“Boy Kills World” movie has deaf character, but cast by hearing person
Renca Dunn, Daily Moth Reporter: The movie “Boy Kills World” is in theaters now and the main character is deaf and cannot speak, but that character is played by a hearing actor named Bill Skarsgård. Bill is known for his role in the movie “It” and the upcoming movie “The Crow.”
(Full-screen image of movie poster, Bill Skarsgård)
The story is based on a character named “Boy” (acted by Bill) who becomes a martial arts expert and takes his revenge for the death of his family in a post-apocalyptic era.
In the articles that talk about this movie, they used the word “deaf-mute” to describe the main character. I personally have watched this movie. Just to give you a warning, this movie is rated R and has a lot of bloody, gory, and violent scenes. The big discussion here is that a deaf person could have been cast for this role.
I will give you a brief recap of what I noticed in the movie specifically related to the main character, Boy.
Basically, Boy was hearing at first then later by a violent force, someone made him deaf and not able to speak. Now in the scenes when Boy was hearing- he was very young and there were little to no scenes of him speaking at all. Most of the movie focuses on Boy as an adult and his “inner voice” speaking which was a voice-over. Apparently, Boy is an expert in lipreading.
There were a few scenes of Boy “signing” (but not really signing) with the master who taught him martial arts. There were burned-in captions on the screen, but the “signing” was out of frame and you cannot really see what is being signed. Was that a way to “avoid” actual signs?
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As we know, our Deaf community really wants proper representations and more opportunities for Deaf people to be involved with film.
We asked a Deaf filmmaker and founder of Zankza project (a nonprofit organization to support Deaf filmmakers, creators, etc.), MJ Kiego, to share her insights on whether a deaf person could have been casted for this role in this movie and how in general movies can be more inclusive of deaf people.
[Begin commentary]
MJ Kiego: You know, sometimes it depends on the context. Because some characters may have started out hearing and then became deaf later on. Whether they became deaf over time or lost their hearing overnight, the point here is that they were hearing before they became deaf. So it depends. In this film, “Boy Kills World,” it seems like they filmed him as a young person and showed flashbacks of what happened to him when he became deaf. He was hurt or something. Then the majority of the story is about his adult life. He was already deaf. So why couldn’t they cast a deaf actor who already had the experience of being a late-deafened person? I’m sure there are many different kinds of deaf people out there. There are many out there who don’t know sign language as well. You can find, I’m sure at least one, actor that says they are late-deafened. Why not cast him? Of course, they want to use big names. A-list actors. This actor was in “It” as the clown. He seems to be popular and people like his work. This film has a lot of action, so it may be difficult to find a specific kind of actor who has experience with stunts, fighting choreography, that kind of thing. So they may feel this actor is ready to go and they’re minimizing the deaf aspect and using him.
To be blunt, deaf people who work in acting or behind the scenes in films have very little opportunities to become involved. Many deaf people, even those with big names, and those who have already been in A-list films, still fail to get more opportunities. So really, I think any chance that you could give a deaf person a deaf role, just do it. I recognize that some filmmakers may decline because of budget reasons. It can be more expensive to become “accessible.” For example, you have to hire interpreters, consultants, sensitivity coordinators, and the list goes on. So maybe that’s why they don’t want to do this and prefer a shortcut. They can just hire one hearing person, teach them, and be done with it. But if you want authenticity in your films, I suggest you get deaf people involved. Not just front but also behind the camera as well.
[End commentary]
Renca: Thank you for your time. Now, question for you, the Deaf community: what do you think? If a character in a movie used to be hearing and became deaf later and the whole movie is based on the character being deaf, could a deaf person have gotten this role? Comment below.