Kaylee Hottle, a deaf actress who played the character of Jia in two Godzilla vs. Kong franchise movies, has died. She was 18.
TMZ was first to report on Hottle’s death in a car crash on Tuesday morning in Maryland, as confirmed by her father, Joshua Hottle. Coming from an all-deaf family, her dad also used American Sign Language via a post on Facebook to convey his grief alongside the caption, “I am taking a flight that I never would like to take.”
The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland in a statement said that at about 2:52 a.m., deputies and personnel from the Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue Services responded to a fatal single-vehicle collision involving a 1995 Honda Accord in the town of Ijamsville, near Baltimore.
A preliminary investigation revealed that a 19-year-old Frederick man traveled off the right side of the two-lane roadway and struck a culvert. “Excessive speed is believed to be a contributing factor in the collision,” the County Sheriff’s Office added. The crash remains under investigation.
Hottle, who lived in Kyle, Texas, was one of two passengers in the car at the scene of the collision. She was transported to a trauma center, where she was pronounced dead. The other passenger did not need medical treatment at the scene. The driver was transported to a hospital with injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening.
Hottle made her big-screen debut in the 2021 original Godzilla vs. Kong movie at age 9 and then in the 2024 sequel Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. As Jia, a deaf, orphaned indigenous Iwi girl rescued on Skull Island by Kong, she’s raised by Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), an anthropological linguist working for U.S. government monster research organization Monarch.
Her character’s ability to communicate with the giant ape via ASL created poignant moments in the movies.
Hottle had appeared in a 2017 commercial for the video relay service app Convo around Mother’s Day, and the girl’s ability to convey emotion using sign language convinced the producers of Godzilla vs. Kong to cast her.
“I had a connection with Convo. They asked me to be in a commercial one day, and so I did that. And then the assistant director of [Kong: Skull Island] saw me and they thought I matched the character description of Jia,” Hottle said using ASL for a March 2024 profile in the Houston Chronicle.
She added about her acting experience on set: “I would read the script, and [director] Adam [Wingard] would explain to me exactly what he wanted me to do. And I also had my parents’ support and translation of the script, and I just brought it to life.”
The Texas School for the Deaf, where Hottle was educated, paid tribute to her on Facebook: “Our hearts are with Kaylee’s family, friends, classmates and everyone who knew and loved her during this incredibly difficult time.”
In a March 2021 profile for the Australian pop culture Junkee website, Alexander Skarsgard praised Hottle for being so surprisingly assured onscreen and on set. “It’s her first movie. It’s fascinating how comfortable she is in front of the camera and how quickly she takes notes from the director,” he said. “He’ll explain something and she’ll be like, ‘Got it, got it,’ then she’ll just do it and everyone’s like, ‘The fuck … how did she?’ She’s so professional and just incredibly … There’s so much going on on her face, her expression, and the subtleties of that is fascinating to watch.”
July 21, 10:15 am. Updated with a statement from the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland with details on the fatal car crash.
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