Trivia / Sound of Metal

• Actor-Inspired Element: Paul Raci himself is not deaf, but growing up with two deaf parents and having worked as an ASL interpreter in the Los Angeles court system for years, he was very knowledgable on the worldview of the deaf community and brought a nuance to the role of Joe that Darius Marder needed.
• Actor-Shared Background: Joe mentions having served in Vietnam and lost his hearing in combat. Paul Raci also served two tours in Vietnam, although in the Navy rather than the Army, and struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction in his thirties as Joe did. Dialogue in his first scene also implies he's from Chicago, same as Raci.
• Billing Displacement: Olivia Cooke is billed above Paul Raci. While prominent in the first act and regaining that prominence near the end, most of the movie takes place in Raci's community, where he is a consistent presence and she's almost entirely absent.
• Darkhorse Casting: The original plan was to cast Joe with a famous veteran but Darius Marder turned down meetings with A-list actors and gave it to Paul Raci instead. It worked out, as Raci wound up being one of the most critically acclaimed elements of the film, winning several awards and getting an Oscar nomination.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Many of the deaf community members that Ruben lives with are played by actors who are also deaf in real-life.
  • As for the Aversion of this trope concerning the two largest roles, Paul Raci also noted that it made sense to cast Ruben and Joe with hearing actors, as they both had many years with their hearing before losing it, which gives them a different perspective than those who never had it. It also helps that Joe, the one whose long since transitioned into his deafness is played an actor whose very well versed in this subject due to having two deaf parents and working as an ASL interpreter for decades prior, while Ruben has just entered this world, meaning he'd be just as unfamiliar with it as his actor.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Riz Ahmed fully immersed himself into the role of Ruben, taking lessons in both drumming and American Sign Language.
• Fake American: Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke are both from England.

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