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
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.”