‘Siren: The Voices of Shelley Beattie’ tells a bodybuilder’s story via Marlee Matlin

When Shelley Beattie lost her hearing as a child, she became withdrawn. When she started getting into trouble as a teen, her parents moved her into foster care where “bad things” happened. Beattie buckled but didn’t break — at least not then.

In Irene Taylor’s “Siren: The Voices of Shelley Beattie,” premiering Tuesday on HBO and streaming on HBO Max, Beattie transforms herself first as a track athlete and then a bodybuilder, leading to minor celebrity as Siren on “American Gladiators.” But Beattie never fully healed from her childhood traumas, struggling with addiction and mental health issues until killing herself at 41 in 2008.

Taylor, a child of deaf parents, was brought into the project by Oscar-winning actor Marlee Matlin, who serves as a producer and an on-screen presence, introducing the story and giving voice to Beattie’s writings. Matlin spoke recently by video through interpreter and producing partner Jack Jason about Beattie and the film. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How did this come about?

During the pandemic, I was so bored out of my mind that one night close to midnight I just typed “deaf women” in Google search. And Shelley’s name popped up first. I thought, “Why and how could I not know about her?”

I had to explore who she was. I was so mesmerized by her story and couldn’t take my eyes off of her. I still wonder why our paths didn’t cross, even though we were on the same network at the same time. I wished we had a chance to meet. I would have taken her under my wing. This documentary allowed me to resolve that by telling her story and how the system failed her.

What made you agree to appear on camera and connect your journey to hers?

I understood where she was coming from in the most organic way possible because there were a lot of similarities. We were the same age, born the same day. We both experienced language deprivation. We both experienced addiction. I feel like I got to know her. She sounded like my kind of girl — we even had some mutual friends.

So we wanted the audience to know that we’re telling a story that is not unknown. The difference is that the system failed her and I had help and was able to pick up the pieces of my life and stand back up on my feet.

There are moments on screen where you sign and moments where you speak. How do you choose when to do which?

I speak normally every day. I’m very loud. It’s just me being part of myself. For the documentary it was not a conscious choice, or in the script. It’s just me being me.

What was it like emotionally narrating Shelley’s words?

I was extremely resistant and worried it would seem like disability porn. But when Irene explained that I’d be speaking Shelley’s words on her behalf, showing her emotions and mental state, I got it. I know the experiences of deaf women being excluded, being deprived of communication, being deprived of help, being deprived of access, being deprived of so many things.

And I didn’t want anyone else to speak for her. That wouldn’t have been authentic. It was very emotional for me and brought back a lot of memories and a lot of my frustrations on her behalf. But I’m glad I was there for Shelley.

What do you hope people take away from Shelley’s story?

I wanted to bring light to her as a wonderful woman who cared for people, both in Deaf and hearing communities.

I want the audience to understand that there are so many women like her facing mental illness. There’s a lack of programs — we need more therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists and doctors who are versed in helping people who are deaf. There’s a lack of interpreters. A lot of deaf people don’t know where to go and don’t have insurance.

We all have various barriers, whether they’re external or internal. We don’t know exactly why she ended up the way she did and I know that mental illness is not something you can just resolve, but I am furious that better help wasn’t available for her. She had plans. And yet she got lost. And that’s what infuriated me.

More documentaries to watch this month

‘A Killer Story’ (HBO Max, finale streams Thursday)

This three-part documentary, directed by Matthew Galkin, is a tale of obsession and certainty, says Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Joe Sexton. To wit: Sexton received 3,000 emails from a Kansas housewife obsessed with clearing the name of Dana Chandler, who had been convicted of murdering her ex-husband and his girlfriend.

The toil of that woman, Eileen Umbehr, and her husband Keen (a former trashman, muckraking local journalist and lawyer), eventually paid off and Chandler’s conviction was overturned. When that happened, Sexton was finally drawn in, covering the new trials and all the twists and turns in both Chandler’s and the Umbehrs’ stories. Sexton is a great, dogged investigator and a profane narrator, someone who would have been at home having a drink with Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe if they were real.

While this is a true crime story with shaky alibis and prosecutorial misconduct, it is less a whodunit and more a nuanced exploration of reasonable doubt and how our system works or doesn’t.

Speaking of obsession, Keen Umbehr sold off family property so he could close his law practice to work on the case; the couple created a 200-page dossier against one person they suspected. But also, after we finished watching the docuseries, my son continued researching it and found bits of seeming evidence that hadn’t shown up in the case. Fortunately, it only took me one email to get a reply from Sexton explaining why it was proved irrelevant.

‘Teenage Wasteland’ (Netflix)

Fred Isseks, far right, and his students at Middletown High School in “Teenage Wasteland.”

(Netflix)

For decades, Orange County, New York, was a hotbed of illegal dumping, leading to toxins in the soil and water. But in the early 1990s, a local high school teacher, Fred Isseks, inspired his students to take video cameras out into the field and investigate. They found political indifference, political corruption and a serious mafia presence, attracting national headlines for their work along with hostility from those they challenged. Now three decades later, directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss have gathered up the footage and brought back Isseks and a handful of his former students to reflect on their experiences.

The film could be faster-paced — it feels like it too was made in 1991 — but the old footage of kids simultaneously finding a mission and finding themselves is charming. And Isseks reminds us of why this story still matters, talking about imbuing his kids with “civic courage”: Even if all the responsible parties in the government and media are behaving badly or just failing to stand up for what’s right, there’s a value in doing the right thing, in acting as if you’re still living in functioning democracy. Change may only come incrementally and with great difficulty, but it’s still worth fighting for.

‘The Swan: Behind the Mirror’ (Hulu, Sept. 29)

Sisters Kari and Gina Bravata in “The Swan: Behind the Mirror.”

(Disney)

An exposé of the worst of the worst of reality TV shows, this documentary about “The Swan” is a reminder of the damage this genre can do. Twenty years ago, young women, vain and vulnerable, went on this Fox makeover show and were coerced into unnecessary surgeries, had their teeth ground down for veneers and were made to pose nude as an extracurricular project. Now older, these women appear stronger and more introspective while revisiting how they were manipulated and humiliated for America’s entertainment. “I’m not mad at them,” one former Swan says. “I’m mad at me because I bought the dream they sold me.”

‘OJ Unseen: Exploitation of Evil’ (HBO Max)

Investigation Discovery’s four-part docuseries also looks back two decades, at an idea even worse than “The Swan.” A sleazebag producer created a prank show called “Juiced” that starred O.J. Simpson. The show was beyond ill-conceived — the disgraced superstar disguised himself as an old white man in one bit, is surrounded by young women (often blond, like his slain wife), and does a segment selling people on the qualities of a Ford Bronco. Thankfully, the show was never released. The docuseries overestimates the amount of time you’ll want to spend with Simpson — the first and last episodes are enough to understand everything you need to know about him, reality TV and the people who produced “Juiced.” Then you’ll need to take a shower.

‘Untold Mr. T: I Pity the Fool’ (Netflix)

Mr. T in Netflix’s “Untold Mr. T: I Pity the Fool.”

(Netflix)

This sports documentary series often veers toward sensationalistic or at least hyperbolic stories, but this episode largely avoids that trap. Instead, we get Mr. T’s rags-to-riches story, his charm and his self-awareness of his own limitations. The highlight is how he used his “Rocky” and “A-Team” celebrity to try and do good, be a role model and represent for Black America — his gold chains were not just bling but a powerful political statement about his connection to America’s history of enslavement.

‘Chilean Mine Rescue: Race Against Time’ (NatGeo, Sept. 25; streams next day on Hulu and Disney+)

An intricate, thrilling procedural recounting the race to rescue 33 Chilean miners trapped for 69 days more than half a mile underground. This three-part series features footage from inside the mine and recent interviews with many of the miners and the others involved in the rescue. Even knowing the outcome, it’s riveting in the details. (Three miners gained so much weight once food was sent down they had to diet and work out to fit into the rescue capsule.)

‘How to Live on Earth’ (YouTube)

Benedict Cumberbatch at the Natural History Museum in London in a scene from “How to Live on Earth.”

(Conor McDonnell)

Benedict Cumberbatch is a wryly charming presenter for this climate crisis documentary that focuses on the positive. Aided by dynamic advocates and activists, this doc shows we can create a new financial system to allow for investment in shares of nature simply by providing value (trees storing carbon) that will let communities earn money without destroying rainforests, and find protein alternatives (mycelium, invasive animals like feral pigs, or even out of thin air), bring nature into prisons to reduce violence and recidivism, and rebuild coral reefs using nature’s music. “We haven’t treated the world well, but we can turn things around,” Cumberbatch says.

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