‘CODA’: Sian Heder and Emilia Jones Were Scared of Using Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’ for Ruby’s Audition Scene but Mitchell Loves It
The right music can catapult a scene in a film to places no one expected. That’s what happened with Oscar winner CODA and Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.” However, director Sian Heder and Ruby actor Emilia Jones were scared of using the powerful song at first. They shouldn’t have worried.
A book called ‘Henderson the Rain King’ inspired Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’
Saul Bellow’s Henderson the Rain King inspired Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.” As the folk singer, aged 23, traveled on a plane in 1966, she read that the titular character was also traveling on a plane through clouds.
“I was reading Saul Bellow’s ‘Henderson the Rain King’ on a plane and early in the book Henderson the Rain King’ is also up in a plane,” Mitchell told the LA Times.
“He’s on his way to Africa and he looks down and sees these clouds. I put down the book, looked out the window and saw clouds too, and I immediately started writing the song. I had no idea that the song would become as popular as it did.”
After Mitchell wrote the song, Judy Collins recorded it first. “Both Sides Now” appeared on Collins’ album Wildflowers in 1967 and won Collins her only Grammy Award for Best Folk Performance in 1969. Mitchell later recorded her version in 1969. It appears on Mitchell’s sophomore album Clouds.
In 2000, Mitchell re-recorded the song with an orchestra for her album Both Sides Now. Some of the orchestra players cried when recording it.
Mitchell told the LA Times, “I didn’t expect that. That was really shocking to me, in a beautiful way. It made me sing differently. I mean, it sparked me into a deeper performance. That’s why I think that’s the definitive performance of that song. It’s how it should be.”
That 2000 version appeared in one of Emma Thompson’s scenes in Love Actually. It made an impact on Heder too.
‘CODA’ director Sian Heder and actor Emilia Jones were scared of using Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’
When deciding which song would compliment one of the biggest scenes in CODA, Heder was unsure of using Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.”
“I was like, ‘God can we take on that song? I don’t know,'” said Heder during a Q&A that followed a THR Presents screening of CODA at The Ross House.
Heder stuck by the song because of its connections with the main character, Ruby.
CODA (Children of Deaf Adults) follows the Rossis. The only hearing member of her family, Ruby (Emilia Jones), acts as the family interpreter but is considering attending music school.
During the film’s climax, Ruby sings “Both Sides Now” for her audition for the Berklee College of Music. To her surprise, her parents and brother enter the auditorium to watch, and she begins signing the song for them.
The film is about Ruby navigating early adulthood, and Mitchell was doing the same when she wrote “Both Sides Now.” In a way, Ruby knew both sides of life, living with her family and pursuing her dreams.
“I discovered this song in this whole other way, and there was no other song it could be,” said Heder. “CODAs live in two worlds. CODAs are constantly looking at this world from the deaf perspective and the hearing perspective, and navigating what that means.”
Jones describes the scene as a “lyrical dance.” She told The Rogers Review, “To be honest, ASL and music in the same film sounds like a contradiction, but to me, there are so many connections. ASL is a very musical language. It feels melodic, rhythmic and much more expressive than spoken English.”
Although, Jones felt intimidated singing the song.
Jones told Goggler, “It was daunting, that’s for sure. But in all honesty, it was the perfect song for our film, and for Ruby at that moment in the film. I was talking to Siân recently, and she was watching a Joni Mitchell documentary, and Joni was saying that when she wrote ‘Both Sides Now’ she was kind of meditating on fantasy and reality, this kind of childlike optimism versus adult reality.
“She said that the song was the work of her childhood’s end. So it’s the perfect song for ‘CODA’ because Ruby is coming to the end of her childhood, and she’s at that moment in life where she feels torn between the people that she loves and also creating an identity apart from them.
“She has to come to terms with separating from them. So I thought it was the absolute perfect, perfect song to choose. So as daunting as it was, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
Mitchell approved of ‘CODA’s use of the song
According to Heder, Mitchell has seen CODA and approves of its use of “Both Sides Now.”
“She was very happy with the use of the song and I was so relieved,” Heder said during The Hollywood Reporter’s Q&A, to which Jones responded: “That is crazy. I’m fan-girling.”
Mitchell gave her stamp of approval and congratulated the cast and crew after the Academy announced CODA‘s Oscar nominations. “Incredible performance of ‘Both Sides Now’ by @EmiliaJonesy in the 2021 film CODA directed by @SianHeder. Congratulations to the cast & crew on the nomination for Best Picture,” she wrote on her Twitter.
CODA‘s Marlee Matlin (Ruby’s mother, Jackie) said watching the scene unfold was amazing. Watching Jones’ “hands come to life was one of the most powerful things I have ever seen. I’ve never seen this in a film before.”
CODA‘s use of Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” is another excellent example of how music can transform a film.
