Troy Kotsur Wins Historic Best Supporting Actor Oscar for ‘CODA’: “This Is Our Moment”

Troy Kotsur won Best Supporting Actor for CODA at the 2022 Oscars on Sunday night, making him the first-ever male actor to win the award in that category for a performance in American Sign Language, as well as the second-ever Deaf actor to win an Oscar. (The first was his CODA co-star, Marlee Matlin.)

Kotsur accepted the award with a speech in sign language, which was translated by an interpreter.

“It’s amazing that our film CODA has reached worldwide, it even reached the White House,” Kotsur said, before joking that, when the cast was invited to screen CODA at the White House, he wanted to teach the Bidens some “dirty sign language,” but that Matlin talked him out of it. “Don’t worry Marlee, I won’t drop any F-bombs in my speech,” Kotsur—whose character gets pretty creative with his dirty humor in CODA—joked.

In CODA, which was released on Apple TV+ in August, Kotsur starred as Frank Rossi, a fisherman and the patriarch of a majority Deaf family, save for their youngest daughter Ruby (Emilia Jones), who is a hearing Child of Deaf Adults, or a CODA. It’s a performance full of both humor and heart, and, appropriately, Kotsur’s speech had both as well.

Kotsur profusely thanked CODA director/writer Sian Heder, saying, “Sian Heder, you are the best communicator, and the reason why is you brought the Deaf world and the hearing world together. You are our bridge. Your name will forever be on that bridge.”

Kotsur went on to thank the fishing community in Gloucester, Massachusetts, with a spot-on impression of Popeye the Sailor: “I just want to say ‘Hey fisherman, hey Popeyes, don’t forget to eat your spinach!”

Then the actor acknowledged his late father, “the best signer in family,” who was paralyzed from the neck down in a car accident and was no longer able to sign. Kotsur’s dedication of love and gratitude to his father was so moving, that even his interpreter was tearing up.

Kotsur concluded with a dedication to the Deaf and disabled community, and a rousing rallying cry: “This is our moment!”

If you’re not crying by now, I don’t know what to tell you.

Where to watch CODA