Given how she made history as the first deaf person to win an Academy Award for acting, one might think the documentary Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore would be something of a straightforward and celebratory profile on the actress. Shoshannah Stern – who, like her subject, is also a deaf actor and director – certainly recognises Matlin’s achievements, but she and Matlin don’t shy away from hard truths and unflattering anecdotes, looking at her life with an honesty that is sure to surprise viewers who assume Matlin would have had unanimous support from the deaf community throughout her career.
From the outside, Matlin’s win for Best Actress at the 1987 Academy Awards for Children of a Lesser God was a moment of joyousness. Not only did she break barriers in the industry regarding being deaf, but she was, at 21 years of age, the youngest actress ever to win the award; a statistic she still holds to this day. Her co-star in the film, William Hurt, also a nominee that night for Best Actor, as well as her much publicised partner off-screen, presented her with the award. When Stern first shows us the clip of her accepting the award and her subsequent speech, a certain hesitation in her demeanour is presumed to be related to the shock in winning. Further revelations across Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore speak to something much more tragic and uncomfortable, so by the time we see the clip again, Matlin’s discomfort speaks volumes.
As much as her win was historic, Matlin readily admits that a fruitful career was not as forthcoming as some might assume. By no means has the actress been out of work, but she’s fought for her longevity across the screen, both big and small, with Hollywood’s notorious treatment of women and minorities coming quite savagely under the microscope across the film’s 97 minutes. Matlin expresses the desire she had to not simply be cast in the role of a deaf character for the sake of it. Her infamous appearance on Seinfeld – which even Jerry Seinfeld admits is one of his top 10 favourite episodes of the show, ever – was her way of leaning into a self awareness around the deaf community and the assumption of what they can and can’t do. Aaron Sorkin, who sits down for the film to be interviewed to discuss her work in The West Wing, quite proudly admits that it isn’t difficult to write a character that’s deaf and to cater the script accordingly.
For every win there was a loss, however. The following year at the Academy Awards to present the Best Actor Oscar, Matlin signed her introduction, but chose to speak the names of the nominees and the subsequent winner (Michael Douglas for Wall Street). A move that seemed so inclusive to the general speaking audience, and something that didn’t appear out of the ordinary to Matlin, who always made it known that she could speak if necessary, was met with outrage from the Deaf community, who saw her speaking as something of a betrayal.
Matlin discusses the lack of help she received in navigating such controversy with a direct matter-of-factness, an attitude that has seemingly assisted in her survival, not just as an actress but as a woman. It’s particularly distressing to hear the abuse she suffered at the hands of the volatile Hurt, but tying back into Hollywood’s preferential treatment of males, his career never seemed to decline, despite his behaviour being something of an open secret. She’s frank about the drugs and alcohol she abused as well, and that it was witnessing what it was doing to both her and Hurt as a collective that made her take action in becoming sober.
What makes Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore as beautiful a telling it is – and the film’s subtitle speaks to her teary realisation following Troy Kotsur‘s Oscar win, her co-star in the award-winning CODA, that him being deaf allows her to walk accompanied in recognition – is that she’s unapologetic for any mistakes she’s made and that she won’t be defined by her deafness. She’s truly a remarkable human being, and Stern tells her story with the grace and dignity she undoubtedly deserves.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore is screening as part of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, running between January 23rd and February 2nd, 2025 in person, with select titles available online for the public between January 30th and February 2nd. For more information head to the official Sundance page.
