CODA Oscar-Winner Troy Kotsur Helped Develop Star Wars’ Tusken Raider Sign Language
Troy Kotsur took home the Best Supporting Actor award at this year’s Oscars for his work in the film CODA, and while everyone is buzzing over his performance as Frank Rossi, he’s also opened up about working with Lucasfilm and Star Wars to help develop the sign language that the Tuskens use in The Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett!
Kotsur spoke with The Daily Moth about working on the sign language for the Tuskens and how he wanted it to be different from ASL. “I did research on the culture and environment of Tusken Raiders,” Kotsur said. “I researched on the desert called ‘sand people.’ That is what Luke Skywalker calls them, ‘sand people.’ Anyway, my goal was to avoid ASL. I made sure it became Tusken Sign Language based on their culture and environment.”
He went on to talk about his hopes for the future of the Tuskens and the sign language used there with them, saying, “I hope that you keep telling Disney+ that you want to see more sign language. I hope that the producers keep an open mind because this is just the beginning.”
A fan’s dream
Kotsur also is a huge Star Wars fan. Talking to CBS Saturday Morning, the Oscar winner expressed his love for the series. He expressed his love for the franchise as a whole, but also how the original was the first film to inspire him.
“So, imagine sitting in the theater not being able to hear anything. But the visuals of this of this film were amazing. I saw the lights shooting back and forth from their guns. The battleships,” Kotsur said. “I went back to the theater and saw it 28 times, and that was the first film that inspired me. I was fascinated by the fantasy and all of the characters and that really sparked my interest into film and led me here to this day.”
But it was a dream come true for Kotsur, as well. He’d wanted to be a part of the series and be involved in some way, so to have had a hand in crafting a sign language for the Tuskens clearly meant a lot to him. “Oh, I was thrilled,” Kotsur said of being part of The Mandalorian. Since the age of eight, my dream was to be involved. They had so many aliens and they spoke all these different languages, so where was sign language? And so, as a Tusken raider, it was perfect to create that sign language for the desert.”
I hope we get to see more of the Tuskens and the sign language that Kotsur helped develop, but I’d also love to see Kotsur more in the series, as well. Getting to play a Tusken was clearly something he had dreamt of as a kid, but getting to have more of Troy Kotsur in something is never a bad thing, and it’d be wonderful to have the now-Oscar-winner back in the world of Star Wars!
(image: Lucasfilm)
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