In a world where the spotlight often overlooks diversity, here’s an inspiring story of one actress’s journey into the limelight
A beautiful young girl enters University with all the hope in the world of furthering her career. She switches courses halfway to follow her passion for performing arts. With a love for dance at a young age then the decision to pursue acting, at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. A Big decision for any 20-year-old. The girl enters her classrooms and is met with discrimination; being told “You will not be good enough,” and “There will be no support for you on set or in rehearsals.” all because this young actress is deaf. This is Cherie Gordon’s story.
While Cherie shared her experience and inspiration for getting into the industry she sadly signed and stopped for a moment to admit “I cannot think of a film on top of my head that has British Sign Language (BSL) in it in the UK, which is really sad.” Realizing that there is a severe lack of BSL in movies, she explained “This makes me feel that BSL users are not being seen, and our language is not as important as other languages like French or Spanish and other foreign languages you’d see in UK films.”
Cherie Gordon is an up-and-coming actress who has recently found her big break in BBC’s Boat Story, a new six-part series that came out in winter 2023. The story follows two strangers who come across a bag of cocaine on a shipwreck. They agree to sell the stash and split the cash, they find themselves in a world bigger than they thought. Cherie’s character, Anya, is the daughter of one of these strangers, who is at risk of being entangled with this world.
Anya’s character communicates via sign language in every episode, and in every scene, she is able to convey a slightly humoristic and sassy daughter without saying an actual word. Anya’s character may be minor in every episode but she provides a level of representation that is human and not a disability check box.
As an actress, Cherie said that deaf representation in movies and TV in the UK is not fair or appropriate in most cases, detailing “There have been a few TV shows that have storylines that are confusing or disappointing in the way we are presented, or the storyline is an assumption of how deaf people live when it’s true or authentic at all.” This is in relation to certain TV shows, like Coronation Street and Eastenders but also one-offs in shows like Doctors, Silent Witness, and Casualty.
Cherie added, “Some of these characters are written in ways that are not ‘deaf friendly’ which is why it is important to have the right knowledge, experience, and research when writing and creating a show that will involve deaf characters.” Continuing with the process of creating these storylines Cherie explained how there “Needs to be a reason as to why this character is deaf and how they appear in the story.” Cherie’s character being deaf in Boat Story makes sense, as her father comes across a boatload of cocaine and sells it. Anya’s dad sells it to fund his gambling addiction but also to make sure the family is okay, possibly hinting at any costs for his daughter’s deafness.
In comparison to the US, where there is a growing number of on-screen deaf characters and deaf lead roles, such as Marvel’s Hawkeye and Echo series; which can be considered to be mini-movies due to how they’re created compared to established TV shows. In comparison in the UK Cherie said she believes “that sometimes a one-off is easier in a TV show because it avoids any confusion to the story, or just to ‘tick-box’ not only for deaf characters but for disabled characters too, which is unfair and shouldn’t happen.” Cherie explained that this may also be due to needs on set requirements such as funding, access, and interpreters.
Read more: A film without visuals: Movies for the blind
As for Cherie’s career, she’s starred in a few short films but has found her break in BBC’s latest show, Boat Story. Cherie was so happy when she got the opportunity for Boat Story, detailing “My role was bigger than I thought it was and I was proud to be acting as a BSL user in the series.” signing enthusiastically about the process of getting the role for Boat Story, Cherie said “I was lucky because I had just graduated in 2020 during COVID thinking I would never make it in the mainstream industry. I had to make myself known by doing as much as I could, interviews, short films, Drama workshops, and as many auditions as I could, even if I got rejected, I took it on the chin and carried on.”
Cherie hadn’t even thought of auditioning for Boat Story until the director contacted her agency asking for her, because he had seen Cherie in the short film she starred in and co-directed, I Still Blame Myself. It was to her surprise that someone from the ‘mainstream’ would have seen it and wanted her in their next project. Looking back at the process Cheire admitted it was “a bit weird” because it was all over Zoom, and the world was in masks. “It was hard to get my foot in the door but I had to do what I could to get my name out there.” She expressed how happy she was to receive a Facetime call explaining how she got the role.
