Marlee on Hollywood Medium

Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin appears on tonight's episode of Hollywood Medium With Tyler Henry. She wants to learn the real story behind how she became deaf at 18 months.

A Talk With Marlee Matlin

photo by Angela George

      photo by Angela George

The Hartford Courant sat down to talk with Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin before she speaks tonight at the American School for the Deaf's Bicentennial Celebration at the Connecticut Convention Center. She was asked about how things have changed in Hollywood since she won her Oscar at the young age of 21:

I did "Dancing With the Stars," and people said, "hey, deaf people can dance." I raised a million dollars for hearing aids for children on "Celebrity Apprentice." I try to show by what I do that deaf people don't have to be put in a little box. But we still have "disability blackface," where 95 percent of television characters with a disability on television are played by able-bodied actors. You still have the thinking that deaf actors only act in deaf storylines; any story line can feature an actor who is deaf. The topic needs to be part of our conversation.

Read more of what she said here.