MTV spoke with Jackson Rathbone about The Last Airbender in a new interview.
On the audition…
“It was great. They flew us all out to Philly,” Rathbone remembered of his audition. “I got to meet the other castmembers that they hired on. I got to read with them, even. It was a blast. It was a great chance to get a free trip to Philly and get a chance to meet M. Night. He’s an incredibly nice guy, and I think we hit it off pretty well, and now I get to play Sokka.”
On Avatar: The Last Airbender…
“It’s a fantastic show,” Rathbone said of the Nickelodeon animated series. “I’ve always loved that kind of deep, mythical fantasy. It’s got a lot about the four elements: water, fire, earth, wind. It’s just really cool. It’s a really interesting series and such a cool character. I’ve always liked the show, and I thought it would be fun.
On his hopes…
“For me, it’s a great chance to show my range a little bit more,” Rathbone added, comparing Sokka to his “Twilight” character. “It’s a chance to do something a little funnier. Something less serious than Jasper.”
On the whitewash controversy…
“I think it’s one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan,” he said of the transformation he’ll go through to look more like Sokka. “It’s one of those things where, hopefully, the audience will suspend disbelief a little bit.”
On M. Night Shyamalan…
“I think ‘Airbender’ has a lot of suspenseful twists as a TV show, but I think it’s something he’s really looking forward to, for expanding his own horizons,” Rathbone said. “He has kids. How many films has he made that his kids would be able to watch? So I think it’s really great that he’s making a family film. I have a sister; it’s exciting to make a film that my whole family can enjoy.”
For the full article and to view a video interview with Jackson Rathbone, click the link above.
Tags: Avatar: The Last Airbender, m. night, shyamalan, Sokka, Twilight, whitewash, whitewashed, whitewashing
January 23, 2009 at 10:49 pm |
“I think it’s one of those things where I pull my hair up, shave the sides, and I definitely need a tan,” he said of the transformation he’ll go through to look more like Sokka. “It’s one of those things where, hopefully, the audience will suspend disbelief a little bit.”
Wow. This is offensive beyond the pale.
Sounds like Jesse described YELLOWFACE, which is just as offensive as BLACKFACE, or YELLOWFACE.
This movie should have Asian actors in the lead role. You cannot look at still from the show and say that an all white cast is not problematic.
Imagine if for Harry Potter they cast a boy with blonde hair for the lead? Harry Potter fans would be protesting because his hair color is explicitly mentioned in the books.
Why then, in this case, the issue of the characters’ race being changed brushed aside by the filmmakers as a legitimate problem?
June 20, 2010 at 3:25 pm |
You know it’s people like you DANTE- that keep this world full of racist people. Let’s not forget racism is a LOST CAUSE- no one wins people are fighting about skin color for goodness sake in the end it won’t matter.
As for this movie hell it wouldn’t have mattered if they chose a black person to play Aang and I wouldn’t have had problem with it because I could careless about skin color or how things “should be” as you said the movie should have all Asians in the lead roles. So forget you die hard twat fans who complain about COLOR. Rather the point should be that the cast, the writers, and directors they all worked hard to do a fun adventurous film and that’s all it is. Why don’t you look back two years from now and re-read your idiotic comment here I guarantee you will come to realize that you are in the same dump of alife you’ve always been in despite your crap comments since the day you read Rathobone’s interview here.