Phyllis Frelich (who plays Marlee's mom) and John Rubenstein(who plays the advocate for the CI) played in the original Broadway play "Children of a Lesser God" ...which I saw!
Marlee won her Academy Award for playing the same role as her "Mom" in the movie version....William Hurt played Rubenstein's role
Rosemary Forsythe is cast as Jeff Daniels mother.........something IMDB has yet again failed to post.
"Ev'ryone deserves the chance to fly!"
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Phyllis Frelich I'm sure they got because she is THE premier deaf actress of that age. I'm sure it was not just the novelty that she and Marlee played the same part in "Children of a Lesser God".
Now, John Rubinstein, THAT was probably intentional once they had Phyllis on board.
You must be the change you seek in the world. -- Gandhi
Liban Kheer
And frankly, this movie might as well have been titled "Children of a Lesser God ... 20 Years Later", IMHO.
It's been a while since I saw CoaLG, but if I recall, it was a related theme, only instead of CIs (which weren't prevalent then), it was all about should she (the Marlee Matlin character) or should she not *speak*.
Twenty years later, it's all about "should she or shouldn't she opt for a CI for her son".
BTW, I loved CoaLG when it came out (I was a teacher of the deaf at the time), but was pretty disappointed by the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. The movie tried not to take sides, but I just don't think that was the right decision, given the circumstances.
Had both parents in the movie been deaf, the child also born deaf, and the family very happy and doing well, that would be a very strong argument *against* a CI, if someone were trying to force them to get one.
But in the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, the son had been hearing for a while and obviously was having issues related to losing that hearing (no longer being willing to talk, being teased for being deaf, etc.). Also, the father was hearing, and the mother had been used to the child being hearing (so you couldn't look at it like maybe she was just afraid of the "unknown", if her child could hear again). To my mind, a CI was the logical choice in this case.