“Cool as hell”: Interpreter breaks Sign Language stereotypes

ASL interpreter Justina Miles goes viral for her performance at the Super Bowl. Photo / The Edge

With bold style and sass, Rihanna’s Super Bowl interpreter is breaking barriers of what we expect Sign Language to look like.  

American Sign Language interpreter Justina Miles went viral after performing at Rihanna’s Super Bowl show where she had all the moves and hit every beat.  

Holly Kennedy, freshly graduated sign language student, said, “We’re so used to seeing interpreters like we do in the Covid briefings or the Presidential inauguration in the US. They’re wearing formal plain dark clothing and they look like they’re scared of everything, so people come to expect that.”  

She said Miles’s performance was “awesome, cool as hell, great to see it.” 

“I think it’s way more fun because some deaf people still have some hearing and they can feel the vibration of the music.” 

“It’s a language like any other language so it’s expressive or not as expressive as you want it to be, in the same way that you can speak in very plain monotone language or you can use a lot of similes and metaphor and intonation in your voice.” 

Kennedy said the interpreter world has taken big steps in the last few years to have “young stylish interpreters” like Miles. “Her as an interpreter is a big deal as is.” 

Kennedy said Sign Language teachers are encouraging students to “add flare” to their articulation.  

“You do notice the differences in the way that different people will sign the same thing, just like having an accent or a lisp.” 

“It would be a bit weird to do a Rihanna song really formally like the interpreters on the covid briefings, that would look strange.” 

Kennedy is starring in a Fringe Festival show, Women Drink Hemlock, this March. The production fundraised for the show on the 9th of March to be New Zealand Sign Language interpreted.  

Alice Mander, National Disabled Students Association founder said, “People think that sign language is just like English translated but it’s in itself an entirely different language. It's got its own culture, it's got its own slang, humour and comedy style and so you often do see these really moving performances.” 

She felt more expressive styles of Sign Language help to include the Deaf community.  

“I think we forget that Sign Language is one of our official languages in this country.”  

Mander felt the more people we encourage to learn Sign Language, the better.