This study investigates how multimodal cues are used for rapport management in refusals in the context of English as a lingua franca (ELF). Ten Chinese and ten Indonesian speakers were put in pairs and conducted role-plays in relation to requests and refusals. After the role-plays, they had immediate interviews to reflect on their own and their partners’ performance. The results suggest that body positions (standing/sitting), smiling voices and smiling facial expressions, and the long gaze aversion are used by ELF refusers to maintain rapport: controlling power relationships, mitigating the force of refusals, and conveying a non-engagement stance. The results show that mitigation in the ELF context is a multimodal achievement which can be intentionally realized through various multimodal cues.