Qwhen someone like James Cameron tells you that you are the main dishyou can’t help but believe him. And start equipping yourself for what’s about to happen to you. Oona Chaplin has the right genes and had time to prepare for almost everything. Grandfather was Charlie, mother Geraldine, grandmother from whom he took his name, Oona O’Neill, daughter of the playwright Eugene. And the first announcements recording Oona Chaplin among the new entries in the saga date back to 2017, with Avatar-Fire and ash (after the 2009 progenitor, almost 3 billion dollars grossed and the sequel Avatar: the way of water of 2022, there are 3 more chapters in the pipeline, which will take us up to 2031).
Neither The Simpsons they involve such a long-term commitment. But for the thirty-nine year old from Madrid (her mother had settled in Madrid in 1965 after filming there Doctor Zhivago), a past of studying in London on the stage of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada), the prospect of being on the dance floor for over five years is not reduced to a time card to punch.
His character changes the cards on the table, brings a shadow to the blue kingdom created by James Cameron’s imagination and by an army of technicians: the Sully family, which we left at the end of chapter 2, mourning after the death of their son Neteyam, killed in the war with the “Sky People” (warmongering humans) still lives with the Metkayina clan in the picturesque coral reefs of Pandora. Varang, the character played by Oona Chaplin, she belongs to their species: she is a Na’vi, but from a rival clan. His world isn’t blue, it’s grey and she rides a terrifying creature called the Night Wraith. The land of the Mangkwan, the Ash Peoplewas devastated by the eruption of a volcano, the harmony with nature that regulated the life of the Na’vi was translated into hatred and resentment.
Varang (Oona Chaplin). Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
The dark side of the Na’vi.
Her character is a furious leader. Do the Ash, the ash people, represent the dark side of the Na’vi?
They are very different from the Na’vi we have known and loved. They come from a place that was devastated by a natural disaster, their connection with Eywa, the divinity of Pandora, was interrupted, they felt betrayed, abandoned at a time when they invoked her asking for help, so they turned their backs on her. Varang is a very powerful, sharp, enthralling, scary leader. He understood how to turn his own fury, the fear and resentment that his people feel into fuel for the fight. Ash are vigorous fighters, because mourning gives crazy energy. Up until now we have been in the blue world of Pandora, the Ash add many shades of gray to that world. They add complexity, a perspective that was missing, a very human perspective.
When Sally (Sam Worthington) in the film says to his wife (Zoe Saldana) «Baby, you can’t live like this, in hate», she clearly speaks of our present. A long time has passed – it was 1940 – since his grandfather Charlie imagined, directed and played Adolf Hitler, in The great dictator: cinema, even when it’s entertainment like Avatarsnever stops telling the world.
Absolutely! Cinema evokes great and universal themes and when it is good cinema it talks about things that affect us all. My grandmother used to say «Everywhere in the world beans are cooked»: we are all the same, we are one despite our differences. The power of James Cameron today and of my grandfather then is to choose stories that can reach the human heart.
Varang (Oona Chaplin) in Avatar. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
She is a citizen of the world, she speaks many languages, she is European, but she has spent and will spend a lot of time in America linked to this project that seems infinite. How do you see the path you have taken if you think back to when you worked in Spain or studied at Rada?
I had an incredible life, I traveled a lot when I was younger, I experienced different languages, cultures and societies. English is my third language after Spanish and French. I have a hybrid accent, before I had a very American accent, but the years spent at the Rada have produced a real metamorphosis. I have developed a knack for making a home and feeling good everywhere. I also spent a lot of time in Switzerland and Cuba (Oona’s father, the Chilean cinematographer Patricio Castilla, was a prominent political activist and the first person to ask for political asylum in Cuba, ed). Then I became a mother, now I live off the land, in a community, we grow crops, we have chickens, my life is very different, my roots are going deep into the land, they are truly local, no longer international, I am a fan of everything local. Because I think that what is local finds solutions for global problems. But I also often find myself in North America where I never imagined I would end up.
Oona Chaplin: “Tribalism is localism”
The ecological message of Avatars is consistent with his life choices…
It is the greatest gift, that a mega Hollywood production like this can touch my heart as deeply as a little folk tale would. I see history through the eyes of the Na’vi, I did when I was just a spectator and I do it now that I am inside this gigantic machine. The questions the film asks are enormous: where does grief end and anger begin? When the pain is so strong that it leads us to disconnect from reality and the separation becomes unbridgeable and we become monsters?
His character’s look has a tribal element.
I don’t see it as a bad thing. Tribalism is localism. You dress with materials that are available in your environment. It’s something we’ve lost. We think that tribalism brings with it the idea of conflict, it means that there is one gang opposing another gang. But that’s not the case. For me tribalism means: you are your culture, that is, the food you eat, the language you speak, how you dress, what you sing. In essence, tribalism is about the world around you, the place you are in. What is around Varang is a gigantic cemetery of the world to which it once belonged. For her, those costumes, those colors with which she paints her body are the representation of the way her environment has become and how she has accepted the transformation. He chose not to try to heal his sick world, he welcomed it. We are like this: we all put on different armor depending on the battle we fight, if we go shopping or if we go to a film premiere.
James Cameron and Oona Chaplin on set. Photo by Mark Fellman. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
What armor will she put on for what awaits her? There will be a lot of attention on her from now on.
I’m getting ready. James has been telling me this for a while: «Get ready, because this time “you are the thing”, you are the strong point. Of course you won’t be alone, all the characters we know will be there, but you are the fresh meat.” I am doing psychological preparation, to be intact and honor the work we have done, together with my colleagues, and not to betray the memory of my ancestors.
What did her offspring give her?
My mother is one of the wisest women to ever walk this earth. Her wisdom lies in her originality, she is truly herself. It never ceases to amaze me. And she is a kind woman, she has a great sense of humor and a lightness that leads her to laugh even at herself. She was a great example for me. I try to do it too, to laugh at myself whenever I can.