Kylie Hotel, a deaf actress who played the character Gia in two parts Godzilla vs. Kong Franchise movies are dead. She was 18 years old.
TMZ was the first to report that Hottle had died in a car accident Tuesday morning in Maryland, as confirmed by her father, Joshua Hottle. Coming from a deaf family, her father also used American Sign Language via a Facebook post to express his sadness along with the following caption: “I’m taking a ride I never want to take.”
At approximately 2:52 a.m., deputies and personnel from the Frederick County Department of Fire and Rescue Services responded to a fatal single-vehicle crash involving a 1995 Honda Accord in Ijamsville, near Baltimore, the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland said in a statement.
A preliminary investigation revealed that a 19-year-old Frederick man ran off the right side of the two-lane road and struck the culvert. “It is believed that excessive speed was a contributing factor in the collision,” the county sheriff’s office added. The accident is still under investigation.
Hotel, who lived in Kyle, Texas, was one of two passengers in the car at the scene. She was taken to the trauma center where she was pronounced dead. The other passenger did not require medical treatment at the scene. The driver was taken to hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening.
Hottle made her big screen debut in the 2021 original Godzilla vs. Kong A film at the age of nine and then a sequel in 2024 Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. As Jia, a deaf and orphaned indigenous iwi girl rescued by Kong on Skull Island, she is raised by Dr. Ellen Andrews (Rebecca Hall), an anthropological linguist working for the US government’s monster research organization Monarch.
Her character’s ability to communicate with the giant ape via American Sign Language has created poignant moments in the films.
Hottle appeared in a 2017 commercial for video relay service app Convo for Mother’s Day, and the girl’s ability to convey emotions using sign language convinced producers Godzilla vs. Kong To throw her.
“I had a connection with Convo. They asked me to be in a commercial one day, so I did it. Then an assistant director[[Kong: Skull Island]They saw me and thought I matched Gia’s personality description,” Hotel said using ASL for a March 2024 profile in Houston Chronicle.
She added about her acting experience on the filming site: “I was reading the script, and… [director] Adam [Wingard] He would explain to me exactly what he wanted me to do. I also had the support of my parents and my translation of the script, and I just brought it to life.
The Texas School for the Deaf, where Hotel was educated, paid tribute to her on Facebook: “Our thoughts are with Kaylee’s family, friends, classmates and everyone who knew and loved her during this extremely difficult time.”
In a March 2021 profile for Australian pop culture website Junkee, Alexander Skarsgård praised Hottle for being surprisingly confident on screen and on set. “It’s her first film. It’s amazing how comfortable she is in front of the camera and how quickly the director takes notes,” he said. “He’ll explain something and you’ll be like, ‘I get it, I get it,’ and then she’ll do it and everyone’s like, ‘Damn… how did you do that?'” She’s so incredibly professional… There’s so much going on in her face, her expressions, and the subtleties of it are fascinating to watch.
July 21, 10:15 AM. Updated with a statement from the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland with details about the fatal car crash.
