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Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV
Liv Bridge
The granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin who stars in a new Avatar film has revealed why she wants to ditch her last name.
Oona Chaplin, who stars in James Cameron's latest Avatar film, Fire and Ash, has considered giving up her name to try and distance herself from her famous grandfather.
Chaplin, born in London, England, shot to fame in the era of silent film from his childhood in the Victorian era through to his death in 1977. He was an international star for his screen persona and is still considered to this day one of the industry's most important figures.
Now, Oona has opened up about what her life has been like following in her late grandfather's footsteps, who died before she was born.
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Speaking to The Times, the 39-year-old said: "It’s been a journey to feel deserving, because I know that doors have opened for me that potentially wouldn’t have opened if I wasn’t associated with this brilliant man.
"It’s definitely tricky to feel undeserving of the place you’re in," the actress continued before revealing she almost abandoned her last name after graduating from London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
However, the actress clearly changed her mind as she told the outlet her perspective shifted from 'guilt to gratitude' after 'working really hard and knowing that whatever I do is never going to compare to what my grandfather did'.
"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.”
She gets her name, not only from Chaplin but also her grandmother.
Charlie's fourth wife, Oona O'Neill, the daughter of legendary playwright, Eugene O'Neill, is clearly the inspiration behind her first name.
The actress was born in Madrid, Spain, to English-American actress Geraldine Chaplin and filmmaker Patricio Castilla.
After travelling all over the world, Oona thought she would reside in Cuba for the rest of her days.
As she told the outlet: “I pretty much kind of was practicing quitting acting and I built myself a treehouse in the jungle in Cuba, and I was like, 'I'm going to live here now, so I'm done'."
However, when the opportunity to take on the role of the movie's villain Varang in Avatar came knocking, she couldn't refuse.
“It made me fall in love with acting again,” she said. “It helped me also develop this immense gratitude for my profession and for the gift of telling stories that I'd kind of forgotten about.”
Avatar: Fire and Ash is available to watch in theaters now.