- 2 hours ago
The cast of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" featuring Gordon Cormier, Kiawentiio, Ian Ousley, Miyako, Dallas Lui, Elizabeth Yu, with writer Christine Boylan and director Jabbar Raisani, give us some inside spoilers on Season 2 (& 3!) on the live-action Netflix series.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00how cool is it to lightning bend it's so freaking cool dude it's probably one of the
00:05coolest things i'll ever get to do is it better than finger guns you think
00:17ian i want to start with you because two of my favorite lines in the animated show ever are
00:21it's the quenchiest and when he does a little water tribe thing of those two lines which was
00:26the most fun for you to perform oh wow uh well briefly the story behind the first one uh the
00:34the quenchiest was um i was deathly ill that day i was like so so sick and so i literally
00:42felt like
00:42i was on cactus juice or something else to the point where i was like tilting when i would like
00:48lay down and put my head under the rest of my body like my vision would start to go black
00:53drink cactus juice it'll quench you nothing's quenchier it's the quenchiest that was less
01:01fun to film but i was very excited for that moment and i was very prepared for it so i
01:06was excited
01:06for that but me and gowindio actually got to work on the the water tribe thing like a lot and
01:12we
01:12loved that moment in the original animated series hey i got my eye on you water tribe
01:20the other element from the animated show that i was so happy to see make it in this and even
01:25though it's the most heartbreaking is when appa goes missing and toff is holding up the library
01:30so miyako i was wondering what it was like for you to perform that moment while she's holding up
01:34that building and oppa's being taken yeah um so that that whole scene was shot on a what's called a
01:41second unit day which means that i was only with our stunt performers i was not with any of my
01:44other
01:44actors and during that scene um i realized not a lot of people know this we shot in vancouver and
01:51it had snowed a couple nights before we went to go shoot at that location so the floor was freezing
01:56but i was really really happy with how that turned out you know i'm only going off of sound
02:01for what's going on with oppa and that set is entirely practical so where you see my hands go into
02:07the rock that was made of foam that they cut for me so i could actually put my hands on
02:11the wall
02:11the wall shook the wall sank um so it was really fun for me to get to like actually do
02:17that um and
02:18not have to do a lot of imaginative work in like a serious way and to have something that really
02:22put
02:22my full force into i definitely was like my voice was definitely gone the next day because of all the
02:29like yelling and uh efforts from keeping the wall up but that was like such an iconic moment that i
02:35was
02:35so happy to be a part of and also get to be a part of the actual spirit library itself
02:39as well
02:41well it was a good try really no i've seen two-year-olds hold their ground better gordon
02:47what was it like for you to perform the the grief that ang has to go through when when that
02:52happens
02:53and how does that situation change ang i feel like it was just it was a lot of preparation i
02:58feel like
02:58it took because like over the past like few years or at least it took to like shoot season one
03:04then our
03:05break and then starting to shoot season two i've just been building this relationship with oppa so
03:09when all of that got taken away it actually wasn't that difficult to imagine how heartbreaking it was
03:14because i've already established how much ang loves oppa like it truly is his best friend and the only
03:19thing that he has left so when that one thing got taken away from him it wasn't too difficult to
03:24tap into
03:25the rage it was just like definitely required preparation but the preparation almost did itself
03:30because the way that we shot the show and how we shot the show so i just lost it on
03:34mia just like
03:35taking out every single little bit of anger on top i think the first two reactions they got on camera
03:40were my genuine ones because i wasn't prepared for how into it he was gonna go i don't know if
03:46that's
03:46the sake we ended up using but i remember the first two i was genuine like don't look too surprised
03:50don't look too surprised yeah no like i didn't i didn't know where it was gonna go i just i
03:55knew that
03:55like i was staying away from everyone the whole day i was getting in it i was really feeling
04:00this anger and then i guess it just exploded the first two takes and poor toff's just over here like
04:06oh my gosh it's amazing i mean this whole season rocks you guys i loved it so much and season
04:12two
04:12is like my favorite season of the animated show show so thank you so much for taking the time
04:16sincerely it means the world that i got you yeah thank you so much it was great talking to you
04:20hi guys it's so nice to see you hello hi riley dallas i have to start with you because i
04:24have a
04:24question i've had haunting me since i was about nine years old which is like why do you think
04:31zuko decides to go with azula at the end of season two instead of against her because that's blood
04:38that's family bro are you joking me could never switch up on my sister
04:44um no i i think it comes down to um the trauma that they both experienced although zuko had a
04:53a very
04:54um you know intense conversation with katara prior um she wasn't there and so i think when azula
05:02comes to zuko with this vulnerability it's the first time he's probably ever seen in his life from
05:09her and i think he takes it partly because he cares about his sister partly because
05:16bro just wants to go home and he misses it elizabeth this is also a question i've had since i
05:20was a child
05:21but how cool is it to lightning bend it's so freaking cool dude it's probably one of the
05:26coolest things i'll ever get to do is it better than finger guns you think
05:32they're kind of equal i feel like oh just like also having the nails and then doing the two-figure
05:38lightning bending that is so there's something that just clicks in my brain yeah that i'm like yes this
05:44is this is very azula she's here i feel her her presence yes yes and what's the difference in
05:50terms of performing fire bending versus lightning bending i feel like fire bending just in terms of
05:57like movement i feel like fire bending you kind of ignite a bit more and i i think lightning bending
06:02i
06:03think iroh says that it's it's kind of derived from water bending a little bit it's like a mixture
06:07between the two it's more of an energy flow whereas instead of like a spark being lit um
06:13lightning bending you kind of like have to like slowly conjure up that lightning and then you can
06:20shoot it out yeah it is such a like wild form of energy that it really requires so much focus
06:27where it feels like fire bending you can kind of just let loose right just go crazy and then i
06:33would
06:33love to ask about a change that happens between the animated series and this series with iroh's
06:38song with leaves from a vine i loved how it was portrayed in this even though iroh didn't sing it
06:41how did you guys react to that that moment when you got to see it on screen for the first
06:45time
06:45that man that scene in the og always makes me cry without fail like every time i watch there's always
06:51tears yeah and i i think with all due respect to mako um i i think this is what happened
06:59but like it
06:59was a choice obviously you could kind of hear the animated series mako voice playing over that
07:07without actually needing it which was so beautiful in itself i'm kind of glad that uh paul was so on
07:15board with that um in that scene because he's he's phenomenal yeah i can't go wrong with paul
07:20happy birthday my son
07:24if only i could have helped you how hard is it to act mean to paul when he's playing iroh
07:31it's really hard it's really hard it's like because he is like my real life uncle you know and i
07:39think
07:39he's gotten to know me so well and watch me grow up obviously none of it will be you know
07:46taken
07:46personally but when you it's like working with any one of your friends um you gotta commit to the
07:53character and commit to their character as well what did it mean to zuko to have iroh call him a
07:58good man in this season because that like took my breath away when he said it ah i think zuko
08:02has
08:03been wanting to hear a good man but also didn't know that he needed to hear that i think it's
08:09one
08:09thing for zuko to be cold to be told you're a good soldier but i think it's different if he's
08:16told he's a good man and i think ultimately you know as a young man trying to grow up and
08:23become
08:24an adult that's all you can really ask for is you know am i doing the right thing and i
08:30would love to
08:31ask you guys about the parable of the dragons that comes into play this season and in zuko's fever
08:36dream he like sees the two dragons does that also kind of play into the dance of the dragons that
08:40we
08:40could see in season three when it comes to zuko and ang's relationship maybe who knows
08:57that was super fun though when i first read that script it was kind of like a mind f like
09:03it was
09:03like whoa okay we're going we're going into it and realizing that this parable is a representation
09:09for azula and zuko and then kind of takes that switch at the at the end of season two now
09:16that
09:16she is going to bring zuko back to the fire nation the blue dragon turns into ang and not missing
09:22the
09:22opportunity to defeat that enemy which i thought was just so so cool and how they implemented the
09:28dragons into this whole plot yeah i remember asking her like okay who is what dragon and what's
09:35happening why yes it was it was it's a very complex monologue and she did a wonderful job with it
09:40but i
09:40would love to start with a change that that surprised me the most which was that the desert wasn't included
09:45in this in this season i was curious if you guys could chat a little bit about why that decision
09:49was
09:49a few things one there's no desert in vancouver that was one production reality production realities
09:57we did make a very conscious choice to shoot in real locations real elements real um you know
10:05building real sets and locations and indoor outdoor sets and stuff like that when we decided that the
10:12first uh act of the season was going to be a bit of a road show and then the rest
10:19was going to be
10:20bossing say it felt natural to bring this into the story of bossing say as a character that is a
10:27city
10:28that's built by earthbenders and that is a city that is the last stronghold in the earth kingdom and
10:34they keep expanding and expanding and expanding so why wouldn't they run right into the natural world and
10:40take over that area where the spirit library is you know is buried so that's that's sort of how we
10:49how we got there creatively which i thought was pretty fun and we were not going to be able to
10:55go shoot in
10:55a real desert but i like the idea of showing what what the reality is of living in a city
11:02like this
11:03during a war looks like it used to be the wilderness uh the empty space and now it is part
11:11of the city
11:11because the walls right bend outwards there's a fire nation army just beyond the wall
11:22yeah and i think just we love the animated series so much there's things that need to adapt to be
11:28included otherwise they just can't be included at all yes things like like hey we love this so much
11:32we're going to protect it by evolving how it can be contained within our story yeah there was no way
11:38we're going to skip the spirit library that's things that that work much better in animation
11:43that we were like we're not even going to touch this and certain things that in the animated series
11:47were like oh in live action i think we could explore this a little deeper so then we would pick
11:52those things up as well how do you guys decide where you're going to move moments when you're
11:56deciding to adapt this and like in this case move a location like putting the cactus juice moment
12:00at a ball instead of out in the desert it's all about the character growth arc it's for for us
12:06like
12:06um in the writer's room uh first you know a few weeks you put everything you love on the wall
12:13every single scene you want to see every single moment everything you love and we went you know
12:19season one what were there things we we didn't do season two season three anything we want to bring
12:24up or whatever just having it all in mind also the novels um quora other things just what feeds the
12:32world then we go to characters and it's like okay what feeds ang's arc what works best with sokka's
12:39journey and one of the things that we constantly repeat is that growth is not a straight line
12:44growth is up and back and down in ways it's something the animated series did really well
12:49we wanted to make sure to expand that especially when there's real live actors involved to every
12:54single character so hopefully everybody has this growth arc over the three seasons um so that cactus
13:03juice moment fit where sokka needed it most i thought it was fantastic i thought it was it was
13:08wonderful the other change i like love that jet went into the library i was curious great yeah i was
13:14curious why you decided to put him into that scenario and how it kind of changes his redemption arc in
13:19this
13:19show versus what happens in the original that is where jet needed it most frankly and in it's also
13:25where guitar needed it most i mean you know jet and zuko are often kind of compared as like foils
13:31to each
13:32other you know zuko has uncle iroh for better or worse jet doesn't have that but jet does have
13:38katara katara is setting an example um so to put the two of them sort of unlikely and abrasive uh
13:46together in that area he gets to go through that whole arc emotionally in front of us yeah i think
13:55with jet sacrifice we really wanted to earn that you know you want that emotional release at the end
14:01and i think that puts that story you know right in the library you've got to get that that duke
14:07story
14:07what happened to duke and what really you know drove him off that edge and what pushed him away from
14:12the freedom fighters because you don't really know what's going on with jet until that moment like
14:17oh that's why he's he's like this now we missed him from season one and season two but all those
14:22characters live and breathe in that off-screen time and i wrote monologues for him in season one where
14:28like he talks about losing his parents and he becomes the dad to all these kids and then he loses
14:34these kids and it's like of course he's messed up right yeah getting to hear all that and then
14:41realizing that the duke's helmet is still in the spirit library it's like the things we do live
14:46on in ways we don't even know and i think that changes his heart i love that the white lotus
14:52got
14:52introduced this season why do you guys want to introduce it now and what are you excited to
14:57explore more of in the in the next season with that without any spoilers for season three i think
15:01you'll get to see a little bit more white lotus familiar faces coming back together but also
15:06that is part of of iro's heart you know and this is part of season two iro we made a
15:14choice to not
15:15have iro like completely you know finished he's fine he's perfect we wanted to see more growth for
15:21him as well you know growth arcs are not just for if you're 15 or 18 or 20 it's we're
15:29all going
15:29through it all the time we should all be going through a growth arc at all moments so we wanted
15:34to
15:35see your eyebrow go through some stuff too the question is how much are you willing to lose
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