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“A Certain Moment Happened That Gave Me Goosebumps All Over” | Shoshannah Stern, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore

Blonde-haired actress Marlee Matlin lays down on a bed, lightly smiling and looking into the camera.Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore

Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why?

The day I will remember the most ten years into the future took place on the last day of my very first shoot for this film on location in Toronto. I had gotten the job only a few weeks before. On the plane there, I was still trying to figure out what the film would be when this otherworldly sentence appeared from nowhere in my mind’s eye: this film will tell you who she wants to be. I knew that it would not happen right away, but I knew that when it did, I would know. Then, on that last day, a few days later, a certain moment happened that gave me goosebumps all over. When I saw playback for that on the monitor, that sentence came back to me. I knew exactly where the moment I had just witnessed would come in the film, what would come before and after it, and how I would make sure that happened. And because she spoke to me so clearly, I knew I would have to upend all the conventions I thought I had to follow. Instead, I would have to try something new, and to do that, I would have to find the best team possible to help me forge that distinct way forward. And I think I did.

See all responses to our annual Sundance Question here.

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