empowering move and makes an incredible impact. It also changes the perspective of the people that are in these higher offices and are in these seats making the decisions. I’m very happy to see that, of course.

Have you had any contact with Henry Zaga directly?

I did try to reach out. I left the comments and I sent him a DM to open up the conversation and I didn’t receive a response. My comments were deleted. I posted again. And then he disabled comments altogether on the post. So it seems quite clear that he’s not willing to move forward and engage in any kind of conversation or find a middle ground or be a part of the discussion. He just very much shut us down in an effort to sweep things under the rug.

Actor Jared Perez-DeBusk, who is Deaf, posted screenshots of a conversation he had with Josh Boone. Boone seemed somewhat receptive to Perez-DeBusk's comments, but unwilling to do anything about it. Did you see this exchange and what do you make of it?

Having seen that, I feel in a way it’s a little bit patronizing; it’s a little bit egotistical. It’s almost like he’s saying ‘Deaf people aren’t qualified.’ And it seems that there’s a clear lack of understanding of what kind of Deaf people are truly out there and how they’re seen. It seems that he really sees Deaf people as one-dimensional and monochromatic, as opposed to having a full spectrum. I mean, there are Deaf people like me or Deaf people who only recently lost their hearing or maybe late-deafened. Certainly he could have taken a better look at that spectrum and found somebody who really fit that role. They’re certainly qualified, but it’s not being seen that way.

Boone mentions here that his job is to bring to life this story in the best way possible. Do you see that response as a means of relinquishing culpability?

Everyone’s goal is to do that, but who is better qualified to play a Deaf person in a Deaf role? To me, it’s impossible for a hearing actor to take up a role as a Deaf person and do a good job. It’s just impossible. There are so many examples—the actor from Hush, [Kate Siegel], is hearing and plays a Deaf role. Her signing is horrible and yet she was commended and received praise for her performance. But to the community of Deaf people, it’s a very different perspective. If you look at The Shape of Water as another example, Sally Hawkins is playing her role as a mute, so granted she’s not Deaf, but it’s very much related by language, and she almost won an Oscar for her acting, yet her signing was not great at all. It was almost as though the hearing audience was being fooled by her acting.

But to Deaf people it was clear that a Deaf person would have been better for the role. There are plenty of hard of hearing people out there that would be able to play the role. It’s really a question of approaching this in a more authentic and empowering way. I truly do believe that they would have brought more market value to this show if it was done by somebody who could authentically play the role.

You mentioned there’s subconscious stigma toward the Deaf and disabled community. Do you see that stigma lessening, or do you think not enough work is being done?

I feel like the conversations surrounding diversity tend to center around skin color certainly, and gender, but don’t often include disability—there is a subconscious stigma. It’s often a matter of saying “don’t forget us.” And when I bring these discussions to light it seems as though there’s far less support for that. For example, if I were to discuss my identity as part of the LGBTQ community, I always receive an overload of support. Yet whenever I mention anything about Deaf or disabled rights it seems like the conversation fizzles out quite quickly.

What’s one piece of information you want people to better understand as a result of your activism?

Obviously, the bottom line: I really want people to understand that people with disabilities are part of the conversation about diversity. Often we’re seen as second-class citizens and there are so many of us, over one billion of us—we’re everywhere. Often people say, “Oh, well, I’ve never seen a person with a disability.” But you have. You see us every day. We’re out here. We’re around. But also I want people to understand that you can’t fight for one specific right within the diversity spectrum unless you’re willing to fight for all identities within the diversity spectrum. And it does get very tiring, this fight.

Josh Boone may be forever mad at me and not give me an opportunity ever again, but at the same time, I have to fight for my community. I have to do this work. It’s a mantle that I carry for them. We’re moving things essentially in the right direction. Deaf and disabled people are now allowed to take up more space, but we still have such a long way to go.

Presidential candidates like Beto O’Rourke and Cory Booker received acclaim (and criticism) for answering several questions in Spanish during the Democratic debates. Have you seen efforts to reach out to the Deaf community by any of Democratic candidates?

I did receive a DM from Cory Booker who is interested in talking about disability issues going forward, which is great. And when I was at the Democratic Debate, Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren were incredibly receptive and wanted to set up meetings and start a discussion around rights. There was a scheduling conflict, but hopefully we’ll be opening up that discussion with them soon. This is a little bit off topic, but I read a good article about how people with disabilities are the key to voting blocks in 2020 because there are over 61 million people with disabilities in the United States. I think the disabled community really is the key.

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