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‘It’s hard to find work’: Marlee Matlin on making Hollywood history but waiting for change

The actor became the first and only deaf winner of the best actress Oscar and a new documentary reveals the highs and lows that came after

The camera captures fellow nominee Jane Fonda mouthing “that’s so great” as Matlin, the first and still only deaf actor to win the award, approaches the podium and kisses Hurt. “I was afraid because I knew, in my gut, that he wasn’t that happy.” Hurt, 16 years her senior and an established Hollywood star, was intensely jealous of her success, and had already begun physically abusing her. Matlin faced similar media blowback, though of a different tenor, when she disclosed Hurt’s abuse, as well as incidents of molestation by a babysitter and teacher in her childhood, in her 2009 memoir, I’ll Scream Later.

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