Oona Chaplin is the actor behind “Avatar: Fire and Ash” villain Varang. She is also the granddaughter of cinema icon Charlie Chaplin. Oona, whose credits also include “Game of Thrones,” recently told The Times of London that she plans to change her name after she graduates from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and begins her full-time acting career.
“It’s been a journey of feeling worthy, because I know doors have opened for me that potentially wouldn’t have opened if I hadn’t been associated with this brilliant man,” Oona Chaplin said. “It’s really hard to feel unworthy of where you are.”
She decided not to change her name, however, because her mindset shifted “from guilt to gratitude by working really hard and knowing that whatever I do will never compare to what my grandfather did. If my whole goal in this is for people to say, ‘Oh, Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter,’ and they Google him and watch one of his films, then I’m happy because he’s such a genius.”
Oona’s mother, Geraldine Chaplin, was Charlie’s daughter and was also an actress in her own right. Although “Avatar: Fire and Ash” is Oona’s first major Hollywood blockbuster film, she has been a professional actress since 2007. Her credits also include “Taboo,” “The Crimson Field” and “Black Mirror.”
The actor told The Times of London that she thought Charlie Chaplin “would have been OK” with the “Avatar” films, adding: “I feel like James Cameron is probably one of the closest things to Chaplin that we have now, even though they’re really different. They know what they’re talking about, so people listen.”
Cameron told IndieWire during his latest “Avatar” press tour that he “originally saw women whose names you would instantly know, who were already stars and people I really wanted to work with” when he was casting the role of Varang.
“It was a difficult decision to turn against faces and names I already knew, but Oona surprised me with her perception of the character, the way she moved and her complete fearlessness,” he added of Chaplin’s casting. “And she was well prepared – she knew the scene cold, and it was seven or eight pages long.”
“Avatar: Fire and Ash” is now playing in theaters nationwide.
