Transcript
0:02 well eventually my mother guided me to a more productive outlet it was a small community theater just down the road from our house that served both hearing and deaf children I was 7 years old when my mom brought me there and as soon as I walked in they told me they were putting on a production of The Wizard of Oz no need to tell you who got the part I thought this by the time I was 13 I had
0:29 my feet firmly planted in the world at community theater and I had dreams of making it big in Hollywood so it was no surprise to my mom that when the actor Henry Winkler came to visit the theater to watch the company before I was the first one to go right up to him and say hi I'm Marley want to be my best friend I'm going to be a big star in Hollywood just like you well some might have been
0:53 surprised to hear that from a 13 year old deaf girl particularly because there were no real deaf actors working in Hollywood at the time and in fact someone took Henry aside and told him like the doctors told my parents not concurs a little deaf girl to dream too big because it was just too impossible to believe but Henry like my parents refused to take no for an answer and in his coolest most Fonzie like manner said to me sweetheart you can be
1:24 whatever you want to be if you just follow your heart and your dreams eight years later I was standing on a stage in Hollywood with an Academy Award for Best Actress my hands and I've been acting ever since admit that I have a confession to make somewhere along the way I stopped
1:56 imagine myself as Marcia Brady today I'm the mother of four I'm also a Girl Scout leader cook carpool driver conflict mediator closet organizer and pretend math whiz so whatever fantasies I entertained about being the beautiful Marcia Brady have given way to another reality I have more into Alice the maid goodbye Marsha Marsha Marsha seriously life has been
2:29 wonderful and I relished the challenges I face in Hollywood every day despite the predictions the day after I won the Oscar that my career was VOA deaf on arrival and that my ha spiritual drew of a lesser God was a result of a pity vote and that I would never work at Hollywood again I am still as always a working actress who just happens to be deaf and whatever issues many predicted would stop my career dead in its tracks are
3:00 just not there because times have changed more importantly attitudes have changed and in the end whenever I'm out there I'm able to show the world that I can do anything except hear