Marlee Matlin, deaf people object to TV parodies of sign language interpreters

Marlee Matlin

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Some members of the deaf and interpreting community are upset at a couple of comedic spoofs of the sign language interpreters involved in the now famous Hurricane Sandy press conference that made sign language interpreter Lydia Callis an Internet and social media sensation.

Marlee Matlin has expressed objections to the latest spoof that recently opened the television show,Saturday Night Live. The skit mixed footage from the press conference with SNL parodies of Callis with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Christie’s appearance included a gum-chewing, over-the-top “interpreter.”

ABC4 reports that Matlin was offended by the skit. She expressed her feelings on Twitter.

"Millions of deaf people use sign (language). Why poke fun/fake it? Poke fun at ME but not the language.”

“I don't mind fun poked at me, as I poke back. But at the language, that millions use? It feels childish and insulting.”

"Here's my point. Deaf people HAVE a sense of humor... But faking signs that we use isn't the same. Imagine if a show started making fun of Spanish (using fake Spanish) or Japanese. Do you think they'd actually get away with it? Uh, no...”

Marlee Matlin She Considered Being A Parole Officer, But Acting Is Her First Love

Communicating with Marlee Matlin is a bit disconcerting at first if you don't understand sign language. You try to make sense of her flying hands. You stare at her delicate face that dances with expression.

You ask her why she has gone from brunette to blond, and as she fluffs her hair with a smile, the words come from this booming, masculine voice on your left.

''I think it's fun. I think it just goes with my particular mood at the moment,'' says the deep voice. ''I get more attention, I guess, on the highway.''

The interpreter, I soon learn, is named ''Jack,'' and Matlin looks mostly at him during the interview, both to receive my questions and to convey her answers. It's obvious they have a rapport. At the same time, I mostly look at her because that's the polite thing to do, although I feel a little left out.

Matlin removes a pair of John Lennon shades and replaces them with round spectacles. She speaks to Jack: ''Do you like my new glasses?'' He nods approval. But in general, she prefers signing, the way she seems to express herself most eloquently.

She looks around the room as if she's bored and would like to go to lunch. I continue to try to make conversation: ''I hear you're engaged.''

She nods and smiles distantly, noting that her fiancee, Kevin Grandalski, a 28-year-old Los Angeles police officer, is ''in Disney World, playing, until it's time for us to get back together for lunch.''

The two met in late 1991 on the first day of shooting for Matlin's current series, Reasonable Doubts. Grandalski was directing traffic, she explains. By October 1992 they were living together, and now they're planning a fall wedding, which, Matlin says, with a roll of her eyes skyward, is taking up all her spare time.

''Making sure that all my bridesmaids get their dresses together, the color of their shoes matching, it's ridiculous. Like they say, it's a once in a lifetime thing. It better be.''

One thing Matlin, 27, and her fiancee have in common is an interest in the law. He has a degree in criminology, and she studied it in community college. ''A lot of people don't believe the fact that I've always been fascinated with the law, and I've wanted to be a probation officer for deaf criminals about 7 years before I met Kevin,'' said Matlin.

''I wanted to do that because I knew I couldn't be a street cop because they wouldn't let me.''

But, she says, her first love is acting. Matlin began at age 8 when her mother took her to Chicago's Center on Deafness.

She appeared in that center's production as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, and several other plays, but she eventually dropped acting because of poor grades. After two years of community college, she played in a stage version of Children of a Lesser God.

A Paramount Pictures scout picked her for a screen test, and the movie role was hers. The following three years were lean, then her television series came along. She's not fazed. Her plans are firmly rooted in show business, and she becomes exuberant when discussing them. She begins smiling, sits up taller and her hands move faster.

''I think acting is the first thing I'd like to focus on. . . . Directing would be something I'd like to do, but I don't think I have enough experience at all for that.

''I don't think it would be fair for all the other struggling directors who need to get into it. I don't think it's fair just to take advantage of my name to be a director for a day. Jodi Foster, on the other hand, is a wonderful director as she did in Little Man Tate, and I admire her.''

Matlin, who won a 1987 Academy Award for her role in Children of a Lesser God, had to take flack from those who didn't think the then 21-year-old newcomer deserved to win. ''I mean Rex Reed said I won the Oscar just because I was deaf. You know? So, that's something I never forgot,'' she says, her face turning serious.

Still, Matlin smacks the barriers out of the way. Rapidly and with a note of toughness, her hands and face exclaim, ''I'm working. So that's important. So let's not jump to conclusions or anything by saying Hollywood does not accept me. The truth is that Hollywood is a tough place, but it's tough for anybody.''

I ask which actors she would like to work with.

''Jack Nicholson, actually. Who doesn't want to work with Jack Nicholson?''

I wish at that moment I knew how to speak sign language, not only so I could better understand Matlin's nuances but also so I could learn how to spell Jack Nicholson as rapidly as she does.

Is that the spelling of Jack Nicholson's name? I ask.

''Yeah,'' she says.

You do that so fast, I say. To me, her version of ''Jack Nicholson'' looks as unfamiliar as a parent's signature would look to a child. Like a bunch of scribbles.

Slowly, with slight impatience, she spells out his name so I can see the letters clearly. Then she picks up the conversation again.

''So anyway, Jack Nicholson would be nice.''

Are you sensitive? I ask.

''Extremely so. I don't like to lose.''

''If it wasn't acting I'd probably be a mother,'' she adds, smiling.

''My goals for the future are to have lots of kids, to have peace on this earth and to work. Have a box office hit.''-n

Disability in the world of work - Interview with Actress Marlee Matlin

Actress Marlee Matlin often says that the only thing deaf people can’t do is hear. With access to communication and the right tools, people with disabilities have shown themselves to be exemplary workers.

Q. What is your current profession?
A. I’m self-employed. I’m an actor, an entertainer, an author, a producer. I am also a mother and a wife. But, all in all, I’m an actress.

Q. What does your job involve?
A. My work involves a great deal of communication with everyone, in particular, with the people in my production company. This involves communicating with people in the films that I work in – the producers, directors, writers, and the actors. It’s specifically about communication for me. I always make sure that have an interpreter with me who facilitates communication so I don’t have to deal with the issues that come up with not being able to communicate.

Q. You do so many things in the world of communication, yet you have a disability that many people would find daunting in their everyday life.
A. I never let disability stop me from what I do and from what I love doing. I was told at a young age never to let others tell you otherwise – what you are and who you are, what you want and what to dream for. To never accept the word “no” for an answer. “No” is not in my vocabulary.
I had the privilege to control those decisions affecting my career and to be who I am. I’m not going to say that it was easy, but I’ve worked hard to be who I am today. I’m a very stubborn person, but that’s a good thing.

Q. Tell us about your new children’s book.
A. I have a new children’s book. It’s called “Leading Ladies” and it’s the third book of the Megan Merrill series. I’m very proud of this book because when I was 11 I remember thinking – I think might have had a bad day – but I remember thinking when I grow up and become an adult I’m going to write a book telling the world that it’s o.k. to be deaf.
At 11, I knew I had that goal. I knew I wasn’t going to be home forever. I knew I would be making money, earning a living and being productive at whatever job I chose. So, this book is a representation of the stories, loosely based on my childhood. It shows how I entered the acting field. I’m really happy that my efforts came to this. Because you don’t have to be deaf to be a writer. You don’t have to know sign language to be able to share the experiences of a deaf person. The words are for everyone to read and for everyone to share.

Q. What are your views on the internet and, specifically, what it represents for persons with disabilities?
A. There is so much potential for communication through the access that we have today. It’s not perfect, but the internet and modern technology has improved greatly compared to 20 years ago, it’s amazing how much more open it is with instant messaging, with video phones and video relay services. And, we all have access. It’s very one-on-one and now the world has opened so greatly that I can communicate with anyone – hearing or deaf – via the internet. It’s amazing what’s out there.
From a deaf perspective, where communication wasn’t accessible and now is, these words are now part of our world and we can communicate back and forth. And the barriers have been broken for everyone, for all languages, for all abilities.

Q. What helped you achieve success?
A. What helped me achieve success was being able to communicate with everyone. I had great people around me. People who believed in me. People who worked with me. People who helped me out. People who helped create with me. I reached out to whatever I could find that interested me. To be able to trust oneself is a very important part of communicating. To be able to make friends, to be able to achieve…. it’s as simple as that. You need to be able to have the opportunity to do it. You have to be aggressive. If you aren’t then you’ll just stand there and be useless. You become marginalized. You won’t get to where you want to be.

Q. What factor, event or person made the biggest difference in this context?
A. As a result of doing a great deal of charity work I know how important it is for people to have mentors. It’s helped me realize how I became who I am. In the same way that they inspired me and I learned from that experience I understand how important mentors are.
I was very fortunate to have met Henry Winkler when I was 12 years old. You may remember from “Happy Days” – he played the Fonz. He was the one who told me to believe in myself, when others told him not to encourage me. What he told me was absolutely true, and I’ve been doing it ever since.

Q. What message do you have for others with a disability?
A. Don’t ever give up. Try to put yourself out there. Explore the world as best as you can. There’s not just one dream out there. I know that children love to dream. Write down your dreams. Put into words what interests you. Take the opportunity to express yourself. And if it doesn’t work for you then move on to the next. And that’s a good place to begin. Find an opportunity, find a computer and see what’s out there for you. But don’t ever give up. There is no difference among individuals in this world. None.

Q. What message do you have for those who do not have a disability?
A. Don’t judge. Lend a hand, if they want a helping hand. Do not patronize. And let them think for themselves, let them feel for themselves, let them do their job. Give people with disabilities a chance. Life is too short to think of them otherwise. No one owns this world. Everyone does. Everyone shares equally in this world. Just try to offer respect, an ear, and a chance.

Yes She Can: Marlee Matlin Tells Her Story

She was diagnosed as deaf at 18 months old, became the youngest woman, at age 21, to win an Oscar[R] for her role in Children of a Lesser God, is a published author, the proud mother of four children, and recently spent time dancing competitively on the hit show Dancing with the Stars. For decades, Marlee Matlin has been one of the most well known individuals with a disability in the world, and she has continually inspired audiences with her quality work and massive talent. She is also a national celebrity spokesperson for The American Red Cross, was instrumental in getting Congress to pass federal legislation for closed captioning technology, and serves on the boards of a number of charitable organizations, including Easter Seals and The Children Affected By Aids Foundation. With so many extraordinary accomplishments to her credit, it can be easy to assume that Marlee Matlin's successes have come easy. However, throughout her career--from her first role at age seven to her recent work in television and film--the actress has had to face harsh judgments and skeptical questioning. Now, after years of proving herself and her abilities and showing people everywhere that, as she has stated, "the only thing a deaf person can't do, is hear," Marlee has decided to share her story and explain how she became the brave, determined, and impressive woman that she is today. This month, Marlee will release her autobiography, I'll Scream Later, and here she talks to Exceptional Parent about why she chose to write the book, what her thoughts are on Hollywood and people with special needs, and why unconditional support is the best thing a parent can give a child.

Exceptional Parent (EP): Why did you decide that now was the time to write your autobiography and put your

Marlee Matlin Biography

Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin, who pursued a professional acting career despite being legally deaf, is an inspirational role model to many.

 

quotes

“I've gotten hundreds of letters each week about how much they appreciate that I've opened the eyes of hearing people that deaf people can do anything except hear.”

—Marlee Matlin

Synopsis

Born in Illinois in 1965, Marlee Martin lost her hearing at a young age but nonetheless pursued an acting career and became highly successful, winning an Academy Award in 1987 for her role in Children of a Lesser God. She went on to star in a number of other film and television movies. Her perseverance is an inspiration to many.

Early Life

Marlee Beth Matlin was born on August 24, 1965, in Morton Grove, Illinois. Her father operated a used-car dealership, and her mother sold jewelry. The youngest of three children, Marlee Matlin was only 18 months old when an illness permanently destroyed all hearing in her right ear, and 80 percent of the hearing in her left ear, making her legally deaf.
Matlin's hard-working parents chose to educate Marlee in their community rather than sending her to a special school. Matlin began learning to use sign language around the age of 5, but her parents struggled. "[My parents] learned some sign language to communicate with me, but they raised me with a great deal of love and respect, and it wasn't easy for them because of who I was—being a girl, being very stubborn, being very strong willed, being very outspoken, and very independent," Matline explained to Exceptional Parent magazine.

As a child, Matlin discovered acting through a program at the Center on Deafness that brought deaf and hearing kids together. She landed her first leading role as Dorothy in a production of The Wizard of Oz with a children's theater company in Chicago. Matlin continued to pursue her acting into adulthood, while also earning a degree in law enforcement at Harper College.

Big Break

Matlin worked in the Chicago theater scene for several years before getting her big break as the lead in a production of Children of a Lesser God in Chicago. When the play was adapted for the big screen, Matlin received a chance to reprise her stage role. She starred as Sarah, a young deaf woman, who becomes involved with a speech teacher (played by William Hurt) at a school for the deaf. She rejects learning to lip-read and to talk, choosing communicate through sign language alone. As critic Roger Ebert said, "She holds her own against the powerhouse she's acting with, carrying scenes with a passion."
For her work on the film, Matlin won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1987. It was a remarkable accomplishment for a 21-year-old actress coming off her first film role—a feat that may also have been difficult for her to savor at the time. Matlin had been at the Betty Ford Center when she learned of her Academy Award nomination, receiving treatment for a substance abuse problem. To make matters worse, she and William Hurt had been romantically involved during the making of Children of a Lesser God, which proved to be a destructive relationship. "We brought out each other's worst instincts," she later told People magazine.

Branching Out

In 1993, Matlin demonstrated her comedic abilities with her guest appearance as Jerry Seinfeld's lip-reading romantic interest on the hit sitcom Seinfeld. That same year, Matlin landed a recurring humorous role on the quirky small-town drama Picket Fences. "This role let me put out the funny side of me. There's nothing in it about deafness. It just happens that I am deaf; it's time for me to explore something different," she told People magazine. She received Emmy Award nominations in 1994 for her work on both series.
That same year, Matlin depicted a mentally handicapped woman struggling to keep her child in the television movie Against Her Will: The Carrie Buck Story. She also continued to make television guest appearances on such shows as Spin City and ER. In 1996, Matlin played a supporting role in the independent drama It's My Party.
Before long, Matlin received another Emmy Award nomination for her appearance on the legal drama The Practice in 2000. Not one to wait for opportunity to knock, Matlin met with Aaron Sorkin, creator of the political drama The West Wing, and convinced him to give her a role. She played Joey Lucas, the opinion poll director, on the show. She also found time to make a guest appearance on the crime drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2004, which earned her another Emmy Award nomination.
Around this time, Matlin branched out in a new direction, fulfilling a longtime dream. "When I was 11, I knew that I wanted to write a kid's book and tell the world what it was like being deaf," she explained to Exceptional Parent magazine. Matlin's first young adult book, Deaf Child Crossing, was published in 2002. She then teamed up with Doug Cooney for Nobody's Perfect (2006) and Leading Ladies (2007).

Recent Work

Matlin returned to series television in 2007 with a role on the Showtime drama The L Word as a love interest for Jennifer Beals's character. In 2008, she showed off a new skill, appearing on the celebrity competition series Dancing with the Stars. She loved her time on the show, despite the grueling hours of dance practice she had to put in each week. "I've gotten hundreds of letters each week about how much they appreciate that I've opened the eyes of hearing people that deaf people can do anything except hear," she told People magazine. Around this time, Matlin also appeared in the television film Sweet Nothing in My Ear, which tackled the controversy surrounding cochlear implants that can give a deaf person some sensation of hearing.

Matlin also returned to writing, and used her own life as her subject matter. In 2009, she published her autobiography, I'll Scream Later. Matlin showed her sense of humor that same year, lending her voice to the animated series The Family Guy.

Personal Life

Outside of acting and writing, Matlin supports many charitable causes. She helps the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Starlight Children's Foundation.
Matlin currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, Kevin. Together, they have four children.

Marlee Matlin - An Interview with Marlee Matlin

Mention Marlee Matlin to anyone, deaf or hearing, and they most likely will immediately say they know who she is. That is a strong indicator of how successful her career as an actress, writer, and producer has been. As busy as she is, Matlin took the time to sit down for an interview with About.com.

Marlee Matlin. Photo © Marlee Matlin

1.  As a deaf parent of hearing children, what are some of your greatest challenges?

Being a parent who is deaf does not present any more challenges than if I can hear only because I don't let it. That's been my mantra my whole life -- that the real "handicap" of deafness does not lie in the ear, it lies in the mind. Instead, my challenges are making sure that they are safe, well taken care of and most of all loved. Obviously, there are challenges for me because I have four children, but I am fortunate in that I have a great husband and extended family and we all support each other. This is a household that speaks and signs so there are NO barriers.

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Dead Silence. Photo Courtesy of PriceGrabber

2.  Did your children learn to sign early? Did it make parenting easier or harder?

My oldest daughter, Sarah, "spoke" her first sign when she was 6 months old -- it was the sign for "telephone." Just like all children, each one learned to "speak" in sign at different stages, depending when they were ready to learn but in each case, it was before they were able to speak. I later found out that it is true that a child will communicate with you in sign, if taught, before they are able to speak. It's they way that children develop. I think signing is a great tool to communicate with your children, hearing or deaf and it certainly makes it easier if you know your child is hungry or wants more because they're telling you in sign instead of just screaming or crying because they don't have the words to speak and tell you.

Cover of Deaf Child Crossing. Photo Courtesy of PriceGrabber

3.  How do you and your husband communicate with your children? Speaking or sign?

We use both sign and speech. I've been speaking since I was 2 and signing since I was 5. Though they speak more than they sign because mom speaks a great deal at home, they are comfortable with learning new signs when I teach them. My husband is a fluent signer and uses both.

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Jack Jason and Marlee Matlin. Jack Jason

4.  Have your children had social/emotional issues related to having a deaf parent?

None that I am aware of. But if they did, I would sit down with them and talk about it. I would encourage them to always feel free to tell me what's going on in their lives and if there was a problem they were encountering, we could work it out together. It's all about communicating.

Cover of Children of a Lesser God DVD. Photo Courtesy of PriceGrabber

5.  What challenges do you face when communicating with your children’s teacher?

I communicate with them via computer, email, and video. In person, I speak. There are times when we have large meetings at school, and I bring in a sign language interpreter because I want to understand 100% of what's going on, but in general there are no real challenges in communicating with teachers, friends’ parents. Technology and attitudes have evolved to the point where there are virtually no barriers.

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6.  What are the challenges of raising children in the limelight?

We have made sure that they were raised out of the limelight and purposely chose to live in a city outside of Hollywood. My husband and I have chosen very carefully how much our kids are exposed to it all though we don't keep them completely sheltered. They are fully aware of what I do for a living and that I often have to walk the red carpet and get photographed. But I never take them with me on that carpet. We just don't think it's a place for children.

Hear No Evil. Photo Courtesy of PriceGrabber

7.  Would you say your kids feel part of the deaf world, hearing world or both?

I've raised them to see the world as one world that has all kinds of people in it, Deaf and hearing. There is still inequality and discrimination against deaf and hard of hearing people but I think the first step towards equality and respect is to recognize they are part of the larger world rather than look at it as "us versus them."

Jack Jason with Marlee Matlin. Jack Jason

8.  How do/did you help your child understand your personal limitations?

Who said I have limitations? I can do ANYTHING except hear. Yes, I can't be a singer, or a telephone operator or piano tuner but there's a whole heck [of a lot] in life I can do. Why dwell on my perceived "disability" or "limitations" when I can show them that life is full of possibilities for EVERYONE.

Jack Jason and Marlee Matlin. Jack Jason

9.  Some kids of deaf parents may have less self-confidence and lower self-esteem?

I have never experienced this with my children. I think that if this was the situation, it would be up to the parent to encourage children to have a strong sense of self confidence and self-esteem. A child only learns what you give them so if they need something in any way, it's up to the parent to help them.

Cover of I'll Scream Later. Photo Courtesy of PriceGrabber

10.  Why did you decide to publish your autobiography?

At some point in everyone's life, we all have to deal with the truth. For me, it was doing a TV series called Dancing with the Stars where I found people were eager to know who I was other than just Marlee Matlin the Oscar-winning actress who was in "The L Word" "The West Wing," "Seinfeld" or "Children of a Lesser God." So much of my life has been about more than being Deaf and I wanted people to know that. Also, having had four children, I had a chance to reflect on my own childhood and the barriers I faced and wanted to come clean and tell my truth and share that even though no one is perfect, we can overcome barriers of any kind, if we just follow our hearts. I'm here today as a mother, actress, activist, and author to prove it.

Cover of Where the Truth Lies. Photo Courtesy of PriceGrabber

11.  What projects are you working on now or do you want to work on in the future?

I am working on developing another TV series and hopefully soon you can read about it when all the elements have come into place! I also have my biography coming out in 2009. It's called "I'll Scream Later," being published by Simon and Schuster. (compare prices) [Guide note: Matlin is also the honorary chairperson of an international deaf cinema festival at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC in November, 2009, the World Deaf Cinema Festival.]

The Oscar-winning actress talks about Judaism, being deaf, parenthood, Celebrity Apprentice and winning an Oscar when she was barely out of high school.

Photo by Michael Rosenberg

By Danielle Cantor
July 2011 If you were alive and culturally aware in the 1980s, it’s likely you remember when Marlee Matlin won an Academy Award for her incendiary performance as Sarah Norman, a troubled young deaf woman in the 1986 film Children of a Lesser God. Matlin was just 21, a self-described “good Jewish girl” from the Chicago suburbs who had never let her deafness slow her down. It was her first film. That same year, Harper’s Bazaar named her one of the “Ten Most Beautiful Women” and Esquire featured her in its “Women We Love.” America had a new sweetheart.
Early in her career, Matlin’s personal life was rocky: She had a lengthy and tumultuous relationship with her Children of a Lesser God co-star, William Hurt, further complicated by a period of drug abuse. But Matlin summoned her trademark fortitude and swiftly got herself clean. From there, her stardom rose.
Matlin has appeared in numerous films, including Hear No Evil, opposite Martin Sheen, and The Man in the Golden Mask, a French feature co-starring Jean Reno. Since her small-screen debut in the 1989 CBS movie Bridge to Silence, Matlin has worked steadily on television: She’s starred in NBC’s Reasonable Doubts (earning Golden Globe and People’s Choice Award nominations) and The West Wing, on HBO’s The L Word, and in the Lifetime movie Against Her Will: The Carrie Buck Story—playing a character who was not deaf—for which she was nominated for a CableACE Award.
Matlin has also garnered praise for guest appearances on Seinfeld, Picket Fences, Desperate Housewives, ER, Nip/Tuck and many other popular shows. When reality TV came calling, she rose to the challenge and dazzled on both Dancing With the Stars and Celebrity Apprentice, where she raised an unprecedented amount—nearly $1 million—for the Starkey Hearing Foundation as one of Donald Trump’s two business-savvy finalists. Currently, she is appearing on the new ABC Family series Switched at Birth.
Beyond performing, Matlin spends a lot of time giving back. President Clinton appointed her to the Board of Directors for the Corporation for National Service. She is also a national celebrity spokesperson for the American Red Cross and serves on the boards of a number of charitable organizations, including Easter Seals and the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation. She was instrumental in passing federal legislation that requires closed-captioning technology in all U.S.-manufactured televisions.
Also worth mentioning is Matlin’s series of children’s novels (Deaf Child Crossing, 2002; Nobody’s Perfect, 2006; Leading Ladies, 2007) and her engrossing 2009 memoir, I’ll Scream Later, all published by Simon and Schuster. The memoir, a New York Times and Los Angeles Times best-seller, chronicles Matlin’s life: her diagnosis as deaf at 18 months old, her years working with some of Hollywood’s most talented stars (and dating some of its most eligible heartthrobs), and her happy life today with husband Kevin Grandalsky and their four children.
It’s clear that Matlin’s success is inspired by talent, but driven by honest hard work. She has met every professional and personal challenge—and there have been many—with strength, positivity and humor. It’s easy to see why she’s a role model for women all over the world.
Your parents decided to have you live at home and learn in mainstream schools. Do you think your life would have followed a different path if they had sent you to a deaf school, perhaps away from home, where you would have been part of a larger deaf community?
The implication that somehow I am not a part of a larger deaf community, having been educated at a mainstreamed school and not at a school for the deaf, is incorrect. The deaf community today is made up of all different sorts of deaf people: those who attended schools for the deaf, those who were mainstreamed, etc. I found that my life was very rich having friends both hearing and deaf, both from the deaf community that attended schools for the deaf and those who attended mainstreamed schools.
Describe the experience of learning—and reading (and also speaking?)—Hebrew for your bat mitzvah.
Some people might have thought being bat mitzvahed would be impossible for a deaf girl, but it was an opportunity for which I was most grateful. Being bat mitzvahed is difficult enough for children whose primary language is English and Hebrew is learned in school every afternoon. Now imagine a child who is deaf—who learned English through extensive speech and hearing training—having to learn Hebrew phonetically as I had to. It was tough, it was a lot of work, but the rewards were immense. Seeing my mother’s and father’s faces as I stood on the bima, reading my Torah portion, was just amazing. At one point, they were crying tears of joy, and then I began to cry. When I noticed that my tears had stained the Torah, I was horrified. But the rabbi assured me that my tears were a mitzvah, for all the hard work and hours I had put toward becoming a member of the Jewish community. It was just a wonderful day for me!
In what ways is deafness an advantage? What are hearing people missing out on?
The opportunity to communicate in [sign language], one of the most beautiful languages in the world, is an advantage that deaf people enjoy. What’s great is that hearing people can enjoy it as well if they have the chance to learn and practice it with us. It would be great if it were taught in schools and colleges like a foreign language; in fact, many schools do! It’s a language that combines several elements at once with a simple hand movement and facial expression: meaning, affect, time and duration. It’s just so beautiful that printed or spoken words can’t begin to describe it. As for me, having an opportunity to sleep well at night because there just aren’t any distractions is a big advantage for me!
Where within yourself did you find the fury needed for your Oscar-winning portrayal of Sarah Norman in Children of a Lesser God? In my book I’ll Scream Later, I describe how [director] Randa Haines and I worked on a very specific incident in my childhood, where I was molested by a babysitter, as a means to express the anger and frustrations of being horribly taken advantaged of by an authority figure. The anger and frustration that Sara Norman expressed in Children of a Lesser God had to feel real, and Randa knew that my experiences were very much like those that my character experienced. It was extremely emotional and difficult for me, but I welcomed the challenge and was extremely fortunate that I had Randa’s skilled hand and compassion to guide me through the catharsis safely.
Winning the Oscar when you were barely out of your teenage years: Were you prepared? Do you wish it had happened later?
I must say I was glad to have gotten the Oscar when I was barely out of high school. The hoopla, the media frenzy that goes along with Oscar was new to me, and, in fact, I wasn’t as savvy to the business as I am now, nearly 25 years later. I think, being so naive, I was protected and I sort of cruised along with it all. Had it happened now, I think I would’ve been an emotional wreck! What to wear? What do I say? All of these come with having seen it all, and I think being young was to my emotional advantage. I’m glad I won it then, but that’s not to say I wouldn’t welcome another one!
Reading your book, one gets the sense that as your star was rising, you may have felt like your life was happening to you, that you were not in control. Is that an accurate perception, and if so, did it contribute to your drug abuse in those days?
My drug use might have been a result of the isolation I felt being in a world where communication was mostly spoken and not signed, where I was taken advantage of sexually by a babysitter and then a teacher, as well as factors that related to an addictive personality I had. My drug use came way before I was in the film business; I started using drugs when I was 13 and continued through high school.
I would say it was as my star was rising that I decided to get clean of drugs: I stopped cold turkey just a few months before I won the Academy Award and entered myself into rehab. I did it all alone, with virtually no support from family or friends, who thought my problem wasn’t that bad. That’s because I did a good job of hiding it. I was tired of having a problem with drugs, however, and knew it was time to stop. Today I am proud to say that I have been sober 24 years, 5 months and 10 days. I feel great.
Being a survivor of domestic violence in your relationship with William Hurt, and being married to a police officer now, you have a uniquely informed perspective on the issue of abuse. Where do you feel “the system”—the courts, law enforcement, social services—needs improvement when serving abuse victims, particularly those with disabilities?
Women need to know there are places to go if they are in an abusive situation, that there are people who will listen and that there are options out there. Deaf women are in a particularly precarious situation because there is a lack of resources that can help deaf women deal with domestic violence. There is the National Domestic Violence Hotline, which has a special line for deaf women to call; there’s Deaf Hope in the San Francisco Bay Area and other organizations scattered throughout the country. But the majority of deaf women are isolated and find that they have nowhere to turn for help when their relationships become abusive. It’s a matter of devoting more financial resources to helping deaf women communicate and helping them find safe places where they can get the help they need.
Since you saved all the mementos, particularly the written ones, from your volatile relationship with William Hurt, do you have plans to write a book or a screenplay about it?
My life is not entirely defined by the relationship I had with William Hurt. I respect and admire his work as an actor. However, the personal aspect of our relationship was one which I chose to express in my autobiography as a means to help other men and women in similar situations see that it can and will get better if you learn to stand up for yourself, open the door and just leave. That’s what I did. As far as a screenplay, that’s up to filmmakers out there. Any takers?
You’ve guest-starred on innumerable TV shows. Where did you feel most welcome as a guest?
I felt most comfortable as a guest actor in three series: The West Wing, Law and Order: SVU and Seinfeld. These are shows that have become part of TV history, and I am so proud to have had the opportunity to be in them. The cast, the crew on these shows were nothing but professional, and I was honored to act alongside some amazing talent.
Who have been your most memorable co-stars, for better or for worse? Directors? Writers? Do you have a favorite role?
My favorite role is Sarah Norman in Children of a Lesser God. And some memorable co-stars have been Lee Remick, Martin Sheen, William Hurt and James Garner. Favorite directors—Randa Haines tops my list, but I loved working with Tommy Schlamme, who directed several episodes of The West Wing. As far as writers, Aaron Sorkin tops my list, and David E. Kelley is up there as well. Worse directors or actors are for me to keep in the back of my mind; I know not to work with them again!
Is there a “role of a lifetime” that you’ve yet to play?
I know this sounds strange, but I’d love to be in a Judd Apatow comedy or a Farrelly Brothers comedy. I would love to do something politically incorrect and funny in a feature film.
My mother has a book, All I Know About Animal Behavior I Learned in the Loehmann’s Dressing Room. I imagine something similar could be written about Celebrity Apprentice. What did you learn while doing that show? What about Dancing With the Stars? And about show business in general?
I learned about business, various aspects of brand managing, aspects of advertising, graphic design, directing and editing all while doing Celebrity Apprentice—things that I have never encountered in my acting career. It was fascinating. I was like a sponge, wanting to learn it all, and I loved it. The hours and the drama, however, weren’t what I expected, but I went with the flow and did my best to be professional and focused on my charity, and it worked. As for Dancing With the Stars, I learned I could push my body to extreme heights that I never could, dancing 9 hours a day, 5 days a week, and then putting it all together for a live performance in front of 24 million people. People thought a person who was deaf couldn’t do it, but I proved them wrong each week I was there.
After 25 years working together, how do you characterize your relationship with your interpreter, Jack Jason?
Jack is my producing partner, interpreter, confidant and friend. We finish each other’s thoughts, and yet we can argue like brother and sister. He is my business half and an invaluable partner.
In your book you mention that you asked Jack, upon meeting him, if he was Jewish. Even if it didn’t seem too important at the time, do you think, looking back, that expressing yourself through a Jewish interpreter has colored (or perhaps clarified) your communication with the world?
Having someone who grew up with the same religious values as myself, as well as having someone who shares that perspective of life that growing up Jewish gives you, has certainly been an asset. He gets where I’m coming from when I look at the world through my Jewish eyes and can identify with all aspects of having grown up in a Jewish family, whether it’s the Jewish values or even humor.
Have you ever thought twice about speaking through a man’s voice?
No, it never occurred to me. All I want is someone who is good, and Jack was and still is the best.
Did your husband need to learn any new skills to keep communication flowing in your relationship?
My husband learned to sign in college before we met and continued to learn sign through our relationship and marriage. He is a good and patient signer!
Have you encountered many frustrations as a deaf mother raising hearing children?
The frustrations I face as a parent are balanced with the joy of being a parent and really have no basis in my being deaf and my children being hearing. We communicate well and freely and whatever frustrations there are come from just the normal parent/child relationships. I make sure that deafness is not a barrier when it comes to raising my children.
What role does Judaism play in your home now that you’re an adult and a parent?
My values, my beliefs, my perspective on life in general are all a direct result of my Jewish upbringing. These are values I live and share with my children, and I learn to meld them with my husband’s beliefs and values. He is Catholic, and we live in a mixed religious household, but we have taught our family to honor, respect and celebrate both and find common ground in both.
Do your Jewish values inform or motivate your extensive charity work? Is there a particular charity that’s closest to your heart?
I’ve always said to people who’ve asked, “Why do you do so much charity work?” because when I was young, my parents made it a point of sharing with me the idea of giving back, of helping out those less fortunate than yourself. I love the phrase “living a life generously” that the Jewish Federation uses; it really sums up the lesson I got from my parents.
The charities that are closest to my heart are those primarily serving the best interests of children. My favorite charity is Starkey Hearing Foundation. They give out free hearing aids to deaf and hard-of-hearing children who could not otherwise afford them and who reside in developing countries and here in the United States. There are millions of children who are unable to afford hearing aids, and Starkey helps them as best they can. To date, they have given out nearly 500,000 hearing aids, and we’re trying to get more. That’s why I worked so hard on Celebrity Apprentice on behalf of Starkey and was proud to have raised $1 million on their behalf in one day, the most ever raised for charity on the show.
I loved the anecdote in your book about a stewardess who noticed you signing on a flight and handed you a braille menu. What are some of the more ridiculous (but well-intentioned…or not) things people have said to you?
My favorite is the studio executive who came to visit me working on my first TV series, and after a few minutes of watching me work, he leaned over to the executive producer of the TV show and said, “Marlee is great!” Then, with a straight face, he asked, “Is she going to be deaf for the entire series?” You know that big letter “L” that is made with the thumb and forefinger they use in the ads for Glee? He needed that letter on his forehead. Ha!
What’s next on your to-do list?
Summer vacation, hopefully more episodes of ABC Family’s Switched at Birth and some projects I’m looking to produce as well as act in. Plus I have a full fall/winter schedule of speaking engagements, some with my mentor and friend, Henry Winkler, for the Jewish Federation. My agenda is always full! - See more at: http://www.jwi.org/Page.aspx?pid=2925#sthash.TeT0losr.dpuf

The Oscar-winning actress talks about Judaism, being deaf, parenthood, Celebrity Apprentice and winning an Oscar when she was barely out of high school.

Photo by Michael Rosenberg

By Danielle Cantor
July 2011 If you were alive and culturally aware in the 1980s, it’s likely you remember when Marlee Matlin won an Academy Award for her incendiary performance as Sarah Norman, a troubled young deaf woman in the 1986 film Children of a Lesser God. Matlin was just 21, a self-described “good Jewish girl” from the Chicago suburbs who had never let her deafness slow her down. It was her first film. That same year, Harper’s Bazaar named her one of the “Ten Most Beautiful Women” and Esquire featured her in its “Women We Love.” America had a new sweetheart.
Early in her career, Matlin’s personal life was rocky: She had a lengthy and tumultuous relationship with her Children of a Lesser God co-star, William Hurt, further complicated by a period of drug abuse. But Matlin summoned her trademark fortitude and swiftly got herself clean. From there, her stardom rose.
Matlin has appeared in numerous films, including Hear No Evil, opposite Martin Sheen, and The Man in the Golden Mask, a French feature co-starring Jean Reno. Since her small-screen debut in the 1989 CBS movie Bridge to Silence, Matlin has worked steadily on television: She’s starred in NBC’s Reasonable Doubts (earning Golden Globe and People’s Choice Award nominations) and The West Wing, on HBO’s The L Word, and in the Lifetime movie Against Her Will: The Carrie Buck Story—playing a character who was not deaf—for which she was nominated for a CableACE Award.
Matlin has also garnered praise for guest appearances on Seinfeld, Picket Fences, Desperate Housewives, ER, Nip/Tuck and many other popular shows. When reality TV came calling, she rose to the challenge and dazzled on both Dancing With the Stars and Celebrity Apprentice, where she raised an unprecedented amount—nearly $1 million—for the Starkey Hearing Foundation as one of Donald Trump’s two business-savvy finalists. Currently, she is appearing on the new ABC Family series Switched at Birth.
Beyond performing, Matlin spends a lot of time giving back. President Clinton appointed her to the Board of Directors for the Corporation for National Service. She is also a national celebrity spokesperson for the American Red Cross and serves on the boards of a number of charitable organizations, including Easter Seals and the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation. She was instrumental in passing federal legislation that requires closed-captioning technology in all U.S.-manufactured televisions.
Also worth mentioning is Matlin’s series of children’s novels (Deaf Child Crossing, 2002; Nobody’s Perfect, 2006; Leading Ladies, 2007) and her engrossing 2009 memoir, I’ll Scream Later, all published by Simon and Schuster. The memoir, a New York Times and Los Angeles Times best-seller, chronicles Matlin’s life: her diagnosis as deaf at 18 months old, her years working with some of Hollywood’s most talented stars (and dating some of its most eligible heartthrobs), and her happy life today with husband Kevin Grandalsky and their four children.
It’s clear that Matlin’s success is inspired by talent, but driven by honest hard work. She has met every professional and personal challenge—and there have been many—with strength, positivity and humor. It’s easy to see why she’s a role model for women all over the world.
Your parents decided to have you live at home and learn in mainstream schools. Do you think your life would have followed a different path if they had sent you to a deaf school, perhaps away from home, where you would have been part of a larger deaf community?
The implication that somehow I am not a part of a larger deaf community, having been educated at a mainstreamed school and not at a school for the deaf, is incorrect. The deaf community today is made up of all different sorts of deaf people: those who attended schools for the deaf, those who were mainstreamed, etc. I found that my life was very rich having friends both hearing and deaf, both from the deaf community that attended schools for the deaf and those who attended mainstreamed schools.
Describe the experience of learning—and reading (and also speaking?)—Hebrew for your bat mitzvah.
Some people might have thought being bat mitzvahed would be impossible for a deaf girl, but it was an opportunity for which I was most grateful. Being bat mitzvahed is difficult enough for children whose primary language is English and Hebrew is learned in school every afternoon. Now imagine a child who is deaf—who learned English through extensive speech and hearing training—having to learn Hebrew phonetically as I had to. It was tough, it was a lot of work, but the rewards were immense. Seeing my mother’s and father’s faces as I stood on the bima, reading my Torah portion, was just amazing. At one point, they were crying tears of joy, and then I began to cry. When I noticed that my tears had stained the Torah, I was horrified. But the rabbi assured me that my tears were a mitzvah, for all the hard work and hours I had put toward becoming a member of the Jewish community. It was just a wonderful day for me!
In what ways is deafness an advantage? What are hearing people missing out on?
The opportunity to communicate in [sign language], one of the most beautiful languages in the world, is an advantage that deaf people enjoy. What’s great is that hearing people can enjoy it as well if they have the chance to learn and practice it with us. It would be great if it were taught in schools and colleges like a foreign language; in fact, many schools do! It’s a language that combines several elements at once with a simple hand movement and facial expression: meaning, affect, time and duration. It’s just so beautiful that printed or spoken words can’t begin to describe it. As for me, having an opportunity to sleep well at night because there just aren’t any distractions is a big advantage for me!
Where within yourself did you find the fury needed for your Oscar-winning portrayal of Sarah Norman in Children of a Lesser God? In my book I’ll Scream Later, I describe how [director] Randa Haines and I worked on a very specific incident in my childhood, where I was molested by a babysitter, as a means to express the anger and frustrations of being horribly taken advantaged of by an authority figure. The anger and frustration that Sara Norman expressed in Children of a Lesser God had to feel real, and Randa knew that my experiences were very much like those that my character experienced. It was extremely emotional and difficult for me, but I welcomed the challenge and was extremely fortunate that I had Randa’s skilled hand and compassion to guide me through the catharsis safely.
Winning the Oscar when you were barely out of your teenage years: Were you prepared? Do you wish it had happened later?
I must say I was glad to have gotten the Oscar when I was barely out of high school. The hoopla, the media frenzy that goes along with Oscar was new to me, and, in fact, I wasn’t as savvy to the business as I am now, nearly 25 years later. I think, being so naive, I was protected and I sort of cruised along with it all. Had it happened now, I think I would’ve been an emotional wreck! What to wear? What do I say? All of these come with having seen it all, and I think being young was to my emotional advantage. I’m glad I won it then, but that’s not to say I wouldn’t welcome another one!
Reading your book, one gets the sense that as your star was rising, you may have felt like your life was happening to you, that you were not in control. Is that an accurate perception, and if so, did it contribute to your drug abuse in those days?
My drug use might have been a result of the isolation I felt being in a world where communication was mostly spoken and not signed, where I was taken advantage of sexually by a babysitter and then a teacher, as well as factors that related to an addictive personality I had. My drug use came way before I was in the film business; I started using drugs when I was 13 and continued through high school.
I would say it was as my star was rising that I decided to get clean of drugs: I stopped cold turkey just a few months before I won the Academy Award and entered myself into rehab. I did it all alone, with virtually no support from family or friends, who thought my problem wasn’t that bad. That’s because I did a good job of hiding it. I was tired of having a problem with drugs, however, and knew it was time to stop. Today I am proud to say that I have been sober 24 years, 5 months and 10 days. I feel great.
Being a survivor of domestic violence in your relationship with William Hurt, and being married to a police officer now, you have a uniquely informed perspective on the issue of abuse. Where do you feel “the system”—the courts, law enforcement, social services—needs improvement when serving abuse victims, particularly those with disabilities?
Women need to know there are places to go if they are in an abusive situation, that there are people who will listen and that there are options out there. Deaf women are in a particularly precarious situation because there is a lack of resources that can help deaf women deal with domestic violence. There is the National Domestic Violence Hotline, which has a special line for deaf women to call; there’s Deaf Hope in the San Francisco Bay Area and other organizations scattered throughout the country. But the majority of deaf women are isolated and find that they have nowhere to turn for help when their relationships become abusive. It’s a matter of devoting more financial resources to helping deaf women communicate and helping them find safe places where they can get the help they need.
Since you saved all the mementos, particularly the written ones, from your volatile relationship with William Hurt, do you have plans to write a book or a screenplay about it?
My life is not entirely defined by the relationship I had with William Hurt. I respect and admire his work as an actor. However, the personal aspect of our relationship was one which I chose to express in my autobiography as a means to help other men and women in similar situations see that it can and will get better if you learn to stand up for yourself, open the door and just leave. That’s what I did. As far as a screenplay, that’s up to filmmakers out there. Any takers?
You’ve guest-starred on innumerable TV shows. Where did you feel most welcome as a guest?
I felt most comfortable as a guest actor in three series: The West Wing, Law and Order: SVU and Seinfeld. These are shows that have become part of TV history, and I am so proud to have had the opportunity to be in them. The cast, the crew on these shows were nothing but professional, and I was honored to act alongside some amazing talent.
Who have been your most memorable co-stars, for better or for worse? Directors? Writers? Do you have a favorite role?
My favorite role is Sarah Norman in Children of a Lesser God. And some memorable co-stars have been Lee Remick, Martin Sheen, William Hurt and James Garner. Favorite directors—Randa Haines tops my list, but I loved working with Tommy Schlamme, who directed several episodes of The West Wing. As far as writers, Aaron Sorkin tops my list, and David E. Kelley is up there as well. Worse directors or actors are for me to keep in the back of my mind; I know not to work with them again!
Is there a “role of a lifetime” that you’ve yet to play?
I know this sounds strange, but I’d love to be in a Judd Apatow comedy or a Farrelly Brothers comedy. I would love to do something politically incorrect and funny in a feature film.
My mother has a book, All I Know About Animal Behavior I Learned in the Loehmann’s Dressing Room. I imagine something similar could be written about Celebrity Apprentice. What did you learn while doing that show? What about Dancing With the Stars? And about show business in general?
I learned about business, various aspects of brand managing, aspects of advertising, graphic design, directing and editing all while doing Celebrity Apprentice—things that I have never encountered in my acting career. It was fascinating. I was like a sponge, wanting to learn it all, and I loved it. The hours and the drama, however, weren’t what I expected, but I went with the flow and did my best to be professional and focused on my charity, and it worked. As for Dancing With the Stars, I learned I could push my body to extreme heights that I never could, dancing 9 hours a day, 5 days a week, and then putting it all together for a live performance in front of 24 million people. People thought a person who was deaf couldn’t do it, but I proved them wrong each week I was there.
After 25 years working together, how do you characterize your relationship with your interpreter, Jack Jason?
Jack is my producing partner, interpreter, confidant and friend. We finish each other’s thoughts, and yet we can argue like brother and sister. He is my business half and an invaluable partner.
In your book you mention that you asked Jack, upon meeting him, if he was Jewish. Even if it didn’t seem too important at the time, do you think, looking back, that expressing yourself through a Jewish interpreter has colored (or perhaps clarified) your communication with the world?
Having someone who grew up with the same religious values as myself, as well as having someone who shares that perspective of life that growing up Jewish gives you, has certainly been an asset. He gets where I’m coming from when I look at the world through my Jewish eyes and can identify with all aspects of having grown up in a Jewish family, whether it’s the Jewish values or even humor.
Have you ever thought twice about speaking through a man’s voice?
No, it never occurred to me. All I want is someone who is good, and Jack was and still is the best.
Did your husband need to learn any new skills to keep communication flowing in your relationship?
My husband learned to sign in college before we met and continued to learn sign through our relationship and marriage. He is a good and patient signer!
Have you encountered many frustrations as a deaf mother raising hearing children?
The frustrations I face as a parent are balanced with the joy of being a parent and really have no basis in my being deaf and my children being hearing. We communicate well and freely and whatever frustrations there are come from just the normal parent/child relationships. I make sure that deafness is not a barrier when it comes to raising my children.
What role does Judaism play in your home now that you’re an adult and a parent?
My values, my beliefs, my perspective on life in general are all a direct result of my Jewish upbringing. These are values I live and share with my children, and I learn to meld them with my husband’s beliefs and values. He is Catholic, and we live in a mixed religious household, but we have taught our family to honor, respect and celebrate both and find common ground in both.
Do your Jewish values inform or motivate your extensive charity work? Is there a particular charity that’s closest to your heart?
I’ve always said to people who’ve asked, “Why do you do so much charity work?” because when I was young, my parents made it a point of sharing with me the idea of giving back, of helping out those less fortunate than yourself. I love the phrase “living a life generously” that the Jewish Federation uses; it really sums up the lesson I got from my parents.
The charities that are closest to my heart are those primarily serving the best interests of children. My favorite charity is Starkey Hearing Foundation. They give out free hearing aids to deaf and hard-of-hearing children who could not otherwise afford them and who reside in developing countries and here in the United States. There are millions of children who are unable to afford hearing aids, and Starkey helps them as best they can. To date, they have given out nearly 500,000 hearing aids, and we’re trying to get more. That’s why I worked so hard on Celebrity Apprentice on behalf of Starkey and was proud to have raised $1 million on their behalf in one day, the most ever raised for charity on the show.
I loved the anecdote in your book about a stewardess who noticed you signing on a flight and handed you a braille menu. What are some of the more ridiculous (but well-intentioned…or not) things people have said to you?
My favorite is the studio executive who came to visit me working on my first TV series, and after a few minutes of watching me work, he leaned over to the executive producer of the TV show and said, “Marlee is great!” Then, with a straight face, he asked, “Is she going to be deaf for the entire series?” You know that big letter “L” that is made with the thumb and forefinger they use in the ads for Glee? He needed that letter on his forehead. Ha!
What’s next on your to-do list?
Summer vacation, hopefully more episodes of ABC Family’s Switched at Birth and some projects I’m looking to produce as well as act in. Plus I have a full fall/winter schedule of speaking engagements, some with my mentor and friend, Henry Winkler, for the Jewish Federation. My agenda is always full! - See more at: http://www.jwi.org/Page.aspx?pid=2925#sthash.TeT0losr.dpuf

Marlee Matlin story

Marlee Matlin has received many important awards and has had many laurels bestowed upon her over the years, but here’s an honor that’s a little out of the norm: This year, she was named the godmother of a cruise ship—specifically, the ms Noordam, the newest luxury vessel in the Holland America cruise line. 

Recently, the onboard ceremony launching the Noordam on its maiden voyage provided Matlin an exciting opportunity to check out the accessibility features the cruise line offers and to sit down for an interview with ABILITY Magazine. “This ship has been made very accommodating for someone like me,” she explains via her sign language interpreter. “They have a TDD device for phone calls, doorbells that display flashing lights, closed captioning on the television sets, a vibrating bed alarm—I don’t need an alarm because with four kids I have an internal alarm, but it’s nice all the same.” Interpreters are available free of charge for passengers who are deaf, she notes, and many other features make setting sail with Holland America comfortable for all types of passengers.

As it turns out, the actress says the cruise honor is fitting. She’s a foodie, you see, and cruises are always filled to the gills with lavish cuisine. “This cruise line is famous for having wonderful food, so they couldn’t have asked for a more perfect godmother,” she declares.

The Los Angeles-area resident also has a large appetite for life. A zestful woman, she overflows with creative talent and energy and has long been involved in a broad range of activities and activism. Matlin’s jam-packed resume presents an illustrious 20-year career in film and television, in which her presence and performances have helped to shatter stereotypes and rip down barriers for actors who are deaf or hard of hearing—and for people with disabilities in general. Additionally, she has her own film-production company, Solo One Productions, and has been the executive producer for several TV movies.

The petite 40-year-old has been a strong advocate for the deaf community, and she regularly gives her time to charitable organizations of all kinds. A mother of four small children, she has performed in educational, music and kids’ videos, and has authored several works of fiction for young readers.
           
Rashmi Turner of The Baby Einstein Company, a producer of children’s learning products, has worked closely with Matlin on a couple of projects. Baby Einstein, which produces a popular series of videos for infants, toddlers and young children, recruited Matlin last year to star in Baby Wordsworth. Making the point that communication can come in many different forms, the DVD features the actress showing sign language to infants and toddlers. Baby Einstein is releasing a new DVD this year called Baby’s Favorite Places, in which Matlin uses sign language to demonstrate an expanded set of words for children ages one and older. 

“We’ve had a wonderful time working with Marlee on both Baby Wordsworth and Baby’s Favorite Places,” says Turner, vice president of marketing communications and educational production for the company. “Since Marlee is both a mother and a professional actress, the work she did for the Baby Einstein videos came easily to her.”

America first glimpsed Matlin’s talent and intensity when she blazed onto the big screen 20 years ago in Children of a Lesser God, starring opposite William Hurt. Her explosive portrayal of a conflicted young deaf woman earned her glowing reviews—and the Academy Award for Best Actress. At 21, she became the youngest actress ever to win the Best Actress Oscar (and one of only four actresses to receive it for a film debut). In the following years, she made a diverse string of movies, ranging from Robert Altman’s classic Hollywood satire The Player to the AIDS drama It’s My Party to the New Age-flavored What the Bleep Do We Know? in 2004.

Strikingly attractive, Matlin quickly became a familiar figure in American pop culture. In the same year she snared the Oscar, she was cited by Harper’s Bazaar Magazine as one of the Ten Most Beautiful Women, and Esquire Magazine included her in its annual “Women We Love” issue.

From the beginning of her career, Matlin’s prominence and high visibility have raised the public’s awareness of actors who are deaf. For a number of filmgoers and TV audiences, she was the first deaf actor they had ever watched perform, perhaps the first person to bring to their attention that an actor with a disability could play mainstream roles.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, satire is certainly the next. Perhaps Matlin’s fame as a trailblazer was best reflected by a guest-starring turn on Seinfeld, in which she played herself; her ability to read lips provided the key story line (and punch lines), as bumbling George Costanza displayed his typical lack of social grace and sensitivity.


The humorous treatment of her disability might have struck some viewers as taboo, but she believes strongly that for people with disabilities it’s important at times to approach situations with a sense of humor. “I like to play around with people who don’t know me,” says Matlin, who speaks vocally to others although she generally has her interpreter on hand. “Often I’m talking to people through my speaker phone, and after 10 minutes or so they say, ‘Wait a minute, Marlee, how can you hear me?’ They forget I have an interpreter there who is signing to me as they talk. So I say, ‘You know what? I can hear on Wednesdays.’”

Sometimes all Matlin can do is laugh when she thinks of some of the unwitting things people have said. She tells a story, for example, from the first TV series she was on, NBC’s Reasonable Doubts. “It was a Warner Brothers-produced show, and one day during the first season an executive from Warner Brothers happened to show up and was watching us at work. He said to the executive producer, ‘You know, Marlee Matlin is great. Is she going to be deaf for the entire series?’”

Then there was this bizarre incident: “Once I was doing an interview with CNN and the interviewer—who was extremely nice—leaned over to me while we were getting made up, just before the camera was ready to shoot live in front of millions of people, and with about three seconds left she said, ‘Marlee…my dog is deaf.’ Then suddenly the light came on and there I was looking at her, reacting to this comment, thinking, Does she want to throw me a bone? I had no idea what she wanted.”

But Matlin has also felt the piercing hurt of people’s mockery—although she notes that fortunately it has occurred rarely. She vividly describes an incident that took place recently when she attended the Sundance Film Festival. She was eating with a group of friends at a Park City restaurant, chatting away, when she suddenly noticed a man on the street looking in at them through the window; he was with three buddies and was making gestures with his hands clearly meant to mock her use of sign language.

Animatedly, she details the burning intensity of her response: “I thought I must be dreaming because I hadn’t seen that sort of thing in at least a couple of decades. I looked at my friend and asked, ‘Did you see that?’ and she said, ‘Yeah, I did see that.’ And I said, ‘Let’s go.’” Compelled to confront the man, despite what she says felt like “20-degree-below-zero weather” outside, Matlin and her girlfriend tore out of the restaurant.

“I think he saw me running after him, because he was walking very quickly, and I went right up to him and his three friends and I said, ‘What’s that about?’” she recalls. “And they said, ‘No, no, that was nothing.’” But Matlin didn’t let them off the hook so easily. “I said, ‘You know what? He was making fun of me.’ And in the back of my mind, I thought, I can’t believe I’m doing this. I felt like I was a little kid all over again, standing up for what I believe in and who I am—and I don’t need to see that kind of stuff any longer.

“What he did was so passé, so childish, so amateurish. Obviously he wasn’t educated, and his friends realized as much and said, ‘Oh gosh, we just wanted to get your attention.’ I told them, ‘Well, you got it, because I’m standing right here telling you that you can never do that again.’”

In the end, the men apologized, and Matlin says she walked back into the restaurant extremely satisfied. The rest of the evening turned out to be very good, but she is still rattled as she remembers the encounter. “I mean, even my kids, my little kids, don’t do that,” she states emphatically. “That was probably one of the worst experiences I’ve had in a long time.”

More pleasant experiences relate to her family and her kids and her belief in the potential that children bring. “It’s all about starting with people at a younger age, talking about how we have shared values and shared cultures, learning together to accept who we are,” she says. In the past several years, she has built a strong audience base among children. Besides popping up in the Baby Einstein DVDs, she also hosted Disney’s award-winning series Adventures in Wonderland and performed in numerous episodes of Nickelodeon’s popular program Blues Clues, playing Marlee the Librarian. In addition, in 2002 she penned a novel for children entitled Deaf Child Crossing, published by Aladdin Paperbacks, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Recently. she has released the sequel, Nobody’s Perfect.

As for the adult crowd, Matlin has probably been most familiar lately as a recurring character in NBC’s long-running series The West Wing. For seven seasons, she played Joey Lucas, a tough, aggressive pollster who was very good at her job. Like many characters Matlin has played, Lucas defied the vulnerable and powerless stereotype Hollywood often paints for characters with disabilities. Her pollster was tenacious and politically savvy....Continued in ABILITY Magazine
by Paul Sterman
 
ABILITY Magazine
Other articles in the Marlee Matlin issue include Letter from the Editor — Hidden Disability; Senator Harkin — Christopher Reeve Paralysis Act; Headlines — Stroke Rehab, JAN and Web Accessibility, IBM and Technology Innovators; Humor — Reality Check and Pet Peeves; Deaf Community — Vibrant and Strong; Assistive Technology — CSUN Conference; Casting a Broader Net — Performing Arts Studio West; Memoirs to Our Stars — Jane Wollman Rusoff; Recipes — Fruity Delights; Shall We Overcome — A United Community; There is Room at the Inn — Book Review; Once Upon a Sign — Sign Language for Tots; Events and Conferences...subscribe