Oops, Avatar: The Last Airbender star Ken Leung initially thought he was going to Pandora
Ken Leung thought his Avatar: The Last Airbender audition was for the other Avatar
Aux News Avatar: The Last Airbender
What comes to mind when you hear the title Avatar says a lot about what kind of nerd you are. The Last Airbender came first, but the James Cameron film went wider. Over nearly two decades, this has caused enough confusion that when actor Ken Leung heard he was auditioning for an “Avatar” project, he didn’t actually realize which one he was doing.
“I didn’t know the original at all,” Leung, who plays Commander Zhao in Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the animated series, told Deadline. “Maybe it’s an age thing but I didn’t know about it. First of all, the audition, you couldn’t tell it was for Avatar, it was kind of disguised as a different project. And when I first heard it was for Avatar I thought I was gonna be blue.”
Plenty of adults are aware of, or even fans of, Avatar: The Last Airbender (Daniel Dae Kim voiced roles on A:TLA and Legend Of Korra before landing the part of Fire Lord Ozai in Netflix’s show). But it’s probably fair to say the younger generation has a stronger connection to the Nickelodeon show. Dallas Liu, who plays Zhao’s rival Prince Zuko, told The A.V. Club that Zuko was his favorite character in the cartoon. “Well, when I was a kid, I always thought bending was the coolest part. That got me interested because I had been doing martial arts since I was five years old. So that was one show where I was just so entertained,” he shared. “Naturally, I really gravitated towards the show. But once I got older and I started paying attention to the dialogue, the plot, and each character’s arc, I was like, this is a damn good show.”
Leung may not have been aware of how damn good the show was, but it worked out for him anyway. “Looking back, I kind of love that I came in blank,” he said to Deadline. “Because when you have ideas you can kind of corrupt a pure process. You come in blank, things will come into it that will inform your playing of it in a way that it might not if you came in with preconceived ideas or plans. So I was grateful for that.”
18 Comments
Why didn’t someone tell me that this was a Star War?!
Best fucking facial expression ever for this situation:
He’s one of the best parts of the show, and actually made me happy to see Zhao every time. The character is still written as a total cardboard villain, but Leung gives him so much more personality just with his facial expressions and body language. It’s a real shame he has to leave the show here.
Has AV Club done a random roles for this guy yet? He certainly has been around long enough, I remember him being porcupine guy in the terrible (not his fault) X-Men Last Stand movie. Jeez his first role was in Welcome to the Dollhouse
Also in the Sopranos!
Would love to hear about his thoughts on Rush Hour.
It looks like AVC did all of four Random Roles last year, and the last one they did was a few weeks ago, so it might be a while.
Agreed. He leaned into the concept hard and really knew the assignment. Felt the most natural outside of the actor who played Sokka.
There’s still time to get cast in the next Avatar sequel.
Which one?
They’re all good.
I’m still waiting for that Avatar/Last Airbender/Giant Smurf crossover!If we can throw the Blue Man Group in there somehow…
I’m still flummoxed how Avatar 2 made that much money. I know plenty of people that saw it, but none that actually LIKED it.
Turns out you only have to pay for things if you like them, I guess.
I dunno who you talked to, most of the people I know who saw it liked it well enough.Not like a “wow this is the greatest movie ever” but it definitely felt like a movie that was worth seeing, and worth seeing on the big screen.
Like most James Cameron movies, I had a great time watching it in the theater and will probably never watch it at home (this doesn’t apply to Aliens.) I thought it was well-done technically while leaning heavily on well-worn, long-established character archetypes.
All the time Cameron saves on characterization by using pre-packaged characters (you already know everything about Michelle Rodriguez’s character in Avatar because in two lines it’s established that she’s a Michelle Rodriguez-type tough-talking badass with a heart of gold) he typically re-invests in big setpieces, which pay off more in a theater than on repeat viewings.
Nobody is obligated to like this, and it’s not high art, but it is good work that’s well executed. People will pay for proficiency. And I wonder how many people watching it unconsciously compared that aspect to all the unfinished CGI that’s been popping up in Marvel flicks since, oh, at least since Black Panther.
I remember only positive buzz around the movie.
Ken Leung had a great performance on High Maintenance as a depressed veterinarian who started experimenting with microdosing psilocybin and only realized he took it too far after a very bad situation with a kitten stuck in a tuba. I don’t have anyone with whom I can talk about High Maintenance, so I thought I’d share that here.