Troy Kotsur on His Impactful Input for One ‘CODA’ Scene
variety.comStuart Miller Troy Kotsur loved the script for “CODA” but knew that in one crucial scene he didn’t want to say the words, “thank you.” To be more precise, Kotsur knew he didn’t want to sign the phrase.
Deaf actor Kotsur plays Rossi family patriarch Frank in Siân Heder’s film about Ruby (Emilia Jones), the Rossis’ hearing teen daughter who takes steps toward independence from her deaf parents and brother.Frank and his wife, Jackie (Marlee Matlin), have just attended the school concert where Ruby emerges as a star; they’ve never understood her passion for singing but now have seen others responding to her performance.
Sitting on the family truck outside their home, Frank asks Ruby to sing for him, touching her neck to feel the vibrations. At the end of the song, the script called for that “thank you.” Kotsur could relate to the scene.
He and his wife, Deanne Bray (also deaf and an actor), have a hearing daughter who sang for all the parents when she was in kindergarten. “To me she was just moving her mouth, but I saw several people crying,” Kotsur says via an ASL interpreter in a video interview.
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