Avatar: The Last Airbender has proved itself worthy of the original title as it has generated great numbers since its release and has even broken the record of One Piece live-action adaptation. The series resurrected the love fans had for the American animated fantasy action television series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.
As the series went into the promotion and screening stage, the cast of the series revealed filming and the auditioning process for the series and how it was a discreet project at first. Although Netflix announced the project early on, the secretive nature of the series made it more exciting.
This was revealed by not one but two cast members from the series. Ken Leung who played the role of Commander Zhao revealed that when he went for the audition of the series, he thought he was auditioning for James Cameron’s Avatar and was going to be painted blue. However, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee the actor who played Uncle Iro thought he was auditioning for a basketball movie.
Ken Leung Thought He Was Auditioning For James Cameron’s Avatar
Actor Ken Leung, who played the role of Commander Zhao talked to Deadline about how he never knew about the original Avatar: The Last Airbender series. This is why when he first heard of it, he thought he was auditioning for James Cameron’s Avatar franchise.
He told Deadline:
“I didn’t know the original at all. I mean, maybe it’s an age thing. But, I didn’t know about it. In fact, when I first heard that it was for Avatar… first of all, the audition was not – you couldn’t tell it was for Avatar. It was kind of disguised as a different project. And when I first heard that it was for Avatar, I thought that I was going to be blue.”
According to the actor, the audition was so discreet that no one could tell that they were auditioning for Avatar: The Last Airbender. Therefore when he went for the audition, he thought he was going to be blue.
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee Thought He Was Auditioning For A Basketball Movie
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee was fooled even worse than Leung. In an interview with Tyrell Charles, the South Korean actor talked about how when he received the details about the audition, he thought it was a basketball movie, and one month after submitting the audition tape, he came to know that he was working for the role of Uncle Iroh.
He explained:
“I mean I thought it was a basketball movie at first and you know the scenes were really well written. I submitted the tape and thought it was great. I found out I had a call back a month later and thought, “Oh, this is awesome.” I couldn’t remember what it was for and I had to look it up and I saw it’s the basketball movie, but then casting sent me a note saying by the way your character of Howard his real name is actually Iroh.”
He further stated:
“And that’s when the other penny dropped I thought there was only one person named Iroh that I know of on a series so I immediately started to freak out and panic because this was a callback but I was still completely jangled with nerves because this meant so much to me to want to secure this role.”
According to the actor, when he first realized that he was working for the role of Uncle Iroh, he freaked out and got nervous as the role and the character held too much importance for him, and securing it meant so much to him.
You can watch Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix.
