The Parable of Marlee Maitlin
Looking back on a screen test for Children of a Lesser God
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SCREEN TESTS!
When I saw this photo of Marlee Maitlin at the PGA Awards for starring in the ensemble cast of CODA, (Photo by my friend, director Randal Kleiser) I thought of the first time I happened upon Marlee. It was in Paramount’s screening room looking at screen tests for the movie of the Tony award winning play by Mark Medoff, Children of a Lesser God. There were a half a dozen of us in the screening room including the film’s director, Randa Haynes, and the head of the studio Ned Tanen. I was there as well as David Madden, the exec on the movie. Randa insisted that the picture star a deaf woman so whoever starred opposite Bill Hurt needed to be “discovered”. It was between Marlee and one other deaf actress. Both were good, both had the “it” factor, and Randa was open to either. And somehow, in the back-and-forth of the conversation, Marlee got the role.
One thinks about fate and destiny and how the road not taken could have produced such different results. The stars twinkled that day for Marlee and she opened a door. She has done much, on her own, with the opportunity. There is a door for all of us, but it is our presence and being that will define the way of that road.
As often happens, the leading actors in Children of A Lesser God had a romance on set. I don’t believe Marlee was yet 21. Bill Hurt was a mean drunk and abused her, by his own admission. As the road would have it, Marlee won her first academy award as best actress. I was impressed with what Marlee had to say about her abuser who died last week. He did, BTW, seek her forgiveness a decade earlier. “We’ve lost a really great actor and working with him on set in ‘Children of a Lesser God’ will always be something I remember very fondly. He taught me a great deal as an actor and he was one-of-a-kind.”
There will always be an opportunity . What matters next is between you and the road.
