Godzilla vs Kong actor Kaylee Hottle dies at 18 in car crash

Kaylee Hottle, the young deaf actor who became a familiar face to audiences through the Godzilla franchise, has died at the age of 18.

Hottle, who played Jia in 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong and its 2024 sequel Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, died in a car accident in Maryland, her father Joshua Hottle confirmed to TMZ.

Joshua shared the news during a Facebook livestream conducted in American Sign Language.

The Texas School for the Deaf, where Hottle was a senior, also confirmed her death in a social media statement.

“It is with profound sadness that we share the heartbreaking news that one of our TSD seniors, Kaylee Hottle, tragically passed away yesterday in a car accident in Frederick, Maryland,” the school said.

“Our hearts are with Kaylee's family, friends, classmates, and everyone who knew and loved her during this incredibly difficult time. At this time, we have very limited information and ask that everyone respect the privacy of Kaylee's family and refrain from sharing or speculating about the circumstances surrounding the accident.”

Hottle and her father came from a multi-generational deaf family.

Kaylee Hottle’s Godzilla role

Hottle made her screen breakthrough as Jia, a deaf orphan who develops a special bond with Kong and is taken in by Dr Ilene Andrews, played by Rebecca Hall.

She reprised the role in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, earning a Saturn Award nomination for Best Performance by a Younger Actor.

In a 2021 interview with The Daily Moth, Hottle spoke about the challenges of working with a script written for spoken dialogue and translating it into American Sign Language.

“I was fine with memoriSing the script and signing my lines, but the tough part was signing out the "spoken" parts because we had to change it, and sometimes they’d tell us it was wrong but they didn’t understand that ASL changes almost everything. Because the interpreter said what I said. The producer and director would sometimes say “Don’t say that” and want me to follow the script, but the signs for that sentence would be different in ASL. There was one instance where there was a misunderstanding between us related to the ASL translation, which caused a delay, but they later understood.”