View gallery

Daniel Durant says he “lost it” when his CODA co-star Troy Kotsur won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor during the 2022 Oscars. The Netflix You actor spoke EXCLUSIVELY with HollywoodLife and gushed over his fellow deaf actor amid Troy’s accolade for his role as Frank Rossi alongside Daniel, 32, who played his son in the film, Leo Rossi.

“I mean, I lost it. Finally, it was just like finally after 35 years,” Daniel said 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.

Troy and Marlee Matlin made movie history after starring in the epic film alongside Emilia Jones as their daughter who can hear, and Daniel as her deaf brother. “I have a huge amount of respect for Marlee,” Daniel said. “She’s been carrying this torch for such a long time. She’s such a strong woman. Standing up for deaf actors in Hollywood by herself. And now finally, she has a team with Troy. And Troy deserves it because again, he’s such an amazing and skilled, technical actor so I’m so happy he’s getting recognized. I’m happy about that.”

Meanwhile, in the wake of CODA’s amazing and historical success, Daniel shared his feelings on deaf representation in Hollywood. “It’s really nice for Hollywood to open doors in general and open doors for deaf actors,” he explained. “So many deaf actors look up to us, and so many looked up to us as disabled. That is cool and we support everyone in the disabled community.”

“But for deaf people, it’s just that our language is different, the way we communicate, we go way deeper with our expressions, and everything’s so visual,” he continued. “So that’s why a lot of people feel connected with CODA. I mean, it’s Troy Kotsur, with his dirty signs, it’s so visual and fun to watch. And it’s shocking. You see the words and you see what he’s saying. And it’s so fun to show what we’re doing and what it looks like. So I just hope we show more about that.”