Alaqua Cox’s performance as the titular character in Marvel’s new limited series Echo is a tour de force. As it turns out, the 26-year-old Menominee/Mohican actress is a force to be reckoned with, too. She’s bringing Indigenous, deaf, and disability representation to television in a way we’ve never witnessed before. That’s not an exaggeration — Cox is making history with Echo, the first Marvel show centered on a deaf, Native American superhero. And she’s just getting started.
“It feels f*cking awesome to be part of this historical moment; I love proving people wrong,” she tells Teen Vogue. “I’m so happy that Indigenous people are showing our authentic stories and breaking down barriers. I grew up never seeing myself represented on the screen. I’m excited for audiences — kids especially — to see people like me with different disabilities or diversities on TV so that they understand they are beautiful just the way they are.”
The Hollywood newcomer grew up on the Menominee Indian Reservation in Wisconsin, where she still lives today in the Green Bay area with her fiancé, Erich, and their three-month-old son. In early 2020 when she was working at an Amazon warehouse, friends sent her a casting call seeking a deaf Indigenous woman in her 20s — essentially a description of Cox. She had little acting experience outside of high school plays and had major doubts about her chances, but she still gave it a shot. That led to her breakout role as ass-kicking Choctaw/Latin American anti-hero Maya Lopez (aka Echo) in 2021’s Hawkeye, starring Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld.
“I figured [Marvel] probably didn’t want an amputee woman, because you [rarely] see amputees on TV,” she recalls. “But I’m so happy that the amputee community can now say that we have an amputee superhero. I want them to know that their dreams should not have limitations and that they don’t have to ‘fix’ themselves.”
Not only were Marvel studio execs willing to cast Cox back then, but for this year’s Echo — which tells Maya’s backstory — they even rewrote the character to mirror her prosthetic lower right leg. In fact, the behind-the-scenes team went above and beyond to accommodate Cox, including hiring a deaf acting coach and a deaf personal trainer for her extensive stunt training and learning basic sign language so they could easily communicate, in addition to the on-set interpreters. American Sign Language is regularly spoken throughout Echo, as is Choctaw.
“On the first day of filming, the Choctaw people did a blessing ceremony for good luck,” Cox recalls. “We all did a powwow in their tradition as well. We even had Choctaw representatives on set to make sure their language was pronounced correctly. Syd did a great job collaborating with everybody, and it turned out so beautifully.”
She’s referring to Navajo director and executive producer Sydney Freeland, whose recent credits include Native-focused shows like Reservation Dogs and Rutherford Falls. Cox had the opportunity to learn from notable Indigenous talents both behind and in front of the camera, including actors Devery Jacobs, Tantoo Cardinal, Graham Greene, and Zahn McClarnon.
“It just felt like home being with them,” Cox says of the close-knit community. “When I moved out of my reservation to go to Georgia [for filming], I’d never been to Atlanta before and I didn’t know anybody. But when I stepped on set, it was full of Native people, and we had our own Native humor. It was so nice to have those connections and laugh and have a good time. They’re my lifelong friends now.”
Like other Indigenous entertainment, Echo delves into the traumas Native peoples have faced as the result of colonialism, including displacement, dispossession, and disconnection from their traditional lifeways. Viewers watch as Maya returns from New York City to her small Oklahoma hometown to reconnect with her heritage. To play the part, Cox tapped into her own childhood traumas.
“I used my personal experiences to portray Maya, who has a lot of complicated emotions from being raised by Kingpin, this horrible criminal,” she says. “I grew up in hospitals having surgeries for my leg and spent a lot of time in a wheelchair. I had to relearn how to walk. So we both have our own childhood trauma. I love that Maya is able to go home and get the support she needs from her family.”
Even though she grew up on her tribe’s reservation, Cox has also experienced disconnection from her culture. “Sadly, I don’t really know a lot about my own culture or language,” she says. “I did attend an Indigenous school, but I was the only deaf person there at the time and I had bad interpreters. When we had Menominee culture and language class, I was always pulled out to go to speech therapy — so I didn’t get the privilege of learning about my own culture and history. I’m trying to learn more now.”
It’s still surreal to Cox that she has made it in Hollywood, although it’s starting to feel more real thanks to things like the recent star-studded Echo premiere in Los Angeles. “I was so nervous because I hadn’t had any acting experience before, then there I was having my own Hollywood premiere,” she says. “But then I saw all the cast and crew who I hadn’t seen for such a long time. When we hugged, my nerves just went away.”
Her infant son started fussing so she didn’t get to stay for the official Echo screening, but that’s fine by Cox, who has a hard time watching herself act (or even getting attention on social media, for that matter). Three months in, motherhood has been a life-changing new adventure for her, and she plans to pass down her Menominee cultural traditions to her son.
“I wish I was able to speak my own Menominee language, of course, but his grandma can teach him that,” she says. “I definitely would love to take him to powwows, have regalia for him, and have him involved in different Native events so he can soak it all in and cherish his culture.”
In addition to showing her son the beauty of his heritage, Cox is showing the Indigenous, deaf, and disability communities that they have a place in media — and showing the entertainment industry how to do it right.
“It’s so important to have authentic representation because I grew up seeing the same kind of people on TV, and now it’s beautiful to see all these different skin colors and disabilities,” she says. “In the coming years, I want to see roles with disabilities played by people with disabilities. I’m also hoping that people on other sets ask cast members what they can do to improve and make them more comfortable, like they did for me. It feels like we are going in the right direction, and I’m hoping that becomes the gold standard.”
