History has been made in this year’s British Academy Film and Television Awards as for the very first time, a deaf actor won a gong in one of the main categories to win the Best Supporting Actor award. Troy Kotsur picked up the accolade at the awards ceremony which took place at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Sunday 13th March.
By winning an award in one of the major categories, Kotsur who is 53 helped to break down barriers that may have prevented other deaf actors from appearing in major films before. It will also help to be an example to other deaf actors as to what they can achieve if they really work hard.
After receiving the award, the actor showed off his cheeky side by openly declaring that he would like to put himself forward to star in the upcoming James Bond flick after Daniel Craig stepped away from the iconic role.
He quipped: ‘I would just like to say congratulations to James Bond, 007, for the 60th anniversary. Have you considered maybe a deaf James Bond, 008?’
He continued: ‘I am extremely thrilled… I feel like a survivor, at times I sofa-surfed, I slept on the bed on set, all the choices I made, I was such a risk-taker… I just kept on in this crazy journey and I believed in myself.
Films which included deaf actors have really come along way since they began. In 1891, George Demenÿ achieved two firsts: the first-ever close-up and the first-ever moving image made for deaf audiences.
His sequence of photographic images played on a rotating glass disc was one second long. In recording it, he squeezed his eyes shut against blindingly bright lights and mouthed the words “Je vous aime” (I love you) at the request of Hector Marichelle, professor and director of the National Deaf-Mute Institute in France, who hoped to use it as a method of teaching deaf people to speak and lip read.
The actor who was born in Arizona, has had quite a distinguished career in which he has worked in theatre and many other films. His parents discovered he was deaf when he was only nine months old and this meant that they had to learn American Sign Language so the family would be able to communicate with each other. From a very young age, his parents encouraged him to go out and play sport in an effort to help him build new relationships and make friends with other people. This was mainly with children from his local neighbourhood who had no specific hearing problems themselves so they would have had to find a way they could adapt a form of communication and play sport at the same time.
He attended Phoenix Day School for the Deaf to ensure that he could learn the skills and abilities that he’d need to manage in the every day world. It was at this stage in his life where he became interested in acting. He graduated from Westwood High School where his drama teacher began to notice his talents and encouraged him to take part in the senior variety show. He performed a pantomime skit which was extremely positively received and this gave him the boost he needed to pursue theatre as a career.
Kotsur has worked with a wide variety of actors through out his career, many of whom would have been able to hear so he would have had to have found ways in which he could communicate effectively with them.
There are a number of different barriers which can effect disabled people in the work place which need to be overcome so they can lead an independent life and become fully functioning members of society. To do this they need support and adaptations need to be made to equipment and locations to make them easier for them to use.
