Film Academy Launches ‘Members Only’ Digital Series Featuring Troy Kotsur, Paul Raci and More (Exclusive)
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ has launched a new digital series, Members Only, featuring actors and Academy members Troy Kotsur and Paul Raci in its debut episode.
Set to release weekly, the four-part interview series seeks to celebrate the global film community through candid conversations among AMPAS members of the same branch, who discuss their journeys, work and what it means to be part of one of the industry’s leading film and professional organizations. Voices from the acting, composing, hair & makeup and editing branches sit down for short conversations across the first season.
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After Kotsur and Raci, two members of the acting branch, additional episodes will feature composing members Natalie Holt (The Impossible, Paddington) and Pinar Toprak (Captain Marvel, Shotgun Wedding); hair and makeup branch members Massimo Gattabrusi (Bones and All, Volver) and Ana Lozano (Being the Ricardos, Pain and Glory); and editors Shannon Baker Davis (The Photograph) with Terel Gibson (Sorry to Bother You, Ready or Not).
In the series’ first installment, which debuted Thursday, Kotsur and Raci talk the CODA star’s Oscar win, breaking into entertainment and their shared 30-year industry journey. It’s a friendship that stretches back to the mid-90s, when the duo worked on a staged adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.
During the episode, Raci recalls “all those years together at Deaf West Theater” where both “were struggling actors,” while celebrating Kotsur’s dedication to being a “pure actor” and sticking with the profession amid “all the real shit actors go through.”
“If it meant that you had to sleep in your car and travel somewhere — work for no money — you did it,” he says. “I never stopped working even to this day in theater. Same thing for you.”
Kotsur says his decision to get more into film was driven by those who questioned why they weren’t seeing him in movies. “I started to feel those insults and criticism. It was like maybe I should become a teacher, or maybe I should do something, but I was stubborn, I was persistent, and I tried to find a way to survive.”
The actor reveals that the financial security of his family — particularly his daughter — played a role in him changing his “mindset to financially support my family,” something he tells Raci required sacrifice.
“I washed cars, I mowed lawns, I was helping in kitchens, I washed dishes,” he recalls. “We would do that, and I would try and pay my wife back. I’d give people free tickets to see the show because I didn’t have a way of thanking people for helping us out.”
As part of the 10-minute conversation, the duo also speak about the advice they’d give young actors, especially Deaf talent, trying to break into the film industry. At one point, Raci discusses the experience of growing up in the 1950s when “there were no technology for Deaf people” like closed captioning, and seeing Elvis’ Love Me Tender at the movie theater with his mother.
“I’m like interpreting for my mom. I was doing Elvis, his brother, the lover, the horse,” he recalls. “My mother loved it, you know? And on the way home, we were like so connected because we shared this theatrical experience.”
Kotsur speaks about his own movie-going experience, along with his early love for films like Godzilla and shows like Tom & Jerry. The Oscar winner said he was always “looking for some type of visual action” in movies.
“There were fight scenes, there were chase scenes and so on with [the] cat and mouse, and it was fascinating to me as a young Deaf boy,” he tells Raci. “I would memorize these episodes, and I would tell the story the next morning on the school bus during our commute to the School for the Deaf. And many of these deaf kids didn’t have a TV at that time. So I would tell them what I saw the previous day, and these kids were fascinated. I saw the glow in their eyes. They really enjoyed my storytelling, and that’s where my spark began.”
You can watch the conversation in full above. Future episodes of Members Only will release Thursdays on the Academy’s YouTube channel.
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