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Why Marlee Matlin Insisted That a Deaf Person Direct the Documentary About Her Life: ‘It’s More Authentic’
Marlee Matlin and documentary director Shoshannah Stern on capturing the authenticity of the deaf experience and elevating the film's captions.
“You just gave me chills,” Matlin tells Variety a couple days before the festival, thinking ahead to how she’ll feel as a roomful of strangers watch her story play out on the big screen. In the book, Matlin divulged intimate details about her sudden and permanent hearing loss at eighteen months old; navigating the high and lows of Hollywood after becoming the first deaf actor to win an Academy Award for her breakout role in “Children of a Lesser God”; and her abusive relationship with her co-star in that film, the late William Hurt, among other challenges. “Having something in print, you don’t get a sense of tone, whereas me expressing myself visually is a whole different animal.”Stern chimes in: “I told Marlee that a book is like a monologue — you’re just sharing one way.
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