'We don't need fixing, because we're not broken'
Deaf actor Matthew Gurney on defying stereotypes, the search for cultural identity – and finding inspiration in the most unusual places
Yellowbelly
- Gareth McLean
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As inspirations for acting careers go, Alan Kilby, the 1970s pro-wrestler from Sheffield, is an unusual one. Yet that’s who fired the imagination of actor Matthew Gurney, the lead in Reunion.
On screen, the 49-year-old, who is deaf, broods as Brennan, a convicted murderer who, on release from jail, embarks on a mission, his motives murky. In person — we converse via a BSL interpreter — he is affable, especially as he explains how Kilby — the five-times winner of the British heavy middleweight and the British light heavyweight championships — widened his childhood horizons.
“He was around, playing with Big Daddy and all those characters, and he was deaf. And I was like, ‘Hang on a minute. He’s a deaf person. He’s on telly. I could do that!’”
In 1980s Oxford, it wasn’t just that there was a dearth of deaf role models — deaf people were all but invisible in culture and society. In that context, the young Gurney saw possibility in Kilby, whose championship wins were just a small part of his achievements.
Growing up, Gurney developed a talent for mimickry and had small parts in school plays, but it wasn’t until, as an adult, when he was MC-ing at an evening set up by his deaf football team, that he seriously considered the possibility of acting. “I must have been good at it because a couple of people said, ‘You should be an actor.’ And then I found a passion for it.”
Matthew Gurney as Daniel and Lara Peake as Carly in Reunion. BBC
Small parts in theatre, film and TV followed. “Historically, with a deaf role, it’s a small character in Casualty or Holby City.People feel sorry for us. They’re never criminals or baddies,” Gurney says. “But with Brennan, he had hinterland, darkness. I’d been looking for a character like this for 20 years. So, I went into the audition and I gave it my all. And I delivered.”
There is a scene in which Brennan reveals that he hasn’t signed for six years. As you imagine what that must be like — not communicating with anyone, meaningfully and in your own language for so long — and how isolating that must be, Gurney says it resonated with his own experience.
“It’s language deprivation and we have it from birth. The first exam we do [is a hearing test] and we fail. From a medical perspective, we’re faulty and we need to be fixed. Except we’re not and we don’t. We need sign language, we need culture, we need identity. We don’t want to be fixed because we’re not broken. I’m from a deaf family and we’ve seen it over and over again. It’s why a lot of deaf people have mental health problems.”
Gurney is emphatic: his deafness is not a disability — though other people’s attitudes can be. “We try and fit into a hearing world, but lots of hearing people don’t attempt to fit in with us. It’s about having conversation however you can; it’s about trying. If you don’t try, you’ll never get there.”
Gurney has high hopes for Reunion but it being his big break isn’t one of them. “I’m going to stay humble and remember where I came from.” He does hope that hearing audiences pay proper attention to the drama. “It’s not all about sound. Use your eyes and watch what’s being told. Watch how we act, watch our movements, our body language. There are messages everywhere, especially in the silence.”
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And, impishly, he also hopes that a school teacher who was awful to him for years sees it. “He said I’d never make it, but here I am. Here I am.”
Authors
Gareth McLean
Gareth McLean has been writing about television for nearly 30 years. As a critic, he's reviewed thousands of programmes. As a feature writer, he's interviewed hundreds of people, from Liza Minnelli to Jimmy Savile. He has also written for TV.
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