Sierra Burgess Is A Loser made sure to cast deaf actor Cochise Zornoza in the role of Jamey's (Noah Centineo) little brother Ty, but fellow deaf actor and advocate Nyle DiMarco isn't happy with how it ended up panning out. In the film, Sierra (Shannon Purser) bumps into Jamey and Ty, and in order to conceal her identity, pretends to be deaf and ends up faking sign language.
"So one of my close friends' deaf brother is in Sierra Burgess," DiMarco wrote on Twitter over the weekend, referring to Zornoza. "When I learned, I was elated. Finally more deaf actors/representation & ASL inclusion in films ... Only to find out the deaf character was written and used for a terrible joke. PS- pretending to be deaf is NOT ok."
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DiMarco had other issues with the movie's content, including some of its jokes about LGTBQ issues. "It is extremely easy to make jokes about marginalized/disfranchised groups..." he continued. "But that makes you a lazy writer. And honestly you shouldn’t make these jokes AT ALL because our lives are on the line."
Reps for DiMarco and Netflix did not immediately respond to Refinery29's request for comment.