Troy Kotsur on His Intense Turn in Netflix’s 'Black Rabbit' and His Hollywood Comeback Post-'CODA'

Happy Friday, folks!

I have another special treat for you today, as I’m joined by Black Rabbit star Troy Kotsur, who won an Oscar a few years ago for his heartfelt supporting turn in CODA.

Jude Law and Jason Bateman star in Netflix’s new limited series, which is one of the best TV shows I’ve seen all year. Click here to read my review.

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After all, awards season is just starting, and few do it better than your humble host. Plus, it’ll help me avoid running ads for AI companies, which are the only ones that pay these days, unfortunately…

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Troy Kotsur on His Intense Turn in Netflix’s Black Rabbit and His Hollywood Comeback Post-CODA

Troy Kotsur has been busy since CODA — you just wouldn’t know it.

Apple’s modest family drama about the musically gifted daughter (Emilia Jones) of deaf parents (Kotsur and Marlee Matlin) debuted at Sundance and went on to win all three Oscars it was nominated for — Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor.

The latter award went to Kotsur in what was the biggest moment for the deaf acting community since Matlin won an Oscar for Children of a Lesser God in 1987.

But other than a guest appearance on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, where Larry David pelted him with bagels, Kotsur has barely been seen since. Thankfully, that recently changed with the release of Season 3 of Foundation, and Netflix’s new limited series Black Rabbit, starring Jude Law and Jason Bateman.

Kotsur plays Joe Mancuso, and while it’s a little unclear whether Mancuso is a low-level gangster, a loan shark, a neighborhood tough guy, etc., the bottom line is that the Friedkin brothers owe him a lot of money, and he’s not afraid to use violence, or the threat of violence, to recoup their debt.

Kotsur has a couple of other movies awaiting release, including one that just debuted to strong reviews at Fantastic Fest (Primate), and one that premiered this past summer at the Tribeca Film Festival (In Cold Light).

He talks about both of those projects below, as well as how his casting in Black Rabbit came about, how he put his stamp on the character of Mancuso, and why you haven’t seen him much since CODA.

Without further ado, here’s my chat with Troy. Enjoy!

Congratulations on your excellent performance in Black Rabbit.

Troy Kotsur: Oh, you already saw it? If you saw it early, that's not fair. I've only seen the first and second episodes, but I haven't seen the rest. I have no idea how it turned out. I'm really curious, and I'm excited too. 

So, the first thing I want to know is whether your character, Mancuso, was written as deaf in the script, or whether you just blew away the producers with your audition, and then they made the character deaf to accommodate you. 

Kotsur: Well, three years ago, during the CODA award season campaign, the nominees were going to all these events, and it just so happened that I crossed paths with Zach Baylin, who is one of the writers and showrunners for Black Rabbit, along with his wife, Kate Susman. Zach was nominated for his King Richard script, so that's how we met, because all the nominees would socialize at these events.

One day, Zach asked me, ‘Troy, what role haven't you played yet that you'd really love to play?’ And I said, ‘I'd love to play a villain. I want to play the bad guy.’ And he kind of looked at me, and I thought maybe he didn't take what I said seriously.

And then two years later, my manager, Mark Finley, said, ‘Hey, I have a script for you to read,’ and Zach had kept his word. So I read the script that Zach and Kate had written, and I said, ‘Wow, this is really cool,’ and then I ended up working with Jason Bateman and Jude Law, which was really amazing. What a cool experience it was. 

Well, I know everyone's going to ask about working with Jason and Jude, but I’m more curious about your scenes with Forrest Weber and Chris Coy, and what you made of that father-son dynamic between Joe and Junior.

Kotsur: You know, working with Forrest was really, really great. He's a professional actor, but he already had some familiarity with sign language because someone in his family happens to be deaf. So, he knew sign language before coming into Black Rabbit, so it was actually very easy to work with him. We had a mutual understanding and really worked well together. 

And how did you put your own stamp on the character once you saw what was on the page? What did you specifically bring to the role of Mancuso? 

Kotsur: Well, that's a good question. For a long time, I've been such a movie fanatic. I'm a movie freak. I've seen so many crime films and gangster films, so I’ve seen a lot of villains. Some are Italian, or Chinese, or Russian, and there are BIPOC villains, too, but you don’t really have any deaf villains out there. And the bottom line, of course, is that historically, in deaf culture, we have criminals.

There are plenty of criminals in the history of the deaf community, so I thought it would be interesting if you had a villain — a criminal or a mobster — who happened to be deaf, and happened to employ folks who knew sign language. I thought it offered a fresh take on the villain and would allow the audience to think outside of the box.

So, it'd be nice to have a powerful deaf character. 

And as far as my own take on it, it was about how you have to keep everything under control, because Mancuso knows that he has power, and that there are people underneath him protecting him. So I felt he had that kind of seething danger underneath the surface.

I'd like to add that some people ask me why I wanted to be a villain, being an actor who happens to be deaf, and I'd say that people are stuck in that mindset of just seeing my character, Frank Rossi, in the movie CODA, and thinking that's all I can do. 

That’s why I wanted to play a character that was the opposite, and show my range and my capability as an actor. I wanted to not just show myself as a family man, but play this really colorful character, Mancuso.

Most of the time, when I'm signing, I just use one hand. And I use my right hand, which is my dominant hand. So I did a little research. If I had a gun, I wouldn’t be able to sign with both hands at the same time. So I wanted to practice my lines just with one hand, and thought I could maybe have the gun in my left as I was signing with my right. Things like that made it really interesting for me to develop this character. 

That is interesting. I didn’t even think about that. Now, Jason Bateman doesn't just star in this series; he also directs, as does his Ozark co-star Laura Linney. So what was the biggest difference in their styles as directors on the set? 

Kotsur: Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to be directed by Laura Linney, but I did work with Jason Bateman and two other directors. There were a total of four directors, and they each did two episodes apiece.

I've been a big fan of both Laura Linney and Jason Bateman for many years. They're both such phenomenal actors, and I never thought that I would have the opportunity to work with both of them on the same team.

It’s amazing because I feel like I've known Jason Bateman and Jude Law my whole life. I grew up watching their movies and TV shows. So when we were working together on set or off-camera, it was really unexpected, and it's just been an unbelievable journey. 

So when I told people I was interviewing you, several of them said, ‘Where has that guy been? He was so good in CODA!’ And so I'm curious, do you feel that you've been afforded the same opportunities that actors are typically afforded after winning an Oscar? Or do you think Hollywood wasn't quite sure what to do with you? 

Kotsur: That's an interesting question, because a lot of people, you know, have that mindset — that I've been forgotten. But if you go back to shortly after the 2022 awards season, we had the strike with WGA and SAG in 2023, and everything was on hold for a while. We had all these delays in the pipeline with all these projects on hold. 

But since CODA, I’ve done a few shoots, and this year, I have four projects that all happen to be released at once. It feels like my hard work from the past few years is finally paying off now that everything’s starting to be released, which is good.

The strikes and the delays they caused just slowed everything down and skewed the timeline a bit. But there have been a lot of projects that I've been offered, and next year is going to be an exciting year for me, too, I think. 

The timing of everything makes total sense, but I’m glad all of these projects are finally starting to come out in the wake of CODA. Speaking of which, do you think Hollywood could be doing a better job of catering to the deaf community and other communities like it? If so, what could the industry be doing better? 

Kotsur: Well, so far, I'm seeing a kind of slow transformation in Hollywood. I'm seeing several recurring guest star roles pop up for deaf actors, and a few films here and there, including an underdog sports film with an all-deaf crew and a very diverse cast, but that’s an indie film. I just hope people recognize and see that deaf people are capable of working behind the camera as well.

Marlee Matlin just had a documentary that premiered at Sundance called Not Alone Anymore. So, what does that tell you? It tells you that Marlee's not alone anymore. And there are a few more of us along with her. So I am seeing a slow transformation. We're making progress, but it takes time, you know?

A lot of times, you have projects in development, and you have these meetings with studios or writers, and they want to figure out how to work with interpreters. How do they find an ASL consultant or ASL dialogue coach, and how does that process work? And so we have to continue to educate all these productions.

But I'm grateful for winning the Oscar and all these awards because I've had the opportunity to educate so many productions on how to work with deaf actors. So I am seeing that transformation, but it doesn't happen overnight. Money talks, if you know what I mean.

What's the most heartwarming story that you heard from the deaf community in the wake of CODA's success? 

Kotsur: Here’s something touching that happened. I remember I was walking through an airport, and I saw a little girl, and she was a CODA in real life. She was a child of deaf adults, and she had a t-shirt that said, ‘This is our moment.’

And that was from my Oscar speech. I dedicated the award to the deaf community, the disabled community, and the CODA community. And I said, ‘This is our moment.’ So I was really touched to see this little girl wearing this t-shirt with a quote from my speech. And she saw me, and her jaw dropped.

And I said, ‘Hello, I like your shirt.’ And we took a picture together. I think that was one of my most precious moments from that whole journey — that particular moment.

What's the funniest thing you can remember about working with Larry David, and how did it feel to appear in the final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm? 

Kotsur: I think my favorite part of working with Larry David was a scene where he was throwing bagels at me. He was off-camera, and he had this huge bag of bagels. And so I'm walking by, and he kept missing me, trying to hit me with these bagels. 

It was maybe like nine or 10 takes. And he finally hit me once, in the face. Then I looked over at him, and it was like he was like a little kid — just really excited to be throwing these bagels at me in the scene. He was like a clown, on and off set, and a lot of fun to work with. 

He also did a lot of great improv — he’s an improv master. So I was really glad to have the opportunity to work with Larry, because that was on my bucket list.

Admittedly, I'm not caught up on Season 3 of Foundation. But the finale airs just six days before Black Rabbit premieres. So what can you tease for your character in the finale? 

Kotsur: So, Preem Palver, my character in Foundation, is the First Speaker. He's one of the leaders of Foundation #2, so he's responsible for a great deal of the Foundation. And he happens to be deaf, which is really cool. And he also has the ability of telepathy. He's a mentalic. So he has two ways of communicating — sign language and telepathy. And it's really cool to see deaf people existing in the future. We really created this character and were able to play with the sign language we created. 

You know, I'm a sci-fi fan. I grew up a sci-fi fan. So it's great to be in another world and have that experience. I was a big fan of Star Wars when I was a little boy, and I looked up Isaac Asimov, who helped inspire the original Star Wars and Star Trek, and it's almost like we're part of this extended sci-fi family now.

My role in Foundation is really fun because as an actor, you're having this kind of unique dance with special effects and the camera, and the crew. So it's been a very unique experience, and then when you see it on screen, you're like, ‘Oh my gosh, this really is another world.’

You know, that sort of leads to my next question— do you take any pride in being the first deaf actor in the Star Wars universe, which will probably outlive all of us? And do you think that we'll be seeing more deaf performers in the Star Wars universe going forward? 

Kotsur: Oh, yeah, I believe there will be. I really hope that there will be. I think they're finally ready to open their minds to deaf roles in the future because there are so many different languages in the galaxy — all of these alien, interplanetary languages. 

But when I was growing up, there wasn’t any sign language in Star Wars. It seemed like they weren't ready. And I hoped that one day, they would be.

So when I was able to create sign language for The Mandalorian and develop Tusken Raider sign language and teach the other actors that original type of sign language in addition to playing the character, I was just really glad to be able to see that happen in my lifetime.

If you could join the cast of any TV show, which one would it be and why? 

Kotsur: There’s a British detective series called Broadchurch that’s fascinating because you have this community, and they all know each other, and then in come these private investigators. Now imagine if you had a deaf detective or a deaf investigator — how would that affect the storyline and all these situations in such a series? So, I think it would be cool to play a deaf detective. Olivia Colman is wonderful on the show.

Do you have any plans to return to the stage? 

Kotsur: It's funny, Deaf West Theatre has asked me to be a part of several productions. They said, ‘Hey, anytime you feel ready, Troy, let us know.’ So I'm really glad that I have that open invitation, and I'll keep that in mind when I feel like it's the right time.

It can just be hard keeping my schedule open because it takes so much time to rehearse for plays. You have five or six weeks, and then the show might run for two months. So it’s a three-month stretch of blocking my schedule off and not being available for other projects. It's pretty demanding on time, and they can be hard to predict, but I'm open-minded.

Ultimately, I think I'll go back to the stage, one day. I know I’d really love to work with Paul Raci again. 

I loved him in Sound of Metal. 

Kotsur: Yeah, I used to work with Paul so much on stage, so I'd love to work with him just one more time on stage. We did four productions together in the past.

Are there any other actors or directors you'd like to work with one day? 

Kotsur: I'd love to work with Steven Spielberg one day because, of course, he's a legend, and I hope one day I'll have that opportunity.  And I'd also love to work with Robert De Niro. That would be cool. Gary Oldman would be great. I like those kinds of actors and those kinds of films. Meryl Streep would be wonderful to work with one day, too. 

Have you been keeping up with Emilia Jones's career since CODA, and do you plan to watch her new HBO show Task? 

Kotsur: Oh, I haven't seen her new show yet, but I'm very proud of her, of course. I follow her on social media, so I see all of her posts. And from what I understand, she has another new movie as well, called Tony, so I'm really looking forward to seeing that. I think that's coming out soon. And then I think she has a third project, The Running Man. That’s three new projects, so it’s really exciting seeing her take off. I'm so proud of her.

Before I let you go, tell me about your upcoming movies. I know you're in In Cold Light with Maika Monroe and Primate, the killer chimp movie. What can you tell me, Troy? 

Kotsur: I've always loved westerns and rodeo-type stories, and I always think of different roles that happen to be deaf. I'd never seen a deaf rodeo rider in the past, and like I said, I like cool roles that are outside of the box, so it was a pretty cool crime thriller-type of story, and I love Maika Monroe and her work.

She plays my daughter in In Cold Light, an independent film that I shot in Canada, which was a pretty interesting experience. I have a few really good scenes in that, so I was interested in that script. 

And Primate is more of a horror thriller. And I can check that off my bucket list of genres. Like, crime? Check! Horror? Check! That kind of thing. It's really fun to play these different types of roles. And everything happens in one house in Primate, so it’s really, really fun.

Well, I'm looking forward to both of those movies. And I'm telling everybody to watch Black Rabbit because it was great, and you were great in it.

Kotsur: Oh, thank you so much for saying that, Jeff. I guess now you understand that I haven't been quiet for so long. You're going to be seeing more and more of me in the next couple of years.

Black Rabbit is now streaming in full on Netflix.

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