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| ISBN 978-1439102855, ©2009 336 pp. Hardcover $26.00 |
Summing up the first four decades of her life, the singular driving force that has propelled Marlee Matlin forward has been her desire to “experience as much of life as I can, pile up moments – good and bad – as if there were no tomorrow. No stopping, no regrets.” Matlin’s autobiography, I’ll Scream Later, joins one to Matlin on her roller-coaster ride of life experiences, with the loops and dives coming so quickly that there really isn’t time to scream.
First there is the mysterious onset of deafness as a toddler. Matlin’s parents wonder for years if they have done something to cause her loss of hearing and become fiercely determined not to let deafness define or limit their daughter. Bucking the conventional wisdom of the time, which said deaf children were best taught at special schools, Don and Libby Matlin insist their daughter be mainstreamed into public school. By age five, Matlin is also receiving special instruction in speech, lip-reading and sign language.
Nonetheless, Matlin grows up feeling shut off from her family and “starved for attention.” Only her mother attempts to learn sign language, but as Matlin becomes a fl uent signer, conversation with her mother is like “talking to someone who knows just a little bit of English – barely enough to get by, and far from enough to have a real conversation.” This “hands-off ” parenting approach leaves Matlin to navigate growing up largely on her own.
The ride gets really intense when, as a teenager, she is secretly sexually abused – followed soon thereafter by the thrills of her first boyfriends and then high school years that Matlin describes as “a
series of misadventures and a lot of drugs.”
One constant in Matlin’s life is a love of acting, discovered when she plays Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” produced by the International Center on Deafness and the Arts near Chicago. A new play follows every year, with Matlin in the lead role. Her big break finally comes when she steps out beyond the safe confines of the Children’s Theatre for the Deaf and lands a role in a professional production of the play “Children of a Lesser God.” A videotape of the production made by a local talent agent leads to a call from Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, then screen tests with actor William Hurt and ultimately a movie contract that changes the course of Matlin’s life.
Just 21 when she wins the Oscar for best actress for her role in “Children of a Lesser God,” Matlin still holds the record for being the youngest, and only deaf woman, to win in this category. But true to her drive to “pile up moments,” Matlin’s life even before Oscar night has already included a tumultuous two year love affair with her co-star Hurt and a drug addiction that leads to a stay at the Betty Ford Center in California.
After the incredible high of Oscar night, I’ll Scream Later races along two interwoven tracks. On one we get the inside details of each of Matlin’s acting assignments. There are numerous Hollywood interactions, dirty jokes with Robin Williams, pranks on the sets and professional advice from Whoopi Goldberg. We also learn about the truly significant people in Matlin’s life: her mentor and “personal wizard” Henry Winkler, who played the Fonz in the TV sitcom “Happy Days,” and her longtime interpreter Jack Jason, vital for his role in helping her navigate her career in a hearing world.
The other track twists and turns through Matlin’s relationships with various Hollywood personalities and finally evens out when she settles down. Once free from her volatile affair with Hurt, Matlin enthusiastically explores the Hollywood dating scene. Filling her readers in on much of what she finds, we learn that Rob Lowe is a friend “with benefits” and that Billy Baldwin is a “makes-your-knees weak-and-your-heart-pound kind of kisser.” Just when you think you might lose your lunch, the ride slows down and Matlin meets Kevin Grandalski, the man of her dreams and now father of her four children.
Being deaf, Matlin insists, is just a “footnote” in her life but it makes for the most compelling footnote in her book. The fact that she overcomes absolute terror to compete live on stage in “Dancing with the Stars,” that she successfully negotiates motherhood while not being able to hear her children – these are the examples of real courage and triumph. Unfortunately, these glimpses into what is truly inspiring about Matlin’s life and career are few and far between, perhaps in an effort to keep deafness relegated to a footnote.
Those who have followed Matlin will find something of interest in this beyond-the-screen look into her life, loves and career. She is certainly true to her intentions as she escorts her readers through
just about every moment of her life, with “no stopping and no regrets.” Hang on for the ride!
ISBN 978-1439102855, ©2009 336 pp. Hardcover $26.00
