'CODA' actor Daniel Durant emphasized expressions in 'Silent Notes'

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Deaf actor Daniel Durant said his new movie Silent Notes, which premiered at the Austin Film Festival Friday, emphasized his face.

Durant, 34, plays Bruce, a recently deaf man who becomes a courier for the mob to earn money for a cochlear implant.

"My goal with the character and this film is to really show and utilize my facial expressions when it comes to me showing emotion," Durant told UPI via an interpreter in a recent Zoom interview. "You guys can see that through my eyes, through my actions, through my facial expressions."

Durant played a teenager whose sister is the only hearing member of the family in the Oscar-winning CODA. He has also appeared on stage and in TV shows like Switched at Birth.

Unlike Bruce, Durant has been deaf since birth. He identifies himself as Deaf with a capital letter.

"I'm proud to be one of those individuals who are Deaf and to be able to play a character who goes through such a journey as I do in the movie," Durant said. "That's why I hold the capitalization."

Though Durant speaks American Sign Language, he said he embraced the challenge of Bruce communicating without a visual language. Bruce could understand people speaking with a hearing aid until the beginning of the film.

Durant said Silent Notes also appealed to him because Deaf people do not often get to star in mafia movies.

"Most people when they meet a Deaf person, they are very gentle [towards the Deaf]," Durant said. "It shows that hearing or Deaf, you can live in both worlds."

The mob partners Bruce with Ethan (Matt Riker) on deliveries, and the two fall in love. Since Bruce can read lips, Ethan speaks continuously to Bruce.

Riker said he improvised additional dialogue on top of the script by Jason Furiani. Director Toni Comas encouraged improvisations.

"I just kept talking until I was told to shut up," Riker said.

Comas joked that calling cut at the end of a take "means shut up." Comas added that he was looking for a co-star who would be uninhibited speaking in front of Durant.

Riker impressed Comas in his Zoom audition by not changing the way he spoke in light of his Deaf costar.

"The rest of the actors were trying very hard to make themselves understandable," Comas said. "The movie's about a person talking nonstop to a Deaf person."

That rapid fire dialogue ultimately leads Ethan to come out to Bruce. Riker said Ethan's character was vivid in the script before he added his own improvisation.

"The exploration of his character and the world he's in, the hiding of his sexuality in this masculine world was just beautiful to explore," Riker said.

Durant said Bruce never expected to fall in love, as he was focused on saving up for his cochlear implant.

"With everything going on in the world, when they were together it was kind of just them two," Durant said. "That connection reflects how Ethan is the world to Bruce, even though Ethan may talk his ears off if I may say."

Silent Notes began filming before CODA, but could only complete reshoots after CODA's release due to budget and COVID-19 delays. Durant said the release of CODA on Apple TV+ after its Sundance premiere has brought more visibility to stories with Deaf characters.

"We now see more and more Deaf characters arising," Durant said. "I really hope we can see that consistently throughout the industry going forward."

CODA was based on a French film, The Bélier Family, which cast hearing actors in the deaf roles. Durant said he avoided The Bélier Family while making CODA and has never had a chance to see it.

"I knew that it would be a different rendition of the original," Durant said. "If I was to watch that film in the process of filming, it probably would have influenced me in certain ways."

Likewise, Comas decided to avoid watching CODA until he completed Silent Notes. Comas did not want to risk drawing parallels between Durant's two characters.

Comas made plans to watch CODA on Saturday, following the premiere of Silent Notes.

"I wanted to make sure that the movie we were making was our movie," Comas said.

Durant is currently appearing in the Green Day musical American Idiot in Los Angeles. It is his second musical after Spring Awakening.

Durant said musicals have given him a way to appreciate music even if he cannot hear it in the traditional sense.

"Everything to me is just rhythm - - Your breath, whether you inhale or exhale, your heartbeat, starting your car up and having your car just idle," Durant said. "That was my connection to music - - the timing, the rhythm, having those beats."

Silent Notes plays again Monday night in Austin, Texas.