20 Things You Probably Missed In Speed
12. Why Payne Holds His Phone To His Left Ear
One of Howard Payne's more bizarre character quirks is his tendency to awkwardly hold his phone to his left ear with his right hand.
The reason for this is actually quite simple, but easily overlooked. We know that Payne lost a thumb on his left hand during his years on the bomb squad, and it's not much of a leap to assume that the accident also caused him to lose some of his hearing.
If he's holding the phone to his left ear, it's highly probable that he lost some if not all of his hearing in his right ear, and so being a right-handed person, naturally deferred to passing the phone over to his left ear.
This feels like something an acting lion like Hopper would've come up with by himself, but that's pure speculation.