The highly anticipated live-action remake of Avatar: The Last Airbender has hit Netflix. Viewers and fans have been quite excited to see their beloved series brought to life, and have also been quite cautious on how they would accept any changes made in the adaptation. Luckily, the actors took special care with their work and, according to The Hollywood Reporter, even got to chat with their character’s original voice actors to talk at length about their acting choices.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is adapted from the children’s animated series from 2005. The show follows a young Aang, who is the final Airbender left in the whole world. He is also the master of all four elements, earth water, fire, and air, earning the title of The Avatar. As he is on his quest to maintain the balance between the four elemental nations, he meets Katara, a water bender, and her brother Sokka. They take a journey together through many obstacles, including frequent battles with Fire Nation residents and most commonly the Fire Nation’s own Prince Zuko.
The main cast of the series, Gordon Cormier who plays, Kiawentiio who plays Katara, Ian Ousley who plays Sokka, and Dallas Liu who plays Zuko, sat down with The Hollywood Reporter and talked about how they needed to uphold their love towards the original series to make sure that they get their portrayal of the characters right.
“THR- Were you all fans of the animated series?
KIAWENTIIO Me, Dallas and Ian grew up [watching] the show, but Gordon was actually born after it aired.
CORMIER After I booked the role, I looked up the animated series. I watched it 26 times, because I became a giant fan. I didn’t even really watch it to study my character — the first time was for that. Then I watched it again for the fun of it, and again, again, again, again. I feel like I really got to know Aang, to see what he’s going through and hopefully bring that into the live action, with a little bit deeper and darker tones.
LIU I think because of the significance of Dante Basco’s voice acting [Basco is beloved as the original voice of Zuko], I felt a little extra pressure knowing that there were such huge shoes to fill. But the way I navigated that was: We aren’t trying to make a remake scene for scene, line for line. We’re trying to get a new set of people involved. Hopefully, they love the show just as much as we do, and we give the old fans something new.
THR: Were there any specific parts of your character you drew from the animated series, or anything you added that felt new?
IAN OUSLEY It’s such an amazing opportunity for the character of Sokka to go from an animated series to live action. When I watch the original series, I feel like Sokka is always the voice of the audience, so that’s something that I tried to carry over into our show. How can I be the voice of the audience and set the tone for everybody at home?
LIU We wanted to make sure we weren’t doing a caricature of these animated characters. For Zuko, in season one of the animated series, definitely for the first half of it, he’s quite melodramatic and extremely emotional to the point where his eyes are jumping out of his face. I think his relationship with Uncle Iroh in the live-action series was really cool for me. He’s not so much a brat to his own uncle, who looked out for him and cared for him.
OUSLEY In the animated show, Sokka is [also] doing so many things that are animated. It was a big challenge to bring it into reality and not lose any parts of him. But in addition to that, what comes naturally with live action is the humanness. A lot of the things happening in the show are very real and very intense, and he gets to have real human reactions while also getting to find out what that comedy looks like.
THR- Bringing this world into live action also meant some impressive martial arts from all four of you! What was your preparation for that?
KIAWENTIIO It was helpful, we did a six-week boot camp before filming. That’s where I got familiar with the fight scenes I had to train for.
CORMIER I was super energetic. Running, around, doing all these exercises … that was heaven for 12-year-old me.
LIU For Gordon, he’s supposed to be a master at such a young age. He needed to be extremely well-versed in the style of air from the beginning.
OUSLEY It was really awesome watching the commitment to Gordon’s character, because he would go home and practice for hours and hours on his own. He was having so much fun. They had to keep him on the kids’ schedule still, but even as an 11- and 12-year-old, he was still putting in hours of work, because they were giving him videos to practice. It was awesome.
KIAWENTIIO I feel like with my character, I got really lucky with the fact that I grew alongside her throughout the series. She doesn’t start out as a master, but she ends up that way.
LIU And Ian is actually a world champion martial artist in weapons, but his character isn’t an expert. So he had to unlearn those punches.
OUSLEY I love weapons in general, and Sokka has a really special attachment to his weapons, and his war club. So it was really cool to bring that over. But yeah, I had to unlearn a lot of that technique.
THR- So, what are your hopes and dreams for a live-action season two?
KIAWENTIIO With the animated series, it just gets better every season. I think adding a new addition to our group, getting to see Toph, is super exciting. It would also be really cool if I got to portray the Painted Lady.
LIU Season two is epic for Zuko. I want to do the one where I’m yelling at the lighting.
IAN I’m waiting for season three, though, because I want my sword. I am the world champion in weapons, specifically, so his sword would be a dream come true.
CORMIER Also season three, I really want to do that episode right before I go fight the fire lord and Aang won’t sleep. I start to see all these visions, and Momo and Appa start talking. It’d be so awesome.” –The Hollywood Reporter
Avatar: The Last Airbender is streaming on Netflix!