\n<\/p>\n
Deep into an evening spent on the set of the Sundance series This Close,<\/em> Shoshannah Stern<\/strong> and Marlee Matlin<\/strong> started chatting while waiting to resume filming on a long dinner scene. The pair had already bonded as deaf actors. Stern, who also served as the show\u2019s cocreator and executive producer, had found great inspiration in her Oscar-winning costar. She can\u2019t recall what they were talking about exactly, but at a certain point, she noticed Matlin staring at her.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s looking at me and she says, \u2018You need to direct,\u2019\u201d Stern says.<\/p>\n What was going on in Matlin\u2019s head at that moment?<\/p>\n \u201cIt was late at night, and I kept thinking as I was watching her that she\u2019s been around this industry for a while\u2014and it just popped into my head,\u201d she says. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t give up easily when it comes to writing. She doesn\u2019t give up easily when it comes to acting. She sets her mind to it. So why not go beyond that, and go up beyond to direct?\u201d<\/p>\n Around this time, producers had approached Matlin interested in making a documentary about her life. She stipulated that she would participate only if Stern\u2014who, again, had never directed before\u2014helmed the film. Years later, Stern\u2019s Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore<\/em> is critically acclaimed, award-winning, and now playing in select theaters. (It is also available for digital rental or purchase.) The film offers a nuanced portrait of a Hollywood icon through Stern\u2019s bold use of craft and narrative.<\/p>\n Still, that night on the This Close<\/em> set, Stern didn\u2019t feel remotely ready to take such a project on. She had built her own acting career, playing roles on major series, such as Weeds<\/em> and Grey<\/em>\u2019s Anatom<\/em>y, before finding her voice as a screenwriter. \u201cI literally had never thought about [directing] before,\u201d Stern says, speaking in American Sign Language beside an interpreter. \u201cI didn\u2019t think I could. I didn\u2019t think I would be allowed to.\u201d<\/p>\n When I later relay this Matlin over Zoom, her face falls. \u201cI\u2019m basically experiencing PTSD as a result of those words being used. A lot of kids who are deaf experience those same words,\u201d Matlin says. \u201cI\u2019m glad that she was able to change her mind about feeling \u2018not allowed\u2019 to say, \u2018Fuck off. Fuck off.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Stern grew up in the Bay Area to a fourth-generation deaf family. Her mother was a stage actor. As a kid, she wanted to follow in those footsteps. This was before the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, though. \u201cThere were almost no captions on TV\u2014so you\u2019re hungry for information, you\u2019re hungry for stories. That makes you very curious,\u201d Stern says. \u201cI\u2019m always asking my friends who can hear, \u2018What\u2019s the other table talking about?\u2019 They\u2019re usually like, \u2018I don\u2019t know, I\u2019m not listening.\u2019 I would never stop listening, if I could.\u201d<\/p>\n We\u2019re pretty much by ourselves on this warm July day, however, sitting in a quiet vegan restaurant near her Los Angeles home. After she orders her lunch, Stern tells me about the challenges she faced in chasing her dreams. While she planned to study theater at college, her education was supported by the Vocational Rehabilitation program, which helps many deaf people in the transition out of high school. It requires program approval for any major. \u201cYou don\u2019t really have freedom. They said, \u2018No, [theater] is not a reasonable major to have. You\u2019re not going to be a contributing member of society if you major in theater,\u2019\u201d Stern says. She chose English, while still acting in plays at Gallaudet University whenever she could.<\/p>\n During the winter break before her final semester, she went home and told her parents she was going to quit acting for good. The next day, she got an email from Warner Bros. with an audition offer.<\/p>\n The secretary for Gallaudet\u2019s theater department had recommended Stern to the casting agents on the sitcom Off Centre,<\/em> created by the Weitz<\/strong> brothers of American Pie<\/em> fame. \u201cShe gave them my email address. I didn\u2019t have an agent\u2014I didn\u2019t have anything. I was a college student,\u201d Stern says. She booked the cheapest flight she could down to LA and completed the audition. Then she booked the part, and has essentially been in Hollywood ever since.<\/p>\n Even when auditioning for deaf parts throughout the aughts, Stern was often the only deaf actor in the room. This was decades out from Children of a Lesser God,<\/em> Randa Haines<\/strong>\u2019s searing 1986 take on the romantic drama that made Matlin the first-ever deaf actor to win an Oscar. (Troy Kotsur<\/strong> became the second for CODA,<\/em> which also starred Matlin, in 2022.) Stern bristles when hearing that movie called \u201cgroundbreaking,\u201d to say nothing of other milestones achieved by her and her peers before and since. \u201cStories about deaf people can be groundbreaking. They can,\u201d Stern says. \u201cBut I would like to think that it\u2019s because they push perspective, they push the form, they push understanding, they push the nuance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n