Having fellow deaf actors in ‘CODA’ a must for Matlin
Marlee Matlin says casting brings authenticity to movie about child of deaf parents.
Marlee Matlin came to realize there was one downside to starring in the Sundance Film Festival runaway hit “CODA” with a groundbreaking ensemble of predominantly deaf actors (now in theaters and on Apple TV+). Her onscreen husband, played by Troy Kotsur, was so wickedly surprising in American Sign Language improvisation, Matlin feared she’d burst into laughter in a scene when the frisky couple visit a doctor for a shared painful condition. “Troy is a master of sign language improv. So I told him, ‘Look no surprises, please.’ I didn’t want to lose it during a take,” Matlin, 55, says, signing over a Zoom call through her longtime sign language interpreter, Jack Jason. “The scene was written that Troy would have to describe ‘jock itch.’ But how he described it, that was all Troy.
“Twice in the doctor’s office, I lost it,” Matlin says. She dropped her noimprov request because Kotsur’s hilarious, unpredictable ASL scenes were why the authentic casting in “CODA” was so exceptional.
“In my 35-year career, I’ve never had deaf co-stars in leading roles that carry the film equally as me,” she says. “This is a very special movie.”
Matlin, who lost her hearing due to illness at 18 months old, has experienced a number of Hollywood breakthrough moments as the only deaf actor to win an Academy Award, playing a rebellious student in 1986’s “Children of a Lesser God.”
“It’s time for myself and other deaf actors to be able to speak up and say, enough is enough. We are here. Our talents are valid.” Marlee Matlin
The activist actor has moved from project to project in her nearly four-decade career, garnering roles and Emmy nominations for “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit “(2004), “The Practice” (2000) and even as The Lip Reader on “Seinfeld” (1994). Matlin later emerged as the first deaf participant on Season 6 of “Dancing With the Stars.”
“I’ve had wonderful experiences and collaborations,” Matlin says. “But I’ve always been looking for a project like this.”
When writer-director Siân Heder approached the actress with her screenplay about a deaf Gloucester, Massachusetts, family with a hearing teenager Ruby, the Child of Deaf Adults (CODA), Matlin not only signed on for the role of mother Jackie, she became an in-thetrenches collaborator with Heder.
“I remember sitting down with Marlee at her first breakfast and she said, ‘I haven’t wanted to do a movie this bad since ‘Children of a Lesser God,’” Heder says. “I could just see her passion for the character. And I think she could see in me, my determination to do justice to this family and this culture.”
One of Matlin’s first acts was to squash a studio-inspired push to have a famous hearing actor take on the role of Jackie’s husband, Troy.
“I put my foot down and said, ‘If you do, I’m just out, that’s it. I can’t see any actor putting on the costume of being deaf. We are not costumes to put on, not any longer,” Matlin says. “I’ve seen so many times ... where hearing actors take on the role of deaf characters. We’ve had enough of that. It’s time for myself and other deaf actors to be able to speak up and say, enough is enough. We are here. Our talents are valid.”
Kotsur, a longtime member of the National Theater of the Deaf, grew out an unkempt beard to play the role of Jackie’s husband. Daniel Durant earned the role of the couple’s oldest son, Leo; and British newcomer Emilia Jones landed the role of Ruby, who makes waves by pursuing a singing scholarship.
“CODA” provides John Hughes-like insight and humor into this particular family’s home life. High schooler Ruby often is ashamed of her highly amorous deaf parents – who loudly make love thinking no one is home – and Jackie’s wild outfits.
“It was fun to bring the humor out,” Matlin says. “But it’s extra special because this movie highlights authentic representation of characters and shows what might typically happen in deaf peoples’ lives – how they live, how they work. All deaf people are not the same. This film is just a slice of life of the deaf community.”
The mom-embarrassment rings true, but not in Matlin’s real-life with her four children (ages 17 to 25) and her husband, Kevin Grandalski.
“I am the coolest mom on earth, I have to say,” Matlin says. “I pick up their stuff. I cook for them. I give them money through Venmo. I think my children enjoyed watching me play a character so different from me.”
The actress is excited and nervous to see how the public views “CODA” after the film swept the 2021 Sundance Film Festival awards.
It arrives as needed breakthroughs in deaf casting, and stories continue in Hollywood – from the Oscar-winning 2019 drama “Sound of Metal” to the casting of deaf actor Lauren Ridloff as Marvel’s first deaf superhero in Chloe Zhao’s “The Eternals” (out Nov. 5).
“I don’t know why it’s taken so long, but I’ve witnessed a change and I’m thrilled,” Matlin says. “I want to see us get to the point where deaf actors can carry a film, or a series. Not relegated to the background, like we’ve ticked this box.”
The activist will keep clamoring for progress even beyond “CODA.”
“I tell my friends, if you want to effect change, you have to make noise, you have to hustle, you have to collaborate,” Matlin says. “No one said that Hollywood is an easy place to get work, whether you’re deaf or not. But it’s doable. We have so many stories to tell, so many stories to share that are beautiful.”