Meet Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter Oona Chaplin, who plays Varang in Avatar: Fire and Ash

One of 2025’s most highly anticipated films, Avatar: Fire and Ash, has officially hit the silver screen – and it is an epic spectacle.\nThis instalment of the Avatar franchise introduces a formidable new antagonist, Varang, the leader of the Ash People. The character is played by Oona Chaplin, 39, who was picked by director James Cameron over three big movie stars he had in mind for the role, he told The Hollywood Reporter. Though he admitted they were “fantastic”, the Oscar winner called Chaplin’s audition “mesmerising”.\n\n“There’s a sexuality; there’s a dominating psychology, and there’s a lot of fury. There are a lot of layers to what she’s doing there and the forces that are driving her. Oona was able to move fluidly back and forth between those in a way that I wasn’t seeing with the others,” the filmmaker explained.\nSo, who is Oona Chaplin, who called auditioning for James Cameron “one of the most surreal moments of [her] life”?\nWhat’s her background?\n\nIf Oona’s name reminds you of Hollywood icon Charlie Chaplin, that’s because she is his granddaughter.\nBut he’s not the only Hollywood connection in her family tree. Her mother is actress Geraldine Chaplin – Charlie Chaplin’s daughter with Oona O’Neill, the daughter of legendary playwright Eugene O’Neill – while her father is Chilean film director Patricio Castilla.\nChaplin was born in Madrid, spent her early childhood in Cuba, and was briefly based in Switzerland and London. Speaking of her multicultural identity, she told the Golden Globes that it gave her “the great luxury of knowing a great deal, connecting with my heart and with my feelings”.\nWhere have you seen her before?\n\nBefore her turn in Avatar, one of Chaplin’s most prominent roles was in Game of Thrones as Talisa Maegyr, Robb Stark’s ill-fated bride. You may also remember her as Zilpha Geary from Taboo and Maddy from Treason. In 2014, she also appeared in the Spanish horror film Purgatory; two years later, she appeared in the Spanish TV series El Padre de Caín. Chaplin has also worked with her mother, Geraldine Chaplin, on the film Anchor and Hope (2017).\nWhat’s next for her?\n\nWhen James Cameron asked Chaplin to read for the role of Varang, she was far from living the Hollywood lifestyle. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she said she was living in a self-made treehouse in the wilds of the Cuban jungle when she got the call asking her to audition. She jumped at the opportunity to work with Cameron, whom she has called “one of my heroes”.\nGoing forward, Chaplin wants to work more actively. “I’ve been really dedicated to being a mum for the past two-and-a-half years, and I didn’t want to work. I really hope that this part [of Varang] can lead to more jobs,” she mused.\n