A leading lady lets loose with Eliza Edel about her life as an actor, activist, author, and mom of four.
By Eliza Edel
The fabulous Marlee Matlin has no problem making herself heard. Ever since her Oscar-winning role in her debut film, Children of a Lesser God, she’s played vibrant, defiant characters, from a savvy political operator on The West Wing to an accomplished artist and university professor on The L Word. Away from her glittering Hollywood work, she’s squeezed in a career as a best-selling author of three tween novels that explore the lives of strong, intelligent deaf girls. Matlin opens up to JL about how she stays motivated in her many roles.
JL: Why do you always seem to play exceedingly smart and confident women? Those parts aren’t exactly common in Hollywood.
MM: Defying the odds as a person who is deaf has made writers think more than they normally would in creating roles for me that challenge viewers. It’s great to be able to play strong and assured women, but I admit that it would be nice to play the dumb blonde—or brunette or redhead—every once in a while. I bet it would be fun!
JL: How did growing up Jewish affect you?
MM: We ate, lived, and breathed Jewish culture at home in Chicago. Just the fact that I’m here having accomplished what I have as a deaf woman in Hollywood and defying the odds is a testament to my Jewish upbringing. My parents never took no for an answer.
JL: How would you define the modern Jewish woman?
MM: A woman who can take it as easily as she dishes it out. I’m serious! She is someone who revels in what she does, no matter if she stays at home or works 40 hours a week. We are blessed with the fact that not only do we get a religion, we get a culture with being Jewish. That means we automatically get some great recipes to cook from! Ha! A modern Jewish woman is guided by Judaism but has all options available to her when it comes to making life’s choices. I love that.
JL: In what ways do you express your Judaism now?
MM: My children have a Jewish mom and a Christian father, but I make sure I pass along the traditions and family celebrations I got from my parents. I teach my children that being Jewish means incorporating tolerance as their greatest characteristic. I also make sure that I take the time to make them a mean brisket and kugel, just to remind them that as Jews, we know good food.
JL: You’ve said you decided to stop doing films with deaf themes. So why did you change your mind to play the mother of a boy who loses his hearing in the upcoming CBS TV movie Sweet Nothing in My Ear?
MM: I got so tired of story lines involving cochlear implants where they didn’t get the facts right. I wanted to set the record straight.
Cochlear implants have helped people who have recently lost their hearing, and they have also worked successfully in children, but they’re not as simple as putting on a hearing aid. Getting the implant involves major surgery and up to months of recovery.
Another misconception is that the implants “cure” deafness. At the end of the day, the adult or child is still deaf. [External parts are] removed when showering or swimming. It isn’t necessarily an instant answer to people who have been deaf all their lives. In order to get one, you have to remove any residual hearing. It’s not a decision to be made lightly.
In Sweet Nothing in My Ear, the issue of cochlear implants is looked at from both the hearing and the deaf culture perspective. The film is a story about a husband and wife struggling with the world that is telling them the “right way” to raise their deaf child.
JL: How did you get into writing young-adult books?
MM: I told myself when I was 11 years old that I wanted to write a book when I grew up that told the world that it was okay to be deaf. I didn’t want people to think I was “special” or that I deserved extra attention. I just wanted people to know that I could do anything a hearing person could do except hear. And what better way to get into the mind of a deaf person than in a book? With the birth of my first daughter, the timing was perfect. Rather than write a tell-all adult biography, I wanted something I could read to my daughter.
