Why ‘CODA’s Troy Kotsur Would Feel ‘Honored’ To Work With Marlee Matlin Again

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Academy Award-winner ‘CODA’ star Troy Kotsur reveals how he’d feel about working with his deaf Oscar-winning costar, Marlee Matlin again.

Troy Kotsur would be “honored” to work again with his CODA co-star Marlee Matlin, 56. The Academy Award-winning star, 53, won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as Frank Rossi alongside fellow deaf Oscar winner, Marlee, who played his wife in the film, Jackie Rossi.

“We have a lot of great and fun ideas and I’d be so honored to work with Marlee again. It’s nice to have two deaf Oscar Award-winners in one picture. Imagine that, why not?” Troy told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY while showing his support at The Hollywood Reporter‘s inaugural “Raising Our Voices: Setting Hollywood’s Inclusion Agenda” luncheon on Wednesday, April 20 at The Maybourne Beverly Hills Hotel.

“You know, we’ve been talking about a few ideas, maybe we can become divorced. We can be a separated or divorced couple and have to fight about custody of our kids. Or maybe she could be my bitchy sister,” he laughed. “There’s so many great possibilities.” Troy and Marlee made movie history after starring in the epic film alongside Emilia Jones as their daughter who can hear and Daniel Durant as her deaf brother.

Meanwhile, in the wake of CODA’s amazing and historical success, Troy discussed his plans for continuing to build on deaf representation in Hollywood. “I’ve been waiting for Hollywood to be ready and CODA was a beautiful step forward to really bridge two worlds; the deaf world and the hearing world,” he explained. “There’s always been that gap. There hasn’t been that bridge for so long and with CODA, the child of a deaf adult played by Emilia, she represented hearing culture because she could communicate verbally but also, she could communicate in sign language. CODA pulled these two worlds together and so there’s no gap in our film.”

“We’ve been waiting for a story like that and so our film has been so impactful as a first step forward and has really influenced folks to gain a new perspective,” Troy continued. “We’re all humans, we only communicate in different languages, that’s all. And so, if you see a deaf person, does that mean they’re limited, or a victim because they can’t hear? Don’t forget, we use our eyes, we can see, we can feel, we have a heart. What you hear is what I can see and we’re all human beings and we’re all here to collaborate and work together.”