Marlee Matlin & Randall Park Talk Marvel’s Deaf Superhero, Taika Waititi & Diversity At Sundance
deadline.comMarvel superhero Echo, aka Maya Lopez, played by deaf Native American actress Alaqua Cox, signifies progress in a Hollywood that’s still a real challenge for diverse talent, but there’s so much more to ve done, said Marlee Matlin today at the Sundance Film Festival.
The groundbreaking Academy Award winner actor and star of Oscar-winner Coda, which premiered at Sundance in 2020 was appearing on a wide-ranging panel with Randell Park and others at the Park City fest.
Maya appeared sin Disney+ Hawkeye and the streamer is giving her a spinoff series in 2023. Matlin said producers still balk at paying interpreters or introducing them as an on-screen presence, which is why she says she recently got passed over to play a judge in a courtroom series. “You cannot play deafness as a costume,” she told Sundance panel ‘The Big Conversation: Complicating Representation.’ But “We are moving ahead,” she said. “There are deaf actors out there, there are deaf writers out there, there are deaf directors.
I became a director.” The Best Actress Oscar winner for Children of a Lesser God, will make her directorial debut for Sony’s Accused on Fox.
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