TORONTO — Bailey Bass was a relatively unknown face when she was declared to be the future of James Cameron’s multi-billion dollar “Avatar” franchise among six other young actors, “while going through puberty.
TORONTO — Bailey Bass was a relatively unknown face when she was declared to be the future of James Cameron’s multi-billion dollar “Avatar” franchise among six other young actors, “while going through puberty.”
“It added an extra element of like, what’s going on with our bodies? What’s going on with the world?” recalls 19-year-old Bass, who was 14 during production of “Avatar: The Way of Water,” the latest film in the hit franchise.
“We couldn’t have understood the magnitude of this movie. I was six years old when ‘Avatar’ came out, so I didn’t see the world when ‘Avatar’ came out,” she adds.
The New York native, along with his London-born co-star Jamie Flatters, 22, were among a handpicked group of fresh young faces in 2017 to lay the groundwork for a five-film saga that will last until 2028.
More than a decade after 2009’s original “Avatar” became the highest-grossing film of all time, its sequel is drawing huge audiences to cinemas, grossing over $1 billion worldwide since its release. released in mid-December.
“Avatar: The Way of Water” welcomes audiences to the same alluring alien moon known as Pandora, where a sentient humanoid species known as the Na’vi inhabit the earth while fending off alien human invaders.
Bass plays a graceful freediver from the new aquatic clan Metkayina, while Flatters takes on the role of the eldest son of a family displaced from his native land on Pandora.
Both roles called for the actors to undergo extensive scuba and freediving training to prepare for Cameron’s new aquatic 3D vision – the majority of which was filmed using a motion capture process. underwater performance which increased the realism.
“A lot of people ask us: How hard was it? How crazy must it have been. But we did. I really think we didn’t fully understand what was going on and I’m grateful for that. “, says Bass. . “Because I think then the insecurity and the pressure at such a young age would have affected our performance.”
Bass admits that from his perspective, being in a gray tank often felt like a slightly tougher version of playtime with friends. The fact that she instantly felt a connection with her fellow cast members only added to that feeling.
“The closest relationships we had in the audition process ended up being the people who were cast,” Bass said. “When they took a group of teenagers to Los Angeles to audition, I remember having conversations with Jamie and Phillip Antoine who play Ao’nung, and then we were all cast – tell me that’s not A random.”
Like Bass, Flatters acknowledges that as a first feature film experience, it’s hard to understand the idea of starring in “Avatar 2” and its role in his coming-of-age experience.
“It annoys me how important this movie was to my upbringing growing up, going in a boy and going out a man,” he said.
“We always wanted to be actors, and the fact that the first movie I ever worked on was a James Cameron movie – you can try to explain it in words when people ask, but words don’t will not be missed.”
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on December 29, 2022.
Noel Ransome, The Canadian Press
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