Marlee Matlin was a guest on Colbert on Friday. It was her first time on the show, and she appeared with her interpreter just off stage. She was so funny and it was a great interview. At one point she showed Colbert how to swear in sign language and the show blurred it out! Marlee is promoting her Apple+ movie, CODA, which is the acronym for Child of Deaf Adult. It has been nominated for multiple awards including a Screen Actors Guild for Best Cast and Critics Choice for Best Picture. All of the actors who play deaf characters are deaf, and Marlee told Colbert that she fought for this.
On fighting for deaf representation in CODA
Being in the entertainment business for 25 years and having the opportunity to do lots of work and I’ve been very fortunate. It didn’t come easy. I had to reach out, get creative, get work for myself because I’m deaf. Not everyone would say, let’s hire Marlee. I struggled and I got more work but I had to hustle. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining…When I heard the studio was thinking of putting a hearing actor in the role who had a name or a box office. I said, all these years of deaf actors being dismissed and people playing deaf, I thought it’s time, we’ve got to stop, I can’t let this happen any longer. I was a little nervous because I had to speak up, not only for myself but for all deaf actors, deaf directors, deaf writers, whoever it is that’s working and looking for work and as talented as anyone else in the business. So that’s what I did, I put my foot down. I’m thrilled that CODA made a lot of noise and we’ve gotten a lot of respect.
I have to say that you cannot just put on a costume and be deaf and take it off at the end of the day. I think studios who see the film CODA can understand, ‘deaf actors a great’ and not just [put] them in the background.
Marlee has talked about this issue before. I covered her interview with Hello Magazine where she said she was asked to play the lead in CODA alongside a famous hearing actor. She turned the movie down for that reason. They came back to her and now the other lead deaf characters are played by deaf actors. I’m really glad she did that and that she’s speaking out about it, but at the same time, why do producers think this is still OK?
She also told a story about how she used to get away with staying out late as a teenager. Marlee is 56 so back in our day we had to use landlines and pay phones to call home. She would call and tell her parents that she was coming home past curfew and since she couldn’t hear them say no she would do it anyway with the excuse that at least she called! I remember calling home to stay out later like that. I would just say that I couldn’t make it back or that I was tired and had to pull over to sleep on the way.
Here’s the part of the interview we talked about above and here’s a link to the first part:
