Marlee Matlin,
welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
I'm so excited.
I'm so excited to be with you. Well, kind of. Sort of.
We're at a distance, but that's okay.
-You know what I'm talking about. -I am super excited.
I have watched you my entire life.
My mom may be a bigger fan of yours than I am,
but I think we'd fight about it.
I grew up watching you. I grew up admiring you.
Like, in South Africa, your shows were huge,
and it's interesting,
because it feels like, in this journey,
you know, you've sort of come full circle
from being the star,
from being the person who is getting,
um, the deaf community on-screen
and just as a character, really,
you know, where being deaf is just who they are
to now getting into the deaf-blind community
and telling us another story.
Let's begin with yours.
As somebody who won as many awards as you did,
did you think that those awards
would still be your record to hold
30-something years later, or did you think
there would be more deaf or deaf-blind performers,
um, in Hollywood?
Well, first of all,
you really, really made me nervous right now,
okay, by saying all that stuff.
Because you just said you looked up to me
all these years when you grew up in South Africa,
and now, okay, fine, I'm nervous. Thanks a lot.
-Thank you for getting in my head. -(laughs)
Anyway... No, thank you.
No. And now, otherwise-- I-I mean, likewise--
I'm a fan of yours, as well.
-And, uh, we'll work this all out later on. -NOAH: Thank you.
-Thank you. -Uh,
so, you know, I have to say,
when I started, I was 19 years old,
and I had no...
any inkling of how this industry worked.
I had no idea about awards.
And when I got my Oscar, actually...
Uh, I got my Oscar, and I was nominated for my Oscar
at the Betty Ford Center.
-I was getting... It was... It was... -NOAH: Wow.
I was in rehab.
And I got nominated there
in the middle of the month of rehab.
-And, of course, that threw me for a loop. -Wow.
And then after that, all the other awards came.
I got the Golden Globe the day before,
actually, I went to go to Betty Ford.
Um... I...
You know what, it... I think it was great
that I had no expectations,
that I had no idea
-what it all entailed. -Right.
Uh, the Oscar race, the Golden Globe race,
the other...
The Emmy nominations down the road that I got.
I mean, I was so naive,
and I think that kept me grounded.
But getting to your question,
being the fact that I got the Oscar,
I knew
that it was a big deal,
and I knew that I had to do a lot of growing up
-and to tell people about this. -NOAH: Right.
Uh, what... That we had to make noise,
that we had to get people to get work,
that we had to make, uh, connections
in the entertainment business,
that we all had to just put ourselves out there.
-NOAH: Mm-hmm. -And I think the journey has been long,
but yet we still have a lot to do.
And it... There have been ups and downs along the road,
and I think it's all... it's all what we anticipated,
but still, we have work to do.
There are still many actors who get overlooked
because they are deaf or blind,
and, oftentimes, actors who will act deaf
or act blind will be given the roles.
Now, I understand that there's an element of acting involved
and, you know, everyone won't be
the character that they're playing,
but surely there's-there's a special something
that people bring to a role.
As somebody who's played these roles,
what do you think...
what do you think it adds to the role when you step in
as somebody who is deaf or who is blind?
It's simple. It's authenticity.
It's authenticity because we've lived it.
We don't have to necessarily add that
on top of the acting that we're doing. We know what it's like.
We can lend that sense of authenticity.
I don't know what it's like to be someone
who’s deaf and blind, obviously,
but a person who is deaf and blind
can bring that to the role.
We bring authenticity to the screen, period.
You can't create a disability.
I mean, it's like putting on a costume.
You can't do that. You can't put on a costume.
We are not costumes, people who are deaf and blind.
You know, that's why I’m trying to create a tidal wave,
uh, to make noise out there
that we need to let the community know
that there are deaf, deaf-blind actors.
There are even writers and-and producers.
I-I mean, we're here. Hello.
And we can do the work.
And if you want to see authenticity on the screen,
just like you want to hire any actor
who feels authentic to the role,
just as you would collaborate with any actor.
And if you're talking about deaf and deaf-blind,
then work with us. We can do it.
Don't underestimate us
in the work that we can do.
It's just time.
It's time to hire more deaf
and deaf-blind actors authentically.
To be seen.
The-the idea of underestimating is one
that-that really resonates with me,
because I feel like you've been underestimated
your entire life.
And time-time and time again,
you-you've proven people wrong.
You've excelled beyond expectations.
And, once again,
you are in the conversation in a very different way.
You know? Here we are with a film,
a short film, that has Oscar buzz called Feeling Through.
And it's a coming-of-age story-- it's really, really beautiful--
about this-this young kid who's homeless in New York City
and he encounters a deaf-blind man
who is just really trying to get home.
And right now, the film has Oscar buzz,
and you can see why it has Oscar buzz.
One of the biggest things that, again, surprised me--
I mean, it seems obvious now--
is that the lead actor had never acted before,
was basically discovered and stepped into it.
But when you watch it, you go, like, "Oh, this is phenomenal."
That's what it's all about. It's awesome.
The deaf-blind guy, Robert, had never acted before.
He was working as a cook in the kitchen
-at the Helen Keller Center... there. -Right.
And he-- They-they had been on a search
for an actor to-to fill the role,
and they saw a number of great people,
deaf-blind actors,
but there was something that was still missing.
And somebody at the center mentioned Robert,
and then it-- he just fit into the part.
That's what happened to me in Children of a Lesser God.
-Right. -Same happened to me.
Um, I-I came from nowhere.
I mean, I was in a little small production in Chicago.
People were like, "Who's that?
Who's-who's that girl in the background?"
Stranger things have happened when it comes to casting.
You know, where are you gonna find the person
that fits the role?
So, mentioning that, you know,
they used an actor who was deaf and blind
to play the role of the deaf-blind character
in the film, in Feeling Through was absolutely perfect.
It just fit like a glove.
You couldn't have had greater authenticity
represented on the screen,
and that's why I’m so proud of the movie.
-Because it's-it's a simple story-- -Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
two people trying to get home, as you said,
and yet they come from life with a different lens
and they have different experiences,
but it doesn't matter.
They're still human beings
and they're meeting at this place
and they connect in the most profound
and unexpected way.
And the story works.
I mean, they-they truly are collaborating.
It's such a simple story that I--
I mean, I-I just feel that it's just a lovely film.
I'm very, very proud to be part of it,
and I’m really proud to be associated with it.
I mean, Oscar buzz is a wonderful place to be in.
You've been there. You've won an Oscar.
Hopefully you're going to be taking home another one.
But I know that you've always been somebody
who wants to push for more.
You're always somebody who wants to encourage
the industry to be better.
You're encouraging fellow actors to be better.
Um, where does-- where does Marlee Matlin go from here?
-I'm never gonna stop. I-I... -(laughs)
I always-- I mean, I love what I do.
I love my deaf community.
I'm very proud of where I come from.
I'm very proud of collaborating with everybody
outside of our community
and-and creating new things.
Well, new things are what you have created,
fantastic new things are what you've created.
And as a fan of yours for literally
my entire viewing life,
I would like to say thank you so much for that.
And congratulations. I wish you all the best for this film.
Thank you so very much. Thank you very, very much.