After making history as the first deaf man to win an Oscar, Troy Kotsur told reporters Sunday evening he hopes his work in the film “CODA” will send a message about the power of stories about the deaf and disabled communities.
“There are many ways to tell the story from different perspectives and different journeys,” Kotsur said through a sign-language interpreter backstage at the Dolby Theatre. “And I’ve just been trying to figure that out. Because I just want to make a connection that gives Hollywood more room for storytelling, to think outside of the box, to be creative. Tell stories. Everyone has stories to tell. We have such a rich history in the deaf community and the disabled community and the CODA community. And we’ve been through a lot. And right now is just a wonderful opportunity to tell these stories. And this is just the beginning.”
Kotsur won the supporting-actor Oscar for playing the patriarch of a mostly deaf family, and whose daughter wants to branch out on her own to embark on a singing career.
He told reporters he reveled in the role of a loving, yet somewhat raunchy father, particularly because of the crude language he was able to express via sign language.
“Really, I’m most proud of showing dirty sign language and dropping F bombs. So many F bombs,” he said with a smile. “And I’ve been so sick and tired of growing up and I’ve seen all your swear words in the subtitles. … Where was my opportunity to bring this part of my culture forward? Finally, here it is. This is the vulgarity. Now you can experience it you can just have a taste and it’s such a great flavor. Welcome to my world.”
He said the use of such salty language showed the “rich diversity of our sign language.”
“You know, lawyers and doctors and scientists. We have so many vocabulary words, mathematicians too. But really ASL saved my life because it helped me understand how to read English and math and science and theater and scripts. And all of the above. Sign language is so rich.
“Everything I’ve been through in my life, you know, we communicate visually as deaf people. It’s as simple as that.”