Godzilla vs. Kong star Kaylee Hottle has died aged 18 in a serious car accident, her father has revealed.
The late actress, who was deaf, was best known for starring as Jia in two Godzilla films, the first in 2021. She then reprised her role for Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire.
In the movies, she plays a teenager who lives on Skull Island with Dr Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) as her adoptive mother and communicates with King Kong through sign language.
In a 23-minute livestream on Facebook, later confirmed to TMZ, her dad, Joshua Hottle, shared in American Sign Language that she had died after being involved in a car accident in Maryland.
He shared that officials informed him of the news, and he had flown out to Maryland to retrieve her body after officials called him to notify him that her heart stopped on the way to the hospital.
The actress was born in 2007 and, according to a 2024 interview with Chron, was scouted by casting director Sarah Halley Finn for the Godzilla role after appearing in an ad for the video relay service app Convo.
‘I had a connection with Convo. They asked me to be in a commercial one day, and so I did that commercial.
‘And then the assistant director of [Kong: Skull Island] saw me, and they thought I matched the character description of Jia,’ she told the publication.
Talking about her creative process, she said at the time: ‘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.’
Her performance in the second movie was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor at the 52nd Saturn Awards.
Elsewhere, Hottle also appeared in an episode of CBS’ Magnum P.I. reboot in 2021 where she played the character Joon.
She came from four generations of deaf family members on her father’s side. As of 2024, Hottle was attending Texas School for the Deaf.