If you’ve ever made use of closed captioning on TV, you can thank Oscar-winner Marlee Matlin. After her groundbreaking performance in the 1986 film Children of a Lesser God, Matlin became a tireless champion of accessibility rights for the hearing-impaired.
Directed by deaf filmmaker Shoshanna Stern, this immersive, crowd-pleasing film explores Matlin’s trailblazing career, including iconic roles in The West Wing and Seinfeld. Speaking almost entirely in ASL, Matlin reflects on her difficult childhood, her struggle with addiction, her abusive relationship with William Hurt, and her fight for equality in Hollywood.
Decades after making history as the first deaf person to win an Oscar, Matlin was back at the Academy Awards with the film CODA. Having insisted that deaf actors be cast to play deaf characters – leading to Troy Kotsur becoming only the 2nd deaf actor to win an Oscar – Matlin was able to share a deceptively simple message from the Oscar stage: “I’m not alone anymore.”
