ACCESSIBLE DESCRIPTIVE TRANSCRIPT
American Masters
Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore
Accessible Descriptive Transcript (Visual and Audio Combination)
[Visual and audio descriptions: Against a blue background, a white circle surrounds 3 abstract heads in profile. White letters spell PBS. The logo morphs into a white screen with the words “American Masters” below a red bar. Jazz music begins. The red bar snaps into a red screen with large white letters that read: Marlee Matlin. Words appear: Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Any More and American Masters are made possible with support from CPB – Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American People; Burton P. and Judith B. Resnick Foundation; The Rosalind P. Walter Foundation; Kate W. Cassidy Foundation; The Marc Haas Foundation; Blanche and Hayward Cirker Charitable Lead Annuity Trust; Koo and Patricia Yuen; The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation; Thea Petschek Iervolino Foundation; Lillian Goldman Programming Endowment; Seton J. Melvin; Candace King Weir; Anita and Jay Kaufman; Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family; Ellen and James S. Marcus; The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation; The Charina Endowment Fund in memory of Robert B. Menschel; and The Andre and Elizabeth Kertesz Foundation. Support for Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Any More provided by Dolby Creator Lab; Ford Foundation Just Films; Jewish Story Partners; Maimonides Fund; and Viewers Like you. Thank you.]
Text on screen: The following film contains discussion of domestic abuse, sexual abuse, and language deprivation which may be disturbing for some viewers.
[Throughout this film, Marlee Matlin and other Deaf people use American Sign Language, or ASL, to communicate. When old footage of Marlee Matlin signing is shown, it is always voiced by her long-term Interpreter, Jack Jason. In the present, however, when Marlee and other Deaf people sign, voice actors are reading the subtitles provided by the production company. Distant helicopters whir. On a cloudy day, two helicopters hover over a congested city street. Words appear: Los Angeles, California, 2022. From inside a car the view is of a line of ushers, all wearing red jackets, standing on a red-carpeted street. Police direct traffic; journalists hold microphones; and a crowd in evening attire watches from the side. Marlee Matlin watches from inside the car. She is a white woman in her late forties with shoulder-length, blond, curly hair. She turns to the camera, smiles, waves, and signs.]
Marlee: Going to the Oscars now!
Interpreter’s Voice: Going to the Oscars!
[Crowd voices and cheers. Marlee poses on the red carpet. She is wearing a bright red dress and a chunky blue and gold beaded necklace. She smiles and signs. Reporters ask Marlee questions. Video clips spanning Marlee’s career play as reporters, then Whoopie Goldberg, comment.]
Interviewer: Obviously, it’s been over 30 years since, since you won your Academy Award. That’s a long time before we’ve actually seen Deaf actors getting nominated for awards. Is that frustrating?
Reporter #1: Marlee Matlin’s career has spanned dozens of film and TV projects since she became the youngest person to win a Best Actress Academy Award.
Reporter #2: She is a successful producer, published her New York Times best-selling autobiography, “I’ll Scream Later.”
Whoopi Goldberg: A pioneer representing Deaf actors in Hollywood, and now she’s breaking even more barriers in a movie with plenty of Oscar buzz this year called “CODA.”
Marlee Matlin: It would mean the world to me to have finally another Deaf actor who’s gotten an Oscar. It’s been 35 years. That’s a pretty long time. Nobody else who’s Deaf has ever gotten an Oscar, so fingers are crossed.
[Dramatic orchestral strings, then, deep bass jazz music begins. A black and white photo of a young Marlee, her hair wrapped in a towel and looking in a mirror, is shown. The left half falls away and the title “Marlee Matlin,” in script, appears; followed by “Not Alone Anymore.” A video montage of individuals interviewed later in this film is shown. The interviewees, surrounded by camera equipment, are conducting mic tests with the interpreter.]
Henry Winkler, Actor: Alright. Who’s in my ear?
Interpreter: Shoshannah’s voice.
Henry: Nope, can’t hear you.
Crew Member: I’m going to give you this earpiece so you can hear the translation.
Aaron Sorkin, Writer/Director: Oh, sure. Okay.
John Maucere: I hope my pants don’t ride up.
Troy Kotsur: Signing space.
Interpreter: Yeah, that looks good, Sho says.
Randa Haines, Director: Could I hear your…?
Interpreter: Yeah. Testing. Testing. Testing. Testing, testing, testing…
Henry: There you are. Now I hear static.
Interpreter: Okay.
Interpreter: I see, hold on one second.
Henry: Okay.
Marc Matlin, Marlee’s Brother: It’s working, but it’s a little… fuzzy.
Shoshannah Stern, Director: Good. She was looking the other way before, but if she looks at me, it’s perfect. It’s nice! Nice! Good.
Shoshannah: I think it’s their first time seeing a signed interview between two Deaf people.
Interpreter: My voice will be Shoshannah signing and I’m going to leave the room.
Aaron: Got it.
[Rumbling airplane]
Jack Jason, Marlee’s Interpreter: And there’s an airplane.
Shoshannah: Yep, airplane.
Sian Heder, Writer/Director: When do we get to talk [censored] about Marlee?
Shoshannah: Oh. Right now.
Sian: Okay, good.
Shoshannah: Yeah.
Sian: [Laughs]
[Deep bass jazz ends. Now, Marlee and Shoshanna lounge on a beige couch facing each another. Marlee has straight, chin-length, blond hair, parted in the middle. She is wearing baggy blue jeans and a bulky, black V-neck sweater with a thick gold chain around her neck. She is sipping a green drink through a straw. Shoshanna is a white woman with long,dark, wavy hair parted in the middle. She wears large, dark colored, square shaped glasses and holds a binder, with papers, in her lap. They begin to sign.]
2nd AC: Delta camera mark. [Clack]
Marlee: She’ll voice for you, or…?
Shoshannah: She will, but I don’t want voice married to the footage.
Marlee: Ohh.
Shoshannah: They’re just voicing for editing purposes.
Marlee: Okay. Action.
[Microphone rustle. Footage from an early interview is shown.]
Crew Member: This is, uh, “Children of a Lesser God.” Reel number seven, part two. Interview with Marlee Matlin. October 23rd, 1985.
[Marlee is 20 years old, has curly brown, should-length hair, and a squinchy smile. She wears a blue patterned jacket over a white shirt. She faces the interviewer, who signs.]
Interviewer: You know, people all over the world were searching to find Sarah, just like they looked for Scarlett O’Hara a long time ago, and they finally picked you. So you are Sarah. How do you feel about that?
Marlee: I feel good. I enjoy it because I learn about myself more.
Interviewer: It’s like looking in a mirror.
Marlee (to Shoshannah): Yes! I was a baby when I left for the movie. I was a baby. I wasn’t in the know about many things in life. I was making decisions about all these things I didn’t know about. I was still growing up.
[Loud, breaking fizzy static. Wavy, diagonal bands of color fill the screen. A clip of young Marlee standing next to a thin, blond, young man is shown.]
Marlee: Hi. My name is Marlee Matlin. My agent is Harisse Davidson.
[Randa Haines, Director, ‘Children of a Lesser God’. She is an older white woman with chin length gray hair, round dark rimmed glasses, and large hoop earrings. She sits in an upholstered chair in front of a large picture window, wearing a blue denim dress with a blue scarf wrapped twice around her neck.]
Randa: “Children of a Lesser God” was my first movie. Mark Medoff, who wrote the play, had stipulated that all performances of the play had to be cast with Deaf actors. And I just- I’d never questioned the idea that that’s how we would do the film. We kind of put the word out all over the world, and there were moments where you wonder, “Will we find our Sarah?” She was such an amazing character. And then a videotape was sent to us. There was a production of a play being done at that moment in Chicago. And I just immediately went, “Who’s that? Who’s that?”
[Highlighted text from a print article reads: “Paramount is finally set to go with ‘Children of a Lesser God.’ …and with a leading lady to be decided upon.” Then, a list of cast members from a production of ‘Children of a Lesser God’ is shown, with Marlee Beth Matlin, as Lydia, highlighted. A video of a young Marlee, signing.]
Marlee: Hearing boys. They could never be bothered learning my language. No, that was too difficult. I was always expected to learn how to speak. Well, I don’t speak. I don’t do things that I can’t do well.
Marlee (to Shoshannah): I didn’t understand how the casting process worked enough to understand the idea of fighting for a role. So I did my thing, and I was petrified.
[Soft, distant horns and traffic hum. New York City’s Broadway in the early eighties.]
Randa: The first time I met her was in New York. I opened the door of the hotel room, and there was this, what looked like a teenage girl chewing bubble gum. She looked about 16. She was 19. But I remember that my heart started pounding the minute I saw her.
Actor: Agreed. We have an hour. James?
Randa: Bill Hurt was there, too, and it was just a very informal kind of test. At the point that Bill was cast, he was a really huge star. He had just been nominated for an Academy Award for “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” And he was a phenomenal actor.
[A clip of Marlee’s 1985 screen test for “Children of a Lesser God” with William Hurt begins. A young William Hurt is featured on the cover of several magazines. In his mid-thirties, he is a white man with blond hair that falls in a wave over his forehead and covers the tops of his ears. He wears round, wire-rimmed glasses. Then, the screen test continues, with Marlee next to William on a couch. Both hold scripts.]
Bill: They’re dirty. I’ve been crying with happiness. I don’t believe this. I’m married already. You look good. Alright!
Marlee: I really went for it. I gave it 100%. I remember him seeing that and going, “Whoa.”
[In the screen test, William now sits on a coffee table across from Marlee. Both sign, she with great emphasis. William voices both of their dialogues.]
Bill: You can do whatever you want. Oh, yeah? Like what? [Bill murmuring] I can do nothing. I’m equipped for nothing. I’m trained for nothing. I have to translate everything.
Randa: The chemistry between her and Bill Hurt was quite phenomenal. I mean, you could just feel it in the room, this sort of electric attraction between these two people.
[TV host John Tesh. He is a white man in his early thirties. He has short, neat, light brown hair and wears a gray suit and red tie. A promotional photo from Children of a Lesser God is superimposed on the broadcast screen.]
John Tesh: The movie that brought together Oscar winner William Hurt and Deaf actress Marlee Matlin is about to open. It’s the screen version of Mark Medoff’s Tony Award-winning play “Children of a Lesser God.”
[Next, TV host and journalist Charles Gibson. He is a white man in his early forties with short, wavy, dark brown hair. He is wearing a suit and tie. Young Marlee, in a pink sweater, smiles.]
Charlie Gibson: It’s a love story about two people, one of whom is Deaf, played by Marlee Matlin, who is actually Deaf.
[Now, Gene Siskel, Film Critic. Gene is a white man with a receding, dark brown hairline. He is wearing a sport coat and sweater over a collared dress shirt.]
Gene Siskel: Making a spectacular and sensuous film debut as a very bright but reclusive person that William Hurt must first bring out of her shell.
[A split screen view shows Marlee’s Sarah, from ‘Children of a Lesser God’ on the left; she is mopping the floor. Marlee, in the present, is on the right side of the screen. She is at her brother’s house, sitting in an upholstered chair and wearing a lavender blouse. Her blond hair is now parted on one side.]
Marlee: Sarah Norman, my character, grew up at a school for the Deaf, where she eventually ended up working after she graduated. It so happened that there was a speech teacher who was hired to work at the school, who came with his own particular attitudes of wanting to make sure that Deaf children speak.
[On the left screen, James, played by William Hurt, sees Sarah mopping and enters the room. She looks up as he gives a friendly wave and starts to approach. With glaring eyes she thrusts a pointed finger out at him. He backs up.]
James (Bill): Man… [Crumpling paper] You know, if — if you let me, I bet I could teach you how to speak.
[Metallic thud as Marlee drops a mop bucket.]
Sarah (Marlee): I could teach you to mop.
James: And you could teach me… But I don’t want to mop the floor.
Sarah: Gee, that was quick!
James: Gee, that was quick! And…you don’t wanna speak.
Sarah: Brilliant.
James: Brilliant.
Marlee (to Shoshannah): I wanted to crack open her brain and understand why she was so rebellious. And I could understand why. She was very oppressed.
[In a scene from the movie. James, wearing an overcoat, is backlit in the doorway to an indoor pool. The lights are off and the water has a blue glow; oblivious, Sarah slowly swims and peeks over the edge of the pool.]
Narrator: Paramount Pictures presents…
James: You are the most mysterious, beautiful, angry person I have ever met.
Narrator: Their love had a language all its own. “Children of a Lesser God,” rated R.
[Lauren Ridloff, Actor. In her forties, Lauren is an Afro-Hispanic woman with light brown skin and curly, dark, shoulder length hair. She is sitting in a straight back chair and wearing a gray, wool, pinstripe vest.]
Lauren Ridloff: My parents took me to see “Children of a Lesser God” when it first released. I was eight years old when it first came out in 1986. And even though the movie was really for an adult audience, my parents didn’t feel that mattered. They thought it was important for me to see a Deaf person on the screen. They really wanted me to be able to see myself, so to say, up there on the screen. That was big.
[The Charlie Gibson interview. Marlee’s interpreter, Jack Jason, sits next to Charlie and across from Marlee.]
Charlie Gibson: There is a very strong emotional attachment that develops in this movie. Some people say it’s really a movie just about two lovers, one of whom happens to be Deaf. Was that made easier because you and William Hurt fell in love while you were doing that movie?
Marlee (to Shoshannah): Bill taught me to not be afraid to dive into a character. He was a method actor through and through, but I’m not. Well, maybe a tiny bit!
Shoshannah: Have you ever met a female method actor?
Marlee: A female? No. Good point. Point taken. Hmm.
[The Gibson interview, with Jack Jason interpreting.]
Interviewer: Now, that’s not bad for a first movie. First major acting job and bingo! Best Actress nomination. And maybe the favorite?
Marlee: Me?
Interviewer: [Laughs] How did you get the word? Who called you up and told you?
Marlee: Jack actually, yeah. Jack Jason, my interpreter.
Interviewer: Did you?
Marlee: Yeah, we were on the — on the teletype writer.
[Now, Jack Jason, Marlee’s Interpreter. He is a short, white man with graying hair and wearing a gray wool sweater. He is sitting against a pillow in an upholstered chair. As he speaks, photos of him with Marlee from their early years together are shown.]
Jack: I was working in the office at NYU in Educational Film and Technology, which shared an office with the Deafness rehab program. And one day, a phone call came in from William Hurt’s assistant looking for an interpreter for his then-girlfriend. So I took her shopping, and we just hit it off. And then we just became more and more friends. He was very, very private, so he wasn’t so keen on bringing different interpreters in all the time. So he sort of depended on me.
[A younger Randa, with long, curly, brown hair, is interviewed on TV. A live video of Jack signing is superimposed on the screen.]
Randa: I think all of us involved with it learned what the film is about, about communication and the fact that it’s very difficult, whether we’re deaf and hearing people trying to communicate, Deaf people together, hearing people together… Communication is a struggle for human beings. And we saw that acted out every day on our set.
[Next, Troy Kotsur, Actor. He is an older white man with shoulder length gray hair and a bushy gray beard. He is wearing a black beret, and a black sweater vest over a white tee shirt. He signs: The first time I saw that movie, just…wow. I felt like there was an earthquake booming through Hollywood. Finally, a Deaf person was on screen.]
Troy: The first time I saw that movie, just…wow. I felt like there was an earthquake booming through Hollywood. Finally, a Deaf person was on screen.
[Ethereal synthesizer begins. The pool scene plays while Troy continues.]
Troy: The story itself was a good way to introduce what it’s like to be Deaf, how to live around Deaf people. We understand that hearing and Deaf perspectives are at odds with each other.
[Water rippling, rustling paper as Marlee reads and laughs. On the left of a split screen, a publicity notice from Paramount Pictures Corporation is shown. Marlee signs its text.]
Marlee: Only the Deaf people can laugh! “Marlee Matlin becomes sensually lost in her own silent world as she swims at a school for the hearing impaired. Paramount Pictures, ‘Children of a Lesser God.'” Whoever wrote this obviously was not in the know about our culture and language. “Being lost in her own silent world.” I’m very loud. And within myself, my mind is never silent. Never.
[Ominous tones. Now, Rex Reed. He is a middle aged white man with dark eyebrows and a full head of dark hair. He is wearing a blue sweater over a white dress shirt, and sits in a studio chair.]
Rex Reed: Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be deaf? It’s a strange and frightening world. It’s isolated by the sound of silence. “Children of a Lesser God” is an unusual movie that attempts to explore that mysterious landscape.
[In two different settings, a young Marlee gazes at her interviewers with a tight smile.]
Interviewer #1: You seem so at peace with the fact that you’re a non-hearing person in a hearing world. Have you come to terms with it or are you just a good actress?
Interviewer #2: Do you feel that you might be a sentimental favorite amongst people who really do admire your courage?
[Tempo picks up speed as articles appear on screen.]
Text from articles:
– Matlin’s could become one of the most short-lived of stardoms if her own hearing impairment prevents her from ever being cast in another major role.
– She is a beautiful, gifted actress with a handicap; it will probably prevent her from ever having another starring role in a motion picture.
– The nomination’s wasted–how many roles can you find for a deaf mute actress?
[A white, blond, and mustached man wearing a tuxedo with a red tie speaks with Rex Reed.]
Man 1: I think Marlee Matlin might be relying on the sympathy vote. I have to agree with you, but I think she deserves it either way.
Man 2: But remember the year Harold Russell won for “The Best Years of Our Lives”? He had no arms.
Man 1: I think I’m too young.
Man 2: They love to see somebody who’s handicapped win.
[Music cuts abruptly.]
Jack: What the [censored]? Pardon my language. But, really? That was the first time she faced that, this expectation of how people would perceive her.
Marlee (to Shoshannah): Okay, so you never saw a Deaf actor win an Oscar? You never saw a Deaf actor play the lead in a major motion film? Okay, I’ll prove it to you that I belong here in Hollywood.
[Applause. William Hurt, in a tuxedo, stands on a stage. Superimposed live visuals of the Oscar nominees, including Marlee, surround him.]
Bill: And the winner is… Marlee Matlin.
[Huge applause. Theme from “Children of a Lesser God”. The camera pans to Marlee in the audience, seated next to Jack. She smiles and rises from her seat. She is wearing a low-cut, floor length gown made of lavender lace. Her hair is styled in a French twist, decorated with a spray of small white flowers. She wears pearl and gold earrings, red lipstick, and glasses. She walks slowly to the podium, grasps Bill’s hand, and smiles up at him. He smiles and they kiss. She turns to the audience with a wide smile and heaves a sigh. Bill places the Oscar on the podium in front of her. Lights reflect off her glasses.]
Jane Fonda: [Mouthing] That’s so great.
Marlee: To tell you the truth, I didn’t prepare for this speech, but I definitely want to thank the Academy and its members, and I want to thank all those special people in the film. And I can name them: Randa Haines, Patrick Palmer, the entire cast and crew, and particularly William Hurt for his great support and love in this film.
Jack: When she finished her speech and we were walking back, I was like, “Marlee, you won an Oscar.” She’s like, “Right?” Then it’s time to do press and we’re walking down this long hallway with cameras flashing. I mean, you could feel the heat from the flashbulbs. We turn the corner, and it’s pandemonium with the photographers and Marlee answering questions.
[Marlee, standing against a curtain backdrop, faces the press. Reporters murmur, flashbulbs clap.]
Interviewer: Congratulations. Do you have any sense of how Deaf people around the world might have felt a few moments ago when the award was announced for her?
[Calm instrumentation]
Marlee: I think that they feel extremely happy and relieved that someone really deaf-
[Jack misspeaks ‘something’] a deaf actress was able to accomplish something extremely unique.
[Peter Jennings, News Anchor. He is a middle-aged white man with brown hair that covers the top of his ears. He wears a suit and tie. A headshot of Marlee in her Oscar dress is superimposed on the screen.]
Peter Jennings: Not only is it going to make the hearing impaired particularly happy, but she will also serve as an example to so many Deaf people who are young.
[Marlee, still in her Oscar gown, and now sitting, signs.]
Marlee: There are deaf people that are not actors or artists who are also overlooked that should- for example, have captioned films, captioned television, lots of opportunities for Deaf people that don’t exist out there. So those are things that we should know about. [Swelling strings] I feel them jumping up and down, really cheering.
[A photo of Marlee, back in front of the press and holding her Oscar, is shown. Now, John Maucere, ASL Performer and Friend. He is a white man, about 60, with short, dark wavy hair brushed back from his face and a graying beard. He is wearing a brown cable-knit turtleneck sweater. He signs.]
John: My first reaction was, “What? Is this for real? Hold on.” I’ll say too that I come from a large Deaf family spanning three generations. I grew up in Deaf schools, I went to Gallaudet, I have lived a fully Deaf-centric life. Still, I felt deep down that it would be impossible for her to win back then. But seeing that moment of her film going all the way to the top, without a single word of spoken dialogue from her, meant that I could do it too. So that ignited the spark. And not only for me. The entire world was set ablaze because of her.
[Next, Liz Tannebaum, Childhood Friend. She is a white woman with pale blond shoulder length hair. She is wearing a dark sweater with the sleeves pushed up. She signs.]
Liz Tannebaum: Back in the 1980s, it was a completely new thing for all of us, not just Deaf, not just hearing. Every person. Of course there have always been celebrities but not a Deaf one. Before that, in some Deaf roles, they would just hire hearing actors to play Deaf. No, thanks.
[A montage of films: The Miracle Worker, 1962. The Court Jester, 1955. Johnny Belinda, 1948.]
Off-screen voice: E-G-G.
Actor: [Grunting] Uh, she says, “No.”
Actor: Watch…me…talk.
Liz: She changed the world!
[Archival photos of the actors he names are briefly shown.]
Jack: Before Marlee, there was Phyllis Frelich, Linda Bove, Audree Norton. But they all had smaller and more limited roles. Marlee busted the doors open when she won her Oscar. It then became, “Do you want to lead us?” And Marlee is like, “Me? Leading you?”
[Celebratory piano. Captions read: Washington D.C., Gallaudet University. Marlee, now slightly older and wearing glasses, walks down the aisle wearing a cap and gown. Graduates, in their caps and gowns, sit in the auditorium. On the stage a woman signs as she speaks.
Commencement speaker: For sharing the message that Deaf persons are individuals who have pride in themselves, their accomplishments, and their deafness.
[Applause as Marlee is handed a black covered diploma. She then blows kisses to the seated graduates. Next, footage of young Marlee at various celebratory events plays.]
Maria Shriver: Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin is being honored wherever she goes. Organizations for the Deaf court her to publicize their cause. At the tender age of 21, Marlee is getting people to listen.
Marlee (to Shoshannah): “Children of a Lesser God” was the time in my life when I was “born,” as a Deaf person who had a Deaf identity. Chicago was my bubble until I finished the movie and traveled to New York and elsewhere. I realized there are Deaf people everywhere. It was bigger than I realized. That was a shock! But then it became scary.
John: Instantly, all eyes were on her, getting bombarded with questions about Deaf education, Deaf needs, Deaf rights- You name it. That moment opened the world’s eyes to Deaf people. It was a wake-up call, and a huge one at that. Then Deaf President Now happened, and she got involved in that too.
[Footage plays of a large crowd of students, signing emphatically with their hands raised high. A sign reads: We Won’t Give Up…Until We Have A Deaf President.]
Reporter: Gallaudet students have made their demands loud and clear.
Students: Deaf president now! [Students yelling excitedly] Deaf president now!
Reporter: The confrontation was ignited by the university trustees’ selection of a new president, choosing a hearing woman who is just now learning sign language over two Deaf candidates.
John: For 124 years, it was one hearing president after another. That mindset and attitude remained that Deaf people weren’t ready.
Reporter: Gallaudet University, the only liberal arts college for the Deaf in the United States, is the alma mater for 95% of the nation’s Deaf college graduates.
[Old footage plays, of a crowd of students milling about an auditorium, signing angrily. Captions read: Voice of Jane Spilman, Gallaudet University Board Chairman.]
Jane Spilman: If you’d like for us to listen to the students, the students will have to be a little quieter.
John: The board was aware we were rallying a great deal. That’s what I was involved in.
[Confident anger, students yelling, feet stomping. Footage now shows a young John, above the crowd, signing.]
John: We will choose as a deaf university! Let’s go! Come on! We were shouting with our Deaf voices! I jumped onto Jason Ingrain and we all started chanting.
Students: Deaf president now! Deaf president now!
Reporter: Trustee Chairman Spilman and newly selected president Dr. Elizabeth Ann Zinser said they will not be swayed by the students’ demands.
[News intro horns and drums. Ted Koppel. Ted is a white man in his late forties. He has thick, wavy, reddish hair that covers his forehead. He wears a dark suit and tie. A graphic superimposed on the screen shows two hands signing, books, a graduation cap and the words: Hearing Impaired.]
News Announcer: This is ABC News “Nightline.”
Ted Koppel: Let it be said, first of all, that each of our guests tonight has the best interests of the Deaf at heart. The question is to what degree good intentions are enough, or whether, in this case, they amount to a form of outdated paternalism.
[Upbeat ’80s synthesizer begins. On the screen, three panelists are shown in separate boxes outlined in blue. They are: Ruth Zinser, Gallaudet University President, Greg Hlibok, Student Body President, and Marlee Matlin.]
Marlee: It’s very selfish on their part not to let Deaf people have the chance to speak, have the chance to be the president.
Marlee (to Shoshannah): I took that opportunity to jump in with “Nightline,” not even thinking about the interpreters. I just went for it!
Jane: A deaf individual one day will not only be the president of Gallaudet —
Marlee: Why not now? Why not now? Look at me. Look at me.
Jane: I’m having a very hard —
Greg Hlibok: No. That’s old news. I’m tired of that statement, “one day” again and again. “Someday a deaf person.” We’ve gotta break this cycle!
Marlee: It is again and again. It is. It’s old news!
Greg: The past presidents have always said that, “someday.”
Ted Koppel: Folks, I’ll tell you what. We have something approaching anarchy here.
Marlee (to Shoshannah): And I loved Ted Koppel. He was beside himself going, “Time out, time out.” But we spoke with passion and we spoke the truth. And I think it worked. It took a village.
[Meredith Vieira speaks while footage of protesting students plays.]
Meredith Vieira: “Deaf president now” was the students’ battle cry. Within days, the hearing president resigned and King Jordan became the first Deaf president of Gallaudet. He’d won the most prominent position ever for a Deaf person in America.
[Soaring electronica, excited cheering as Grainy footage of smiling students crowding and hugging King Jordan plays.]
Shoshannah: Really, almost from day one, you became an advocate for accessibility.
Marlee: I became an advocate without knowing it at first.
Shoshannah: Right!
Marlee: I was thrust into it, but that was okay. But then again, no one explained to me what all this accessibility stuff meant. They’d ask me questions like, “What did you not get growing up that you wished you had?” Captions. Okay.
[Younger Marlee in an interview.]
Marlee: Since I was seven, I wanted to become an actress. I wanted to make at least one film, and the reason I wanted to be an actress was because of “The Wizard of Oz.” I loved that film, and I saw it, oh, God, hundreds of times, and I imagined myself in that film.
[Dreamy, ambient tones sway. A scene from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ plays – Dorothy’s lips move but there is no sound. In a split screen, the movie continues to run, now with captions; and the interview continues.]
Marlee: It’s never been closed captioned.
Interviewer: I see.
Marlee: Either on television or in video. And I heard that next year is the 50th anniversary of “The Wizard of Oz.” And I thought perhaps we could get the film closed captioned.
The Wizard: Go away and come back tomorrow.
Dorothy: Tomorrow? But I want to go home now.
Marlee: I had this revelation watching it with captions. It made so much more sense once I understood what they were saying. I had made it up in my head what they were saying, but no more.
Liz: Finally, I could understand what was happening. Those captions helped my own communication skills, my comprehension- I could write better.
Jack: Marlee worked hard for closed captions because she watched TV. I remember her first interview, or maybe her second or third, with “Entertainment Tonight.” She said, “I won’t be on your show until it’s captioned.”
[Now, a slightly older Marlee in a series of interviews.]
Interviewer: You’re very involved with the National Captioning Institute. What is that involvement and what is closed captioning?
Marlee: NCI stands for the National Captioning Institute, as you said. What you would see on your television screen is subtitles. So what I’m doing right now is trying to make all programs, all home videos, all cable broadcasts, all, all, all local newscasts, everything on the screen to be closed captioned.
Interviewer: You want it all, all, all?
Marlee: Everything! Because it’s possible.
[Deep whooshing. Headlines read: Closed captioning for TV gets boost from actresses. NCI, Cable Captions…Cable Cares, and, Plea for the deaf. John, alongside video of Marlee testifying in Congress.]
John: The last time a Deaf person had spoken to Congress… I’m talking about the 1800s. Then it was a blank road for years and years, until the NCI with Marlee representing.
TV Reporter: Well, a new federal law took effect today requiring that most new television sets be equipped to display closed captions.
John: That bill passed and, whew. Now we watch with captions. That was Marlee Matlin.
Charlie Gibson: Marlee Matlin’s performance in the movie “Children of a Lesser God” last year dazzled all who saw it. It’s bringing her other roles now. The latest: a new movie called “Walker.” And good morning to you.
Marlee: Hello.
Charlie: In this movie, little part.
Marlee: Little part. Well, that may be your word, I guess.
Charlie: Well, you’re only- you’re not in the movie for a long time.
Shoshannah: After you won your Oscar, what — what did you think was going to happen in your career after that?
Marlee: I started looking for what my next job would be. I got one or two. It was a slow process. It wasn’t like things were being picked up very quickly, with offers coming left and right. I don’t think Hollywood was ready for Deaf actors.
[A young, playful Marlee in a garden setting, then a more serious Marlee in an old interview.]
Marlee: Hello!
Reporter: The 21-year-old actress, who is able to talk, said she’d like to tackle a speaking role.
Marlee: I’m trying to break the barrier. The idea that hearing people have that Deaf people do not talk at all, which is not true. There are plenty of Deaf people who do speak very well, fairly well, and not at all. If people want to hear me talk, come and meet me.
[Laughter off-screen in an old clip of Marlee. She is dressed in a strapless, fuschia colored, cocktail dress for the 1988 Academy Awards. Behind her, in a bathroom, is Richard Dean Anderson, Actor, who is dressing. He is a white man in his mid-thirties with styled blond hair.]
Marlee: Hello, folks. This is Ricky over there. Say “hi” to the camera.
Ricky: Hello, you wacky kids.
Marlee: He’s busy, he’s busy.
Jack: I see.
Off-screen voice: Marlee looks fabulous in her – Who?
Jack: In her- In her Chuck Jones dress.
Marlee: Compared to last year!
Jack: Compared to last year? Why don’t we go outside and take a look of this – with the sunlight?
Marlee: This isn’t last season.
[Single piano note. Headlines read: William Hurt in torment over his breakup with co-star Marlee Matlin, and, ‘Opposites MacGyver and Matlin Find Love on the Rebound.]
Jack: The year after Marlee won the Oscar, she had broken up with William Hurt and she had a new boyfriend. And she had been criticized about her look, so she decided to change everything.
[Marlee twirls outside in her fuschia dress. Slow, contemplative orchestration, sharp laughter.]
Jack: You have to walk like Marilyn Monroe.
Jack: It’s already pressed. It’s running right now.
Offscreen voice: Oh hi, Jack!
Jack: She won Best Actress, so she presented for Best Actor the following year. I asked her how she wanted to do it.
[Footage of Jack in a tuxedo.]
Offscreen voice: Let’s see you sign that speech that Marlee’s going to say.
Jack: Oh, I don’t sign.
Offscreen voice: Oh, that’s right.
Jack: She signs. I just talk.
[Footage plays of Marlee and Richard Dean Anderson, sitting in the back of a limo; they laugh and cuddle. Outside a sign reads ‘Annual Academy Awards.’]
Marlee (to Shoshannah): No one told me which approach would be best. Signing? Speaking? Both at the same time? Was speaking prohibited? No one told me. No one.
[Outdoor footage of the Academy Awards.]
Jack: Here we go!
Marlee: I mean, I was green. It was just me. I was alone.
[Marlee, now on stage, signs.]
Marlee: By nominating the following actors for Best Performance in a Leading Role, you have honored each one magnificently.
Marlee (speaking): The nominees for Best Actor in a Motion Picture are…
Marlee (signing to Shoshannah): So I decided to speak the names of the nominees.
[Audience clapping]
Marlee (speaking): And the winner is… Let’s see. Michael Douglas in “Wall Street”!
[Big applause.]
Marlee: The next thing I knew was the vitriol from the Deaf community. I was completely thrown off. I had no idea whatsoever what they were so angry with me about.
[Jane Pauley, TV host. She is a white woman in her thirties, with light brown hair in an upswept hairdo. She wears a turquoise blue dress. Upbeat, tense tones pulse.]
Jane Pauley: Until recently, the Deaf have indeed been a silent minority.
Reporter: At a time when a new activism among the Deaf has been spotlighted by demonstrations at [Crowd yelling] Washington’s Gallaudet University, Matlin’s decision was bound to be controversial.
[Now, Greg Hlibok, Gallaudet Student Body President, on the University campus. He is a young white man with a short blond haircut. He is wearing a white hoodie.]
Greg: I’d appreciate it if she could speak and sign at the same time. She’s talking to both audiences, hearing and deaf.
Jack: Then Silent News picked up the story stating: “Offensive?” With a question mark. So many complaints followed that.
[Strings rising and swelling. Additional headlines read: A Controversial Oscar Speech; and Deaf Actress’s use of Speech Proves Divisive Among Peers.]
Marlee (to Shoshannah): I didn’t understand, and there was no one who came to me to say, “Look, this is why they’re angry with you.”
Shoshannah: Nobody?
Marlee: No one. Nobody. Not a soul. Nobody.
[Music fades out quickly. Old footage of Jane Pauley interviewing Robert and Phyllis Frelich on a studio set. A caption reads: Live, 8:18 EDT, Burbank.]
Jane Pauley: In our Burbank studio is Phyllis Frelich, the deaf actress who starred in “Children of a Lesser God” on Broadway. And interpreting for her is her husband, actor Robert Steinberg. As a matter of fact, the play was based on their story. And good morning to both of you, Phyllis.
[Phyllis sits next to, but faces, Robert. She is a middle-aged white woman with thick brown hair. She is wearing a blue shirt-dress and blue dangly earrings. Robert is a middle-aged white man with short curly brown hair. He is wearing a lavender and white plaid patterned sweater.]
Phyllis: Good morning.
Jane Pauley: Did Marlee break ranks when she spoke at the Academy Awards show?
Phyllis: Did Marlee break the rules, so to speak? Not really. No. There are many Deaf people among us who speak. For some time now, Marlee has been very visible and has been accepted as a spokesperson for the Deaf community. And when she, on Oscar Night, in front of millions of people in the world, stopped signing and began to speak. It really encourages- it emphasizes this stereotype that Deaf people have been fighting against for so many years, which is that the majority seem to judge a person’s- a Deaf person’s success, or even intelligence, with their ability to speak, with their ability to imitate the hearing. And it is not true.
Marlee (to Shoshannah): I didn’t have that training, exposure, or Deaf history under my belt before “Children of a Lesser God.” I was clueless. So then I ended up staying away from the Deaf community for a good ten, fifteen years. I just did my own thing.
Shoshannah: You were scared, I’m sure.
Marlee: I was terrified of the Deaf community. Petrified. And I still am. I still am.
[The Entertainment Tonight interview.]
Interviewer: Does it sometimes feel like you have the mantle of the entire hearing impaired world a little bit on your shoulders because you became a personality that in a sense represents them?
Marlee: Well, I felt that great deal of responsibility when this controversy occurred. Before that, I didn’t. I didn’t feel that responsibility because I was having fun. I was enjoying myself being seen at the Academy Awards as the first Deaf Academy Award winner, and I accepted it. But I’m not president of the Deaf community. I can’t be.
Marlee (to Shoshannah): So, that was the aha moment when it came to Deaf identity and everything at comes with it… communication breakdowns and so much more that we have all gone through. I came to realize, “Oh.” That’s what I’d been going through growing up. But I didn’t have the vocabulary for it.
[A steadily approaching engine hums. In the present, a white Mercedes pulls to a curb in a suburban neighborhood. Captions read: Morton Grove, Illinois. A moment later Marlee waves to a postman.]
Marlee: How you doin’?
Carrier: Good, how are you?
Marlee: Have a good day.
Carrier: Yeah, have a good day.
[Birds chirping. Marlee walks up to Liz.]
Marlee: Do you remember that? There was a street sign that said, “Deaf Child Crossing.”
Liz: Yes, that’s right! They don’t have it anymore.
Marlee: My parents convinced the neighborhood to put that sign in to warn people there was a Deaf child crossing. The first time I met Liz was when I was five years old, and we met at temple. I was like, “Okay, you’re my best friend now.” It happened in an instant. But this house, I still dream about it. This house still shows up in my dreams. There were so many milestones that took place here. A mix of good and bad.
[Slow piano notes. A photo montage of Marlee as a child begins.]
Marlee (to Shoshannah): My parents were dumbfounded when I became Deaf at 18 months old. They’d never seen a Deaf child before in their life. And they had no idea what to do. So, how it happened, I don’t know. We don’t know. Some say it was because I had a fever and I was sick and we got on a plane to California. Maybe that’s the guilt they held onto, because they knew I was sick. My mom denied it, and my dad said nothing. Until the day they both passed away, they were still grieving over me becoming Deaf.
[Slow, ambient piano. Next, Eric and Gloria Matlin, Marlee’s brother and sister in law, sitting on a couch in their living room. He is an older white man, wearing a flat, round, short-brimmed straw hat and a blue dress shirt. She is an older white woman with long, graying brown hair. She wears round dark rimmed glasses and a dark sleeveless, high-neck shirt. Photos of the child Marlee, with her older brothers and parents play while he speaks.]
Eric Matlin: It was considered a pretty — you know, a significant disability, I’ll say, back then. And my parents, they were devastated. There was crying. And, uh… [Chokes up] And they, um, you know- It gave them a new sense of purpose, I think.
[Marc Matlin, Marlee’s brother. He is younger than Eric, with short brown hair. He’s wearing a denim collared shirt and sits at a table in front of a fireplace.]
Marc: I didn’t know what my sister’s future would be. And I used to worry about it as a child. I didn’t know if she’d have a “normal” life.
Marlee (to Shoshannah): My absolute earliest memory was probably at three years old, and I was being forced to speak at preschool.
[Deaf children singing. Photos and footage of Marlee, and other children, with wired earbuds are shown.]
♪ I can choose to do whatever ♪
♪ I want to do with me ♪
Male Narrator: These children are profoundly deaf. They worked hard to bring you this song. They are able to speak, and you are able to understand their speech thanks to oral education.
John: In the ’60s and ’70s, there was a heavy dependency on what our ears could or couldn’t do. We were forced into oralism.
[Grainy footage is shown of a young girl standing apart from other children at a playground.]
Narrator: A child who is deaf from birth doesn’t imitate speech because she can’t hear. And until she’s taught to speak, she can’t make herself understood to children with normal hearing. They don’t want to play with her. She’s unusual. Peculiar.
John: I remember going to speech classes when I could have been learning other things, yet speech was always pushed onto me. We were hooked into hearing aids, FM systems… All these devices on us constantly. It was so in your face. This led to language deprivation in schools. We went through a lot.
[Grainy footage of adults instructing children who wear earphones.]
Narrator: Hearing aids amplify sounds so that children can hear them.
Teacher: Hello, hello. Uh-oh.
Narrator: That doesn’t mean they hear normally. …The sound patterns lack clarity.
Narrator 2: The hearing aid is tested at least once a day by the feedback method. Her profoundly deaf daughter will hear something like this.
[High-pitched squealing. Words with no shape.]
John: There was a profound pity for Deaf people, with the belief that they had a hopeless future. That was the attitude.
[In old footage, a thin, stern looking white man, with gray hair and glasses speaks to a young couple.]
Man: Now don’t punish yourselves with blame. Just face the fact that like any child of this sort…brain damaged, retarded…you’ll never have the kind of life with him…that you’d have with a normal child.
Marlee (to Shoshannah): I am the only Deaf person in my family, and I was the youngest too. I was always asking why people were laughing. That’s how it went. And I was always the first to finish my food. So what I would do is bring comic books to read at the table while everyone else finished their meal.
[Photos of Liz and Marlee through the years.]
Liz: We were on the same path because we could communicate with other, and we both had very limited communication with our families. But they did try their best.
Marc: Unfortunately, there’s always a bit of alienation. We were slow, had a hard time fingerspelling.
Eric: She was very frustrated. And it was frustrating for us because we weren’t- And I understood it- We weren’t communicating with her all the time.
Marlee: I wish they had signed fluently. I do. But at that time, in their defense, I didn’t know just how important communication was. I couldn’t pinpoint the problem.
[Birds chirp in a new scene. In a suburban townhome, Marlee, Eric, Gloria, and Marc stand in a kitchen. A dog paces. Marlee looks back and forth and around.]
Eric: We have five pizzas for three of us.
[Laughter]
Gloria: Yeah.
Marlee: What?
Eric: We have five pizzas for three of us.
Marlee: Perfect.
[Panting, nails tapping]
[Plastic crunching, indecipherable]
-Do you want…
[Dish clinking]
-Marc, do you have…?
[Chairs scraping]
-Honey? [Dull thuds] [Dishes clattering] [Feedback pitch]
-Marc…
-Like, what, you got some, Noah?
[Tongue going at teeth]
-The play you how you were written.
[Opaque laugh] [Panting]
[Empty vowels] [Muddy voices]
Marlee: Bored.
[Audio rises clearly]
Marlee: What are you talking about?
Marc: Their neighbor in Michigan was an older woman, died. She had a dog, and a neighbor took the dog.
Marlee: Oh, good.
Marc: Now, the man that took the dog died.
Marlee: Oh.
Jay: So if you know anybody-
Marlee: Did the dog kill them both?
Jay: If you know anybody who wants, the dog’s already killed two.
[Group laughing]
Marlee (to Shoshannah): My brother, Marc, was the one who usually tried to interpret. And I’ll always remember just how much I appreciated his allyship.
Marc: I feel guilty that I don’t speak it where I can keep up regular pace.
Marlee: I’ve always been cut off by a lot of people growing up anyway. Cut off, blocked off, dismissed, or ignored. So I got accustomed to it growing up. That’s just how it was for me as the Deaf girl.
[In the present, at John Hersey High School, Marlee’s old high school. She walks down a hallway and into the auditorium. A school bell rings.]
Marlee: Wow. Wow. I never had a chance to perform on this stage. That’s what I remember, being here. I couldn’t audition because I was Deaf. I couldn’t speak, or wouldn’t speak. They would look at me, smile, pat my head condescendingly, tell me, “Not now.” I said I was an actor at the Center on Deafness. I am and have been a proud Deaf actor.
[In an old video, teenage Marlee signs a song along with other deaf actors on a stage.]
[“I Hear Your Hand”]
♪ Before you knew ♪
♪ I walked with you ♪
♪ Until today ♪
♪ You turned away, see what I say ♪
[Marc, then Eric and Gloria, all smiling. Newspaper clippings and photos from Marlee’s early performances are shown.]
Marc: She was just a presence. She commanded the room. And I was always so proud of her.
Eric: She had talent back then. And we would go to a lot of plays, but, you know, this is children’s theater. What does it really mean in the long run? And it turns out it meant everything.
[In the present, Henry Winkler escorts Marlee into a waiting car. Christmas wreaths decorate lightposts.]
Henry: You first. Oh, my god, we’ve known each other a long time.
Marlee: I know. I met you when I was 12.
Henry: You were 12.
Marlee: And I’m 58. So how long is that? I don’t know math.
Henry: I don’t either. Because, you know, I’m in the bottom 3% academically.
Henry (to Shoshannah): The first time I met Marlee, we were playing an exhibition game with the Cubs in Chicago. The “Happy Days” Ball Team was invited, And I get a lot of fan mail when I’m playing the Fonz. So, there was one letter that invited me to come to a school. And I thought, “Okay. I’m here. We’re off. I have the free time, we’ll go.”
Marlee: I’d been a fan of Henry Winkler for many years because of “Happy Days.” And seeing him with Linda Bove, I was amazed.
[A scene from “Happy Days,” with Linda Bove, in 1980. The Fonz pantomimes his words. Linda’s character smiles and nods.]
Fonz: Hello.
[Laughter]
Fonz: Do you want to go look at the moon close up with me? This means “yes.” [Laughter] So long.
Marlee: I was thrilled, so I worked as hard as I could on my song.
[Teenage Marlee on stage.]
♪ Kiss today goodbye ♪
♪ And point me toward tomorrow ♪
They sat in the front row, and I performed my heart out for them. I put it all out there on stage.
♪ Won’t forget ♪
♪ Can’t regret ♪
♪ What I did for love ♪
After the show was done, Henry came up to me. I was a little starstruck.
[A single piano note chimes. An old photo of Henry and Marlee hugging.]
Henry: Her mom takes me aside and says to me, “You know, look, my daughter wants to be an actress. Tell her that it is so difficult, even if you can hear, that she should pursue something else.” I said, “You got the wrong guy.”
[Now, Henry is sitting with Marlee in a restaurant booth, across from Jack.]
Henry: All I did was say, “Yes.” That I thought you…
Marlee: Right. That’s all I needed.
Henry: That’s all you needed. All I did was say, “Yes.” Stacey said, “Yes.” You had it in you.
Marlee: I don’t know. If we had never met, I wouldn’t be sitting here.
Henry: That’s not true. I don’t believe that.
Marlee: I disagree.
Marlee (to Shoshannah): My relationship with my mom was very tough. I know she loved me and I loved her. But as two very stubborn women, wow.
Marc: There were some very turbulent years. Because Marlee was determined to do things her way.
Eric: Yeah, she had a lot of anger.
Gloria: She had plenty of temper tantrums. She did some crazy, crazy stuff. And as Marlee got older, she didn’t need my mother-in-law as much anymore. And I think that brought on a whole different set of issues.
Marlee: At 15, I became rebellious. I was into drugs and boys. I wanted to be more independent than I already was. But then again, that might have stemmed from the loneliness I felt at home.
Jack: She was going down the path of addiction. All because was limited communication at home. I think communication is key for any Deaf child’s life. If there’s no communication at home, they’ll find it somewhere else.
[Marlee in home video clips, then a montage of photos of Marlee and Bill.]
Marlee: It’s recording?
Offscreen voice: Think so.
Marlee: I love you, Bill. I miss you, Bill. You are in my heart. With Bill, it was very exciting and scary and… Almost like a grown up thing for me that I wanted to experience.
Shoshannah: How old were you when you first met him?
Marlee: I was 19. He was 35.
Shoshannah: 35.
Marlee: I was using drugs at the time, so I wasn’t clear-headed. But with everything going on in my life, I was grabbing for anything that excited me.
[In the movie, Sarah and James each move languidly to the music. Marlee’s eyes are closed, her head, body, and arms slowly sway.]
[“I’ll Take You There” by The Staple Singers]
-♪ I’ll take you there ♪
Randa: She was so at ease on the set and so responsive to direction and- and their chemistry was so alive on screen. That every day we would just kind of be watching the dailies and, and- oh, she’s just leaping off the screen. You know, and it was hard to remember to look at him sometimes. [Chuckle]
Marlee: The love was deeply intense. Both at work in character and off-screen. It was so deep and so heavy, and… Phew. It’s something I do not want to experience again, actually.
Jack: When it came to William Hurt’s anger, sometimes I felt as if their relationship- on his end- was method acting. He talked to her exactly the same as he did with her character in the movie.
[A scene from the movie.]
James: No. You think that I want you to speak?
Sarah: I want to be me. Me!
James: And you just want to be you? Well, who the hell are you?
Randa: I could see that they were having arguments, fights, you know.
James: Right.
Randa: She would come in in the morning looking just like she hadn’t slept. And Bill would be in a great mood. He would tell jokes and turn his back to her so she couldn’t see. And I- I tried to understand what was going on, but I saw that she was suffering from it.
Marlee: When we had our first physical fight, I was thrown. I mean, that never happened to me before. Why is this happening? But then it evolved into a habit of abuse.
[James’ heavy breathing off-screen. A disheveled Sarah rolls onto the floor, then rises and straightens her slip.]
Randa: I remember once noticing a bruise, but I didn’t- I didn’t know. Nobody felt they had license to enter into a private relationship or comment on it or ask questions about it, or- And the situation was already so charged. Just the work itself was so charged and so complex and difficult. But I wish I had the wisdom I hope I have now to have been more aware and ask more questions.
Marlee: Whatever was going on that wasn’t right were things I didn’t know weren’t right. I knew I loved him, but that was all.
[Muffled engine roar. In old footage, Marlee and Jack are in an airplane, laughing and pantomiming.]
Jack: Bill went to do a movie called “Time of Destiny” in Yugoslavia. It was called Yugoslavia at that time. Marlee wanted to go, so Bill bought tickets for the both of us, the whole nine yards, to fly us out there. I’m in the bathroom and hear something. In the room over where Marlee was, Marlee is screaming and furniture is being thrown around. I’m thinking, “What is happening?” I go over and knock on the door. Marlee has a dress on, a black eye, and purple on her jaw/chin. Obviously, I knew what had happened, but I still didn’t expect that.
Marlee: Bill Hurt was threatened by my youth and the sudden change in my success from just one movie.
[Applause as William Hurt presents the nominees in 1987.]
Bill: And the winner is… Marlee Matlin.
[Applause echoes and fades]
Marlee: I was afraid as I walked up the stairs to get the Oscar. I was afraid because I knew, in my gut, that he wasn’t that happy. Because I saw the look on his face and my thought was “[Censored]!” That’s why I didn’t take the Oscar from him right away.
[Climbing low rumble. The Academy Award scene of Marlee accepting the Oscar, replays.]
Jane Fonda: [Mouthing] That’s so great.
[Rumble cuts out.]
Marlee: Yeah, I wish it were different. I wish I had shown my joy. But I was afraid because he was standing right there.
[Now, in the movie, James stands inches away from Sarah.]
James: You want to talk to me? Then you learn my language! [Slams chest hard] Did you understand that? Of course you did. You’ve probably been reading lips for years. But that’s the great control game, isn’t it? I’m the controller. What a [censored] joke. Now, come on. Speak to me! Speak! Speak to me!
Sarah: [Screams] Do you hear me now? Here I am! Hear my voice! Aah! Am I beautiful now? I’m not afraid!
Marlee: So looking back on how I was able to survive, I have no [censored] idea. I have no idea how I survived. If I had to give Bill an ounce of credit, it would be for saving me in terms of my drug use. He went to rehab, and I was able to see what it did for him, and I knew that checking in there would do me great. I was all by myself in New York. Well, me and my drug dealer. So, on January 9th, I used up everything I had in my bedroom. My coke, my pot, everything I had. The next day, January 10th, was the day I got sober and I flew there.
[A plane lands against a backdrop of windmills and mountains. A sign reads: Betty Ford Center at Eisenhower.]
Marlee: I was the first Deaf patient to enter their facilities and I had to fight so hard and I struggled so much just to get an interpreter and to have them pay for it. They told me, “No.”
Shoshannah: They said, “No?”
Marlee: They told me, “No.” They said it was a private organization, a private hospital. What the hell?! So, of course, I ended up paying for the interpreter.
Shoshannah: Yourself, out of pocket?
Marlee: I paid for it myself. There were a lot of things I learned in rehab that pointed to things not being right. The physical and verbal abuse, the mental and emotional abuse was not right. I learned that there. We both knew then that post-rehab, our relationship wouldn’t be the same. And I decided I’d had it. I walked out of that house and I never went back.
[Ambient traffic noise. A smoggy view of the iconic ‘Hollywood’ sign against a Los Angeles hillside; then, congested streets.]
Marlee: I remember Henry Winkler said, “Come to California. Come to my house and we’ll talk about what’s been going on.”
Henry: Knock on the door. Marlee. “I have no place to stay. I just broke up with my boyfriend. Can I stay with you just for the weekend?” “Sure. Stace, what do you think?” “Of course.” Two years later, she finally moved out! [Henry laughing]
Marlee: That family took me in as if I were one of their own. I’ll never forget that.
Henry: You know, she was not completely whole at that time. So what I told her was, “If you know what you want without ambivalence, if you’re clear about what you want, everything else will fall into place.”
[“This Is the Day” by The, The, an upbeat tune. Photos of Marlee with a young Henry and his wife Stacey, and a laughing Marlee, playing with friends and flirting.]
Jack: She was becoming more herself. She became more independent and started dating different guys.
Marlee: You want to go on a date? Do you want to go on a date?
Offscreen voice: Well, what’s your answer?
Man: You know what my answer is.
[Giggles joyfully]
-♪ Across the clear blue sky ♪
♪ This is the day, your life will surely change ♪
♪ This is the day, when things fall into place ♪
Jack: She wasn’t just Bill’s girlfriend anymore. She was Marlee.
Marlee: I had to take care of myself and then say, “Bring it on.”
[A slightly older Marlee is seen on a live, morning TV talk show, with hosts Kathy Lee Gifford and Regis Philbin.]
Kathie Lee Gifford: Marlee, is it true that you lived with a certain actor who said to you, “Never do a television series”?
Marlee: Yeah, I did.
Kathie: What was he thinking?
Marlee: This actor told me not to do television because he himself doesn’t do television. He told me not to do publicity. He told me not to meet other actors. He told me a lot of things. So, now I’m out of that life. And I do want to do television.
Regis Philbin: Marlee, you know what to tell him now? [Regis pantomimes ASL.] “Kiss my butt!” [Audience laughs]
Marlee: I finally had the opportunity to do a half-hour show in front of a live audience for the first time, and I was petrified.
[Loud stage activity in footage of Marlee with a young Jerry Seinfeld, on a warehouse set. Jerry shrugs then skateboards away.]
Marlee: Everybody loves you.
Jerry Seinfeld: Really?
Marlee: I know everybody there. I told them I had to go. They said, “Where you going?” “Seinfeld.” They love you.
Off screen: Hey. How are you?
Marlee: Larry David, I mean… I’m happy I went to the gym that fateful morning, because that’s where he saw me, at the gym. Then Carol Leifer wrote in my character.
[Now, a video clip of Marlee’s scene, from 1993, plays; she is sitting across from Jerry and George in a restaurant.]
Laura (Marlee): That couple is breaking up.
George: They’re breaking up? How do you know?
Jerry: She reads lips. What are they saying now?
[Audience laughs.]
Laura: “It’s not you. It’s me.”
[Huge laugh.]
[The scene continues, with George and Jerry casually covering their lips with their fingers. George and Jerry continue to hide their lips; George, by stretching and turning his head into an upraised arm, and Jerry, with a napkin.]
Marlee: That episode worked well because I was poking fun at myself, as well as the situation, and poking fun at them.
George: Oh, my God. I just had a great idea. She could come to the party tomorrow and read Gwen’s lips for me. [Laughing]
Jerry: What?
John: She ended up having such a great gotcha moment in the show. That’s why we Deaf cheered it on. Deaf people are thought of as so passive, but Marlee flipped the script big time.
George: Would you ask her? Just ask her. If she says “no,” case closed.
Jerry: Alright. Um, Laura… George was wondering if-
Laura: Sure. I’ll do it!
[Audience laughing]
Marlee: I remember once with Jerry Seinfeld, he said to me, “Marlee, your episode is in my top ten favorite episodes.” So for that to come from Seinfeld himself, that meant a lot to me.
[Now, footage of Marlee, on a studio set with a young Jay Leno, is shown. She is wearing a blue-green plaid suit jacket with big shoulders.]
Jay Leno: Now, you have a new boyfriend! This correct? I heard some squealing in the hallway. What does this guy do? Is he an actress? Actor, I mean. “Actress?” Actor!
Marlee: No! He’s an actor. He’s a writer. He’s a director. He’s a producer. Everything! No. Actually, he’s a policeman. And so, you know, I mean- I guess I- I saw him. I checked him out. And uh, reeled him in.
[Audience laughing.]
Marlee: Kevin. I met him on my first day of “Reasonable Doubts,” my first TV series, with Mark Harmon. I was asking him some questions about being a cop. Just making small talk, that’s all.
Jack: He knew some signs when they met, so she was drawn in. And they just fell in love with each other.
[An early photo of Marlee with Kevin is shown; he embraces her from behind. In his mid-twenties, Kevin is a white man with brown hair, a mustache, and glasses. Then, another interview. Marlee is now wearing a brown leather jacket over a white blouse and sits across from her interviewer, who is a middle-aged Black man with a receding hairline and mustache. He wears a suit but no tie.]
Interviewer: You are engaged. Can you show the ring?
Marlee: Yeah. [Laughter]
[Marlee thrusts her left hand out, fingers facing down. A close up of Marlee’s diamond ring.]
Interviewer: It’s beautiful.
[Now, footage of Marlee and Kevin’s early relationship is shown. They smile, laugh, embrace, and gaze into one another’s eyes.]
Henry: You just knew. This is different. This is where a home is made.
[Footage from their wedding plays. She is wearing a white, off the shoulder gown with a sweetheart neckline. Her curly hair is pinned up under a white veil. Her father, wearing a white yarmulke, kisses her cheek through the veil; then her mother, in a pink dress, lifts her veil and kisses the other cheek.]
Officiant: “I, Marlee, take you, Kevin… To be my husband.” “I will love you…”
Kevin: I will love you…
Officiant: “And honor you…”
Kevin: And honor you…
Officiant: “All the days of my life.”
Kevin: All the days of my life.
Officiant: One…two…three! Mazel tov!
[Applause as Kevin stomps on a wine glass. Wedding footage continues. Marlee and Kevin slow dance, and kiss, surrounded by smiling guests.]
Marlee’s mom: I can’t tell you enough times how much we love you. And we hope you’re happy.
John: It’s a lovely wedding. And Marlee you’re lovely tonight. That goes for you too, Kevin with your hot pink socks. Far out! Enjoy yourselves! Oh yes, I was at her wedding. Was I ever! I remember it was at Henry Winkler’s home.
Henry: There was no other thing to do. There was no other place for her to get married except in our yard, in her home away from home.
[Back to the wedding.]
Marlee’s dad: I’ll be crying in about one second. I’m famous for that. I’m overjoyed. And I hope they have a long, wonderful life that I could only wish them. And I would wish your children the same thing. Thank you.
[Marlee and her father dance, and Marlee signs the song’s words to her father. He mouths the words to her.]
[“What I Did for Love” by Marvin Hamlisch]
♪ But I won’t forget… what I did for love ♪
♪ What I did for love ♪
Marlee (to Shoshannah): Family is number one, of course, but my work supports my family. And I love what I do too. So… I have to keep working to stay creative and support my family at the same time.
[Now, footage of Katie Couric interviewing a younger Marlee.]
Katie Couric: Is it a continual challenge for you to find good roles?
Marlee: Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s just like that for anybody else, I would imagine.
Katie: But even more so for you.
Marlee: It is. It is. A lot of people are afraid to talk to me or to give me a script that may not have been written for me. And they’re afraid to change it to make the role possible for me to play it. So I try to fight for that. And say, “Hey, look. Let’s make it work for me and I’ll make it work for you.”
Jack: I would say she was offered 10-15% of roles. Some are open-minded, others are not. So it’s about reaching out, like reaching out to Aaron. It’s an interesting challenge.
[Now, Aaron Sorkin, Writer / Director. Aaron is a white man in his early 60s, with reddish brown hair and glasses. He is wearing a gray wool vest, unbuttoned, over a blue dress shirt.]
Aaron Sorkin: I’d never met Marlee before. She came in and she was brilliant and she was hilarious. And just a short while later, when I started writing “The West Wing,” there was a part I wanted her to play. It was written just for her. I wasn’t thinking, “Let’s bring in a character who’s hearing impaired.” It was, “Let’s bring in Marlee Matlin and see what happens.”
[A door latch opens in footage from a West Wing episode. Marlee’s character, and her interpreter, burst into the office of the character played by Bradley Whitford, who sits with his forehead on his desk.]
Joey Lucas: Are you the unmitigated jackass who has the DNC choking off funding for the O’Dwyer campaign in the California 46th?
Actor: What in God’s name is happening right now?
Joey: I’m Joey Lucas.
Actor: You’re Joey Lucas?
Joey: No. I’m Joey Lucas.
Actor:Help me, ’cause I don’t-
Joey: You idiot, I’m Joey Lucas!
Aaron: She just comes into the show like a hand grenade.
Shoshannah: I can see it in my head right now!
Aaron: Yeah.
Shoshannah: Yeah, you probably saw it in your head too, huh?
Aaron: Yeah, with Brad Whitford standing there in yellow waders, not knowing what is happening to him right now.
[The episode continues.]
Actor: I was, I, uh… I- I spilled some things on my clothes. Tell you what. Let’s just take a deep breath for a second while I try to remember where I am right now.
Aaron: Marlee was scathingly brilliant… and she had a lot of dexterity with language, and that’s what I needed.
Marlee: The cast was lightning quick with their dialogue, and being the only Deaf cast member, it was a lot to keep track of. The cast was mindful that I also had to deliver my lines.
Aaron: Lines that Joey signed were written in italics and lines that she spoke were written in a normal font. And it was very conscious when we would hear her voice and when she would be signing.
Shoshannah: I don’t know if you know this, but that’s rare. A lot of people say it’s very difficult to write for Deaf people. Why?
Aaron: It’s not. It’s not. I think maybe people who say that, what they’re tripping over is you have to wait for the interpretation. If you create two characters, the character and the interpreter, they can start to overlap.
[The episode continues; Marlee’s character, Joey, approaches Bradley’s character at a hotel bar.]
Actor: Hello.
Joey: Hello.
Actor: Hi.
Interpreter: Hi.
Aaron: The interpreter can start speaking before the signing is done, and it becomes exhilarating for the audience. It’s a great use of language.
[In an episode of “The Practice,” Camryn signs as she speaks to Marlee, who signs back, arguing. A male character watches.]
Actor (The Practice): We all agree that if we’re going to go to trial, we have to go with temporary insanity. The only other choice we have is jury nullification, and that judge will shut us down in a second. But if we win on temporary, you could avoid prison altogether. You have a chance, but you have to let us do our job.
Marlee: That scene with Camryn on “The Practice” was the first time there was no sound, no interpretation, no voiceover. David Kelley said to just go for it.
[In the episode, they continue to argue, with rapid signing.]
Marlee (In scene): He killed my baby!
Marlee: That was the first time in TV history that happened.
Jack: For some reason, people think Deaf actors are limited only to Deaf roles. They can play any role. Marlee could play anything. She could be president, you name it.
[Now, a reel of scenes featuring Marlee plays. First, “Picket Fences,” 1993. Marlee strides into a bank alongside a man with a gun.]
Marlee (in scene): Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Laurie Bey, better known as the Dancing Bandit.
[Next, “Hear No Evil,” 1993, “The Advisor,” 2003, “The Larry Sanders Show,” 1997, “Blues Clues,” 2003, “The L Word'” 2007, “Law and Order, SVU,” 2005, “Switched At Birth,” 2011, “This Close,” 2018, and additional quick glimpses of scenes. Instrumentals swell and soar.]
Marlee (in scenes): Did you know that nearly 80% of mentally and physically disabled women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime? [Sharp knocking] Larry! Are you deaf or something?
Larry: Marlee?
Marlee: Where does the wolf live?
Actor (The L Word) I was just trying to do what’s best for you.
Marlee: Well, how do you know what’s best for me?
Actor: You didn’t know what was going on half the time. You weren’t there. You didn’t even try to be engaged!
Marlee: Oh, really? How the [censored] do you know? Are you having my experience? Are you [censored] deaf?!
Marlee (more acting scenes): I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. So your mom told me you have a new boyfriend. But she didn’t say whether he was cute or not. I wasn’t always there for you growing up. But I can be now.
Marlee (to Shoshannah): Acting is freeing. When I’m able to sign more than I speak, it’s my comfort zone. But then, I will speak if it makes sense for the character. But I won’t play a character who has a particular skill in speaking because I think it would get in the way of my work. I’m done with that.
[On a talk show Marlee, now in her mid-40s, is interviewed by Robin Roberts. Robin is a middle-aged Black woman with short black hair. Marlee is now in her 40s, with shoulder-length, highlighted hair cut in layers.]
Robin Roberts: Twenty-two years ago, Marlee Matlin became the youngest and only Deaf person to win an Oscar for Best Actress. Now, she is revealing the emotional journey behind her glamorous Hollywood life in her autobiography, and it is terrific. It is called “I’ll Scream Later.”
[Marlee’s book is shown; she smiles on the cover.]
Shoshannah: What made you decide to let the world know what happened?
[Her face blank, Marlee looks off into the distance.]
Robin: Because I remember when you won the Oscar and you think that your life is perfect. Everything is just beautiful. But Marlee, you also talk about the sexual abuse that you suffered. Who are you hoping to help?
Marlee: Well, actually, I mean, I have a daughter who’s 13, and as I saw her growing up, I remembered all those things that happened to me. And I thought, you know, there’s so much about me that she doesn’t know.
[Now, Sarah Grandalski, Marlee’s eldest daughter, talking to Shoshanna. Sarah is a slim young woman with elbow length brown wavy hair.]
Sarah: I just remember my parents sitting me down right before the book had like been published. It was kind of them preparing me for the information that I would be finding out about my mom.
[Marlee, now on the set of “The View.” She and Jack are sitting on a couch, surrounded by the show’s co-hosts.]
Marlee: I went through a lot of things in my life, in my childhood, that no one should ever have to go through. I was molested by a babysitter when I was 11, and then I had sexual molestation with a teacher in high school.
Elisabeth Hasselbeck: You were 15, right, when that happened?
Marlee: I was 15 years old. Yeah.
Jack: When Marlee wrote her book, it was before the #MeToo movement, before any of that. And it was brave to do because not many women in the business were writing about this to the level of detail that she did.
[Joy Behar interviews Marlee on the Larry King Live show. As they talk, scenes from “Children of a Lesser God” play on the split screen.]
Joy Behar: Alright, let’s talk about William Hurt. What’s the deal between the two of you? Was it love? Was it lust? You said in the book that the sex with him was spectacular. Now you’ve piqued my interest.
Jack: I mean, wow. Anyone would commend Marlee for that now, but the response was tepid back then.
Sarah: The book really… It really, really, really- It broke me in so many ways because…[Sarah’s voice breaks] You know, it’s hard to read those things. Because you can’t do anything about that. So, it’s just hard. Like, I would never want my mom to be in pain. So knowing that she was, you know, it kills me. It still does. Like, I still think about these things all the time. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s just because it really changed the way I viewed my mom. It was really different. But to see how successful she was, how she took that and was like, “I’m not going to let this stop me. I’m going to keep going.” That’s what inspires me every day.
[Shoshannah and Sarah wipe tears from their eyes. Barbara Walters on The View.]
Barbara Walters: William Hurt made this statement, I guess as a result of your book. He said, “My own recollection is that we both apologized. We both did a great deal to heal our lives. I did and do apologize for any pain I caused. I wish Marlee and her family nothing but good.” Have you forgiven him?
Marlee: You know what? I’m sure that sounds like something a publicist might have written. During my drug phase, his alcohol phase, we did apologize, but it wasn’t clean and sober, if you know how the program works. And so, no, he did not apologize. No. After this was all done, no. And I wish and appreciate if he wouldn’t use the word “we.”
Jack: People saw what Marlee wrote, but he still worked after that. Many directors worked with him in Marvel movies. Even to the very end of his life, he still got jobs. People knew what he did.
Marlee (to Shoshannah): They tried to make me invisible. What did I do to deserve it?
Joy Behar: But you stayed. Why did you stay?
Marlee: I didn’t know how to leave.
Joy: Mm-hmm.
Marlee: I didn’t have friends in New York. That’s where I was living. I didn’t know that you could ask for help. I didn’t know that you could call 9-1-1. I didn’t know.
Marlee (to Shoshannah): I never knew that “domestic violence” was a term that was used to describe what you were going through in an abusive relationship. I never heard of “domestic violence” until after the fact. Long after the fact. I didn’t have those resources.
Shoshannah: But also the language itself, you didn’t know the words.
Marlee: The language itself, no. Hearing people are lucky that they can overhear and have access to information anywhere they go, wherever they are, whoever they’re with. Deaf people only have their eyes to rely on for information.
Shoshannah: That’s language deprivation.
Marlee: It’s language deprivation. Big time.
Shoshannah: You’ll always be playing catch-up for the rest of your life. That is the biggest barrier.
Marlee: We’re not fed the words and the language the same way hearing people are. So we have to work extra hard.
[Slow, reflective piano. In the present, in a small house with a covered front porch, a makeup artist and hair stylist work on Marlee. Shoshanna and a camerawoman are standing nearby.]
Marlee: I’m still hustling every- I mean, after 37 years, I’m still hustling. That’s why I’m- I mean, I think that’s why I have “perseverance” put on my wrist right here. I look at this all the time. Every day. And then I have “warrior” on this wrist.
Make-Up Artist: Close.
[Shoshanna nods as Marlee points to her tattoos. Piano slows and fades.]
Shoshannah: “Children of a Lesser God” is still so popular as a story. There was a revival a few years ago with Lauren Ridloff. We need more stories! Why do you think “Children of a Lesser God” is still so popular as a story?
Marlee: [Laughs] I don’t know what it is.
Troy: When I first saw “Children of a Lesser God,” it was awesome to see Deaf authenticity finally, but the story felt like it was about sympathy. Like it was patronizing. But in the back of my mind, I told myself, “Don’t say anything about that.” It was a huge first step. I wanted to see more, but there wasn’t much more.
Aaron: You’ve played Sarah?
Shoshannah: Yes, every Deaf actress has.
[Aaron laughs]
Shoshannah: It’s a rite of passage.
Aaron: It’s a great play, you know.
Shoshannah: Yeah, but still it’s the only one that people know.
Aaron: Okay.
Shoshannah: For what… 40 years? It’s interesting.
Lauren: I’m still reeling from the fact that I played Sarah. I really struggled with why Sarah was attracted to James. I couldn’t even wrap my own head around it. Why? I, Lauren, would never go for a person who didn’t see me as right or “worthy” of taking up space in this world.
Shoshannah: I remember playing Sarah before the #MeToo movement, and every night, I felt sick. I would feel nauseous…
Marlee: Why’d you do it?
Shoshannah: Well, because that story was where I saw myself for the first time. You won an Oscar for the first time, and I saw myself on TV. The first time I saw myself was in that story. And I believed it was a love story because I was told it was.
Marlee: During the time that the movie came out, people didn’t think about… my character’s boundaries. They just thought, “What’s wrong with her? Why can’t she speak? Why the hell won’t she speak? What’s wrong with her? Try to speak! We all speak. Let’s hear her voice!” And when she finally spoke, hallelujah! It was for the hearing world, not for us. It was about them and not us.
[Shoshanna nods, slowly. Scenes from the 2021 movie “CODA.” Marlee’s character is signing to Ruby, a young teen girl.]
Marlee (in CODA): When they told us that you were hearing, I felt… my heart sank.
Ruby: Why?
Marlee: I was worried that we wouldn’t connect. Like me and my mom. We’re not close. I thought I would fail you.
Marlee (to Shoshannah): The last time I acted, as we speak, and I hope I’m right, was for “CODA.” Talk was circulating about it. I called my agent to say I wanted first dibs on the script. That’s the game you have to play.
[A split screen shows a photo of Marlee and her CODA castmates, one of whom is Troy. Now, in the present, Sian Heder, Writer/Director, CODA. She is a middle-aged white woman with wavy light brown hair that falls to just below her shoulders. She is wearing a dark cardigan sweater over a white tee shirt.]
Sian: When we started the casting conversations for “CODA,” it was really important for me to cast Deaf actors in those roles. At the same time, I was… It was my first studio film. I had made one other movie. I was a young woman, and I felt like I didn’t have a lot of power.
Marlee: The studio wanted to hire a hearing A-lister actor, a box office homerun, to play my husband, Frank, and I thought, “No, not on my watch.”
Sian: There was kind of a question I remember, from the studio of like: “Well, you know, are there Deaf actors out there? Like, isn’t Marlee the only one?” Which was really a vibe that was present.
Marlee: So I had the balls, or the boobs, to say that if they hired hearing to play Deaf, I was out. That was the first time I ever said that in my career. But I knew it was time to say something.
Troy: Wow, she’s got some big ovaries for that one. She was brave to say that!
[In the movie, Marlee and Troy’s characters sit among others in an auditorium. Their daughter Ruby sings on stage. A split screen follows the action of the movie as Troy continues.]
Troy: I’ll never forget when she surprised me during a scene. When we were in the audience watching Ruby sing, she said something that wasn’t in the script.
Marlee (in scene): What do you want for dinner?
Troy (in scene): Spaghetti.
Marlee: I’ll have to go to the grocery store.
Troy: In my mind, I was shocked, but I improvised. That was the trust we had in each other, that we both know what this story is about.
Shoshannah: That’s one of my favorite parts of the movie because it was so real. I feel like Deaf people typically do that.
Troy: Right.
[Now, Television personality Hoda Kotb. As she speaks, footage of the cast and various awards ceremonies plays.]
Hoda Kotb: “CODA” premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and sold for a record $25 Million. From there, the small independent film was off and snagging awards.
Actor: And the BAFTA is awarded to… “CODA.”
[Applause and cheering, paparazzi chatter]
Marlee (on the red carpet): It would mean the world to me to have finally another Deaf actor who’s gotten an Oscar. It’s been 35 years. That’s a pretty long time. Nobody else who’s Deaf has ever gotten an Oscar, so fingers are crossed.
[Youn Yuh-jung, a South Korean actress, on the stage.]
Youn Yuh-Jung: And the Oscar goes to… Troy Kotsur.
[Applause. Troy rises.]
Announcer: This is the first Oscar and nomination for Troy Kotsur. He is the second Deaf actor to win.
[Troy, wearing a dark suit and shirt, and a beret, kisses a woman next to him and walks to the stage. In the audience, Marlee jiggles her hands as Deaf applause. Then, in the present, she signs.]
Marlee: I was just sitting there watching everybody stand up for him. It was touching.
[On the stage, Troy accepts the Oscar and kisses Youn Yuh-jung.]
Troy: It was an immense struggle. A lot of barriers and limitations. But I’m stubborn. I don’t know how it didn’t stop me. What kept me inspired was Marlee Matlin. She kept me hopeful. I saw her succeed, and so I fought. I never saw a Deaf man win an Oscar before. I never thought it’d happen to me.
[On the stage, a blond Lady Gaga hands a red envelope to Liza Minelli, who is in a wheelchair.]
Lady Gaga: Are you excited to announce Best Picture?
Liza Minelli: Oh yeah.
Lady Gaga: And the Oscar goes to…
Liza: Okay. “CODA.”
[Screaming applause. Sian jumps out of her chair and hugs the man next to her. Nearby, a woman hugs Marlee.]
Announcer: “CODA” has three Academy Award nominations this year, winning all three for Actor in a Supporting Role, Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture.
[Audience members wave jazz hands while production members, including Marlee, walk to the stage. On stage, an interpreter signs for the audience while Jack, facing the stage, signs for the Deaf cast.]
Actor: Well… I really- I really want to thank the Academy for recognizing a movie of love and family on this difficult time. And to my father, who is not there. And my mother, who is not there. But my beautiful daughter, Olivia… she’s here. The other one, Justine, is not here. And my wonderful wife, who have been supporting me. I don’t know how they made it for so long. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
[Audience applause.]
Marlee: When I walked to the microphone, it was slowly going down and I just watched it lower. I was like, “Oh crap.” I was upset. I was very upset, really. I wanted to say a few words to say “thank you” for acknowledging our community, our culture.
Marlee (backstage): Can I say something? 35 years ago, I stood on that stage accepting Best Actress, being the first one who is Deaf to receive that award. Fast forward to now, 35 years later… I’m not alone anymore. I’m so proud. Troy, Sian, and the producers… Their incredible work. Every year, people said to me, “Marlee, keep the faith, keep the faith.” And I looked at them every year, and it was 35 years and nothing happened and tonight, everyone, by honoring us, you are spreading the faith.
[Lauren Ridloff, First Deaf Marvel Superhero.]
Lauren: I’m not sure if I really want to put so much value on the word “first.” In ASL, the words “first” and “only” are very similar signs, right? But for me, it means the same thing. It means the same if I was first, but also the only one. And also “lonely.” “Alone.” That shape- Yes, it might be an honor, but it’s a really bittersweet one.
Marlee: I’m the first Deaf actress to win an Oscar, yes, okay. Let that history be history, that will never change. That’s great, let’s move forward. Let there be other firsts, seconds, thirds, fourths. It’s not about that anymore. But I can’t decide that it’s impossible, so I might as well stop. I still have so much to give. But I don’t want to do it alone.
[In the recent past, and in a crowded room, Deaf actors are wearing transparent masks over their lower face; they sign to each other. Marlee’s mask is pulled down. Voices overlap. She signs.]
Marlee: When it starts in the beginning of the scene, if I’m editing, Ava is signing down low and the camera starts there, and then pans up. Put it in your head.
Shoshannah: How often have you worked with Deaf directors?
Lauren: Two. The second time being right now. I’m talking to you, that’s something! The first time was when Marlee was “Accused.”
[A scene from “Accused,” 2023. Lauren’s character is in a courtroom, signing.]
Lauren (in scene): Can you tell me about growing up in a family that didn’t sign?
Ava (in scene): I’m nervous saying this in front of my mother. We’ve never had this conversation before, and I don’t want to hurt her feelings. When I was growing up I was always trying to read lips to catch what people were saying at home and at school. Hearing people always forget to look at you.
[Marlee coaches Lauren on set.]
Marlee: You do listen to her well, yes. I saw how you listened to her with your eyes. What you’ve done needs more of a strategic look in your eyes.
Lauren: Yes, I understand.
Lauren (to Shoshannah): The typical feedback I’d get from the directors was that my signing was out of frame, that I needed to sign higher, or smaller, or bigger. But this was the first time I got such a specific note. And that was really… Illuminating.
[Marlee, directing rehearsal.]
Marlee: She knows that you could be good parents if you listen to what she’s saying. Hopefully, you will do what she’s trying to imply.
Crewmember: Okay, here we go.
Sound Operator: Sound speed.
Marlee: Action!
[Slow, reflective synth piano as the scene plays.]
Ava: Surgery and devices might be helpful, but they’re not going to make Lucie like you. She isn’t like you. If you give her sign language, she will learn everything so much faster. She’ll be able to study all different things and not just focus on learning how to use her voice. She will find who she is.
Marlee: Cut.
Crewmember: Cutting.
Marlee: Thank you.
[Slumped in a chair, Marlee wipes tears from her face. Her breath shakes.]
Shoshannah (in the filming space): What do you think your parents would say now, if they could see you at this moment?
Marlee: I don’t think they could go through this scene, no. My dad would bawl his eyes out. Maybe that would start a conversation between us, a discussion. But he’s dead, and there’s nothing to do here. Where’s the resolution? They left me alone to solve it on my own.
Shoshannah: What would you tell your father if he was here?
Marlee: I’d always say it was okay. I’d say I would never be mad at him. And never blame them both, because I never did. I saw it on them when I was growing up: the guilt they carried until they died. That scene hit me hard.
Shoshannah: It hit me too.
[They share a long hug. Now, a tattooed hand holds an open birthday card.]
Marlee: Love and kisses.
Tattoo Artist: Cool. That’s nice, love and kisses.
Marlee: Yeah.
Tattoo Artist: Yeah.
Marlee: Mommy.
[In the present, Marlee lies on a table in a tattoo parlor, gazing inwardly. She bites a nail. The tattoo gun buzzes harshly. Slow, reflective piano and strings begin. A montage of home video clips, featuring Marlee in her 20s. Marlee is pregnant, and a young mother. Jack jokes around with toddler Sarah.]
Marlee: Say hi to the camera, Mommy. Record!
Marlee’s dad: Record? [Boisterous laughter]
Marlee: Oh, Jack! You’ve got my camera! 1…2…3! Go! L-U-C-K. Good luck! Mwah!
Jack: How are you?
Sarah: How are you?
[Reflective music slowly fades out. Marlee sits at Sarah’s baby shower.]
Sarah: Vegetables! I love it! And then this one… Oh, my god. This is so cute. I could cry. Yes, it is a sweater with her name on it.
Marlee: I want the other grandmother to see it! As a parent, I learned incredibly fast with the first one. And now, I’m curious what lesson my grandchild will teach me. In just four weeks!
Shoshannah: Wow!
Marlee: One thing I’ll do, I hope to follow through, is to just sign with the baby. Voice off, just signing. I hope I can do that. I do talk a lot. But I want to be able to experience that because I never did that with my kids. With my four kids, I only spoke. Just sign with her. That’s the goal.
[Excited chatting and laughter, building strings and horns. At a recent graduation ceremony Marlee is backstage with her family. She is wearing a cap and gown. Kevin signs to her: So when you’re on stage, you look to the right…like at the corner, and up. They kiss.]
Kevin: So when you’re on stage, you look to the right, like at the corner, and up.
Marlee: Okay.
[Applause as Marlee addresses the graduates.]
Marlee: My life has been defined by the courage that my parents, who defied the doctors, who understood that the real “handicap” of Deafness does not lie in the ear, but in the minds of those who wish to handicap me. And as you continue to grow and learn, I hope you realize you are more than what people think you are, and much more even than that. Most of all, don’t forget to be authentic, be real, be kind, take time to volunteer, pay your taxes, make your bed. I’m looking at you, Brandon. [Laughter] To laugh and to love. Be the difference and be loud. Thank you.
[Applause and soaring music. Now, in the present, Marlee slumps against a big pillow on a white couch, her knees drawn up. Marlee’s granddaughter is on her lap, facing her, with its back supported by Marlee’s knees. Marlee signs, and the baby waves her arms.]
Text on screen: If you, or someone who is Deaf, are experiencing language deprivation, help is available: LEAD-K. www.lead-k.org. American Society for Deaf Children. www.deafchildren.org. If you, or someone who is Deaf, are experiencing domestic violence, help is available: The National Deaf Domestic Violence Hotline. www.adwas.org/hotline/national. Deaf Hope. www.deaf-hope.org.
[“My Life” by Billy Joel]
Shoshannah: We’re done! Cut!
John: Great!
Shoshannah: That’s a wrap on John Maucere!
Henry: Okay, so we’re all going to be quiet now.
Shoshannah: Shh!
Marlee: Shh!
Liz: What are they listening to?
Shoshannah: Room tone.
-♪ Got a call from an old friend ♪
-♪ We used to be real close ♪
John: Are they still rolling?
Shoshannah: It’s for the hearing people.
Lauren: It’s been more than 30 seconds, right?
Shoshannah: It feels like forever.
-♪ Said he couldn’t go on ♪
♪ The American way ♪
Troy: I might fart…
Shoshannah: I swear my bones are crackling.
♪ Closed the shop, sold the house ♪
♪ Bought a ticket to the West Coast ♪
Marlee: You need to oil up your joints like the “tin man.”
Shosannah: Yes!
[Thud] [Quick clapping]
♪ Now he gives them ♪
Gloria: It’s a wrap!
♪ A stand-up routine in L.A. ♪
Eric: That’s a wrap. Thank you!
[Shoshanna and Marlee each lean forward on the couch, clasp hands and kiss cheeks.]
♪ I don’t need you to worry ♪
♪ For me ’cause I’m alright ♪
♪ I don’t want you to tell me ♪
♪ It’s time to come home ♪
♪ I don’t care what you say anymore ♪
♪ This is my life ♪
♪ Go ahead with your own life ♪
♪ Leave me alone ♪
♪ I never said you had to offer me a second chance ♪
♪ I never said I was a victim of circumstance ♪
♪ I still belong ♪
♪ Don’t get me wrong ♪
[Credits roll alongside video of Marlee, in a car, signing to the music.]
Directed and Produced by Shoshannah Stern. Produced by Robyn Kopp. Producers: Justine Nagan, Bonni Cohen. Edited by Sara Newens. Director of Photography, Jon Shenk. Original Music by Kathryn Bostic. Executive Producers: Michael Kantor, Carrie Lozano, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Patty Quillin, Adam and Melony Lewis, and Bill and Ruth Ann Harnisch. Co-Executive Producers: Kelsey Koenig, Ann W. Lovell, Meryl Metni, and Jennifer Pelling. Co-Editor: Kristina Motani. Caption Writer and Designer: Alison O’Daniel. Associate Producer, Ellie Wen; Post Production Supervisor, Julie Hwang; Associate Editor, Christa Artherholt; Production Coordinator, Joao Vieira.
Audio Description provided by ‘Picture This Audio Description Collective’ – Script by Maureen Austen, Blind quality control by Lolly Lewjewski, narration by Stephanie Johnson. Transcript developed by D-PAN The Deaf Professional Arts Network.
Words appear: Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore is a co-production of American Masters Pictures, Actual Films, AfterImage Public Media, and ITVS, in association with Impact Partners. Copyright 2025 AfterImage Public Media and Thirteen Productions LLC. All Rights Reserved. Logos appear for AfterImage, Impact Partners and ITVS. The WNET Group: Media Made Possible By All of You.
