Initially in her acting career, Oona Chaplin considered changing her last name to avoid accusations of nepotism. The 39-year-old actress is the daughter of actress Geraldine Chaplin, 81, and cinematographer Patricio Castilla. She is also the granddaughter of silent-screen icon Charlie Chaplin, who passed away from a stroke in 1977 at the age of 88.
Oona, who considered changing her last name after qualifying from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), has occasionally felt “undeserving” despite having landed roles thanks to her well-known entertainment family.
“It’s been a journey to feel deserving, because I know that doors have opened for me that might not have opened if I weren’t associated with this brilliant man,” the Avatar: Fire and Ash star said to The Sunday Times newspaper. “It’s definitely tricky to feel undeserving of the place you’re in.”
But Oona’s perspective shifted from “guilt to gratitude by working really hard and knowing that whatever I do is never going to compare to what my grandfather did.”
One benefit of the Game of Thrones actress’s relationship with Charlie is that more people might discover his films. She said, “If all my purpose in this realm is for people to say, ‘Oh, Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter,’ and they Google him and watch a movie of his, then I’m happy because he’s such a genius.”
Director James Cameron chose Oona over three “movie stars” for the role of villain Varang in Avatar: Fire and Ash because he was struck by her “sexuality,” “dominating psychology,” “fury,” and ability to “move fluidly back and forth between those” in a manner that the others were not.
Oona was ecstatic to try out for James and complimented him on putting her “at ease.”
“There are not many things that would have gotten me out of my treehouse, but a call to meet Jim Cameron definitely did,” she disclosed to The Hollywood Reporter. She said, adding, “It was one of the most surreal moments of my life. He’s one of my heroes – Aliens! Terminator! Titanic! I was very starstruck. But very quickly, he very much put me at ease because he just felt like a kid that wants to play.”
