Marlee Matlin on Sundance opener ‘CODA’: ‘I hope it will create a tidal wave’

Filmmaker Siân Heder tipped me off about Marlee Matlin, saying that the moment you meet her, she’ll ask 10 questions. Matlin waited for a lull in the conversation and then grabbed her Oscar, asking, “Well, what was this for?” “You should have seen everyone’s faces in the Zoom meeting,” Jason says, laughing. in fact, for the first time since my first film, I felt that audiences would really see deaf people in a film,” Matlin says of her “obsession” with getting “Coda” made. “The kids like to talk to dad about whatever’s going on in school because I think they feel like, if they talked to me, there’s a different energy in sign language,” Matlin says. But at the same time, I always want to make sure they don’t treat me any different in the household.” Marlee Matlin won an Oscar for her film debut in “Children of a Lesser God,” and remains the only deaf performer to win an acting Oscar.