Deaf actress Marlee Matlin prepares her directorial debut

She won the Oscar as an actress for ‘Children of a lesser god’ and is one of the interpreters of the recently Oscar-winning ‘CODA’. She is the deaf Marlee Matlin, who, taking advantage of the ‘CODA’ awards for deaf and dumb history, has just announced that she is preparing to move to directing.

For now, she will do so in an episode of the series in which she is involved, ‘Accused’, which will focus on a deaf woman, played by Marlee herself, who becomes a surrogate mother and commits a crime of defense and protection.

“I couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity to direct and work on a project with such esteemed, talented and skilled producers, writers, cast and crew,” the actress said in a statement. “I have never shied away from challenges and having the opportunity to be one of the first deaf female directors on television is something I look forward to.”

The series, broadcast in the United States, a co-production of Sony Pictures Television and Fox, is produced by Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa and David Shore. It always starts in a courtroom about a defendant, and the viewers don’t know anything about his crime or how they ended up on trial. His story is revealed through flashbacks of the accused himself. ‘Accused’ tries to make it look like a normal person ends up in a situation like this due to wrong decisions, causing it to be too late to go back. Each episode is independent and has a different cast.

Marlee Matlin was born in Illinois on August 24, 1965. At 18 months, she lost much of her hearing due to an attack of childhood roseola. She lost all hearing capacity in her right ear and 80% in her left, which initially prevented her from learning to speak, which she has relatively achieved over the years. She debuted as a child actress at age 7, playing the role of Dorothy in the version of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ that she performed in a children’s theater group and she continued to appear in other plays throughout her childhood.

The actress made her film debut with the film “Children of a Lesser God” (1986), for which she won the Golden Globe and the Oscar for best actress. Between 1985 and 1986 she was married to the recently deceased William Hurt, her partner in ‘Children of a lesser god’, whom she accused of mistreatment, and in 1993 she remarried a policeman named Kevin Grandalski, with the one that she has four children. Marlee Matlin has been a very prolific actress on television, being nominated for an Emmy for ‘Picket Fences’. She has worked on series such as ‘The West Wing of the White House’, ‘Desperate Housewives’, ‘Seinfeld’ or ‘Law and Order: Special Victims Unit’. For these last two, she earned further Emmy nominations in 1994 and 2004 respectively. She also in ‘My name is Earl’ or ‘Switched at birth’.

In 2004, she participated as a leading actress in the film ‘Y tú qué saber?!’ in the role of Amanda. Two years earlier she published her first novel, ‘Deaf Child Crossing’, loosely based on her childhood.

After the episode of ‘Accused’, the actress has declared that, if everything goes well, she does not rule out continuing her activity as a director.