Thalia Tran Unveils Her Journey as Mai in Avatar: The Last Airbender

[00:00:00] Thank you for joining me today in Pop Culture Unplugged.

[00:00:13] I'm happy to be here, thank you for having me.

[00:00:15] Exciting times that we're going to show on Netflix.

[00:00:17] How's your life been so far last week, week and a half?

[00:00:20] It's been crazy.

[00:00:22] I haven't an event later today.

[00:00:24] And yeah, it's just been the best type of crazy.

[00:00:27] You know, this is the type of crazy that you dream about because you're doing things

[00:00:30] you love and you get to do all these things surrounding it.

[00:00:33] And I'm just really excited and really happy for everybody involved.

[00:00:37] So we're going to jump into the show in a few minutes and everything too, but I was

[00:00:41] doing some research on you about your career and everything.

[00:00:44] Now you started acting at a young age.

[00:00:45] What made you get into the industry?

[00:00:47] Well, we'll push you.

[00:00:48] Yeah, so I actually started out at an even younger age in music, like not super professionally,

[00:00:55] but I was always drawn to creativity and art.

[00:00:59] And I did a lot of singing and playing instruments, and my vocal coach introduced me to my current

[00:01:06] acting coach because he thought acting would help my performance skills just overall.

[00:01:11] And ever since then, you know, I've just really fallen in love with acting.

[00:01:15] And I'm like, this is what I want to do.

[00:01:16] And so I told my parents and we started going to workshops and oh my gosh, I made them

[00:01:21] drive me up to LA so many times.

[00:01:23] And I'm so grateful to my parents for putting up with that.

[00:01:26] But yeah, it's kind of been a whirlwind and ever since then, you know, I've been doing

[00:01:31] what everyone does, right?

[00:01:32] auditioning auditioning auditioning and I've been very fortunate to have landed many wonderful

[00:01:37] really wonderful roles that I absolutely adore and I've gotten to work with really great

[00:01:41] people.

[00:01:42] What's been your parents' reaction seeing you now on TV and film and everything you've

[00:01:46] done?

[00:01:47] Yeah, I haven't asked them too much about that.

[00:01:51] That's a good question.

[00:01:52] I should probably ask them after this.

[00:01:54] I know that, you know, they're like pretty much the only ones who see the amount of work

[00:02:00] that I put into this whole thing and they put it so much work as well whether that be

[00:02:07] driving me, getting me materials, right?

[00:02:11] Doing self-tapes with me.

[00:02:14] They haven't put in like, I would say equal effort just to get me to where I am.

[00:02:19] And so when they finally get to see my effort really come to fruition in terms of seeing

[00:02:25] me on the screen and seeing my name come up in credits, I think it is fulfilling for

[00:02:31] them as well because you know, our team ever finally paid off.

[00:02:35] And we get to really see that come to life.

[00:02:37] Now do you still dabble with the music still?

[00:02:40] You're just like 100% now in the acting.

[00:02:43] You know, I have never released music professionally.

[00:02:47] I think music is something for me that's always been very personal and for my own enjoyment.

[00:02:54] And so I definitely still do that.

[00:02:55] I don't think that's something that I will ever stop, you know, I sing like every day

[00:02:58] and it's something that I really enjoy.

[00:03:01] And I think that in the future, I might consider releasing music but I think for now

[00:03:09] I'm still in a place where I'm focusing on my acting mainly but I'm still writing songs

[00:03:14] and still singing, I'm still doing those lessons.

[00:03:17] And it's something that's really fun for me so I don't think I'll ever stop that.

[00:03:20] Would you ever want to do a musical?

[00:03:22] Oh my gosh yeah, I would love to do that is one thing.

[00:03:25] Yeah, I would really love to do like a musical movie, a musical stuff like that because that

[00:03:30] really can combine my love for acting and music and I feel like that is the both of them.

[00:03:36] Where do you like some of your acting inspirations or like role models that you look up to?

[00:03:41] Yeah, I mean, I feel like growing up, I didn't have a whole lot of necessarily Asian actress

[00:03:50] role models that I could look up to.

[00:03:52] I know because when you're young and you want to play like oh, I want to play someone

[00:03:56] so as younger version.

[00:03:57] And I'm like, I don't know who looks like me.

[00:03:59] I don't know who I can play the younger version of but after seeing you know, special about

[00:04:07] course, Chris Rich Asians like that type of stuff where it's like really big scale Asian

[00:04:13] projects and you're like this is you can really see the tide's changing right in front

[00:04:18] of you even if you're not involved in those projects.

[00:04:20] And I think that was really inspiring for me.

[00:04:22] You know, I really felt a shift in the industry because even from the beginning of my career

[00:04:28] to where I am now there's been a huge shift in the types of roles that I can audition for

[00:04:34] and you know when I started out in my career, when I would go to take headshots they're

[00:04:40] like but your look, your look, I don't think you will go out for like main character roles,

[00:04:45] lead roles, blah, blah.

[00:04:46] Your look just realistically speaking, you're going to go out for the nerd.

[00:04:51] And I was like oh okay but realistically speaking, this is also just not a very realistic

[00:04:58] career.

[00:04:59] I did like headshots to do everything and yeah, I can take some headshots like that but

[00:05:05] I think it's been my parents who have been really inspiring me to like go out for all

[00:05:10] the roles and believe in myself that I can play roles of stereotypes.

[00:05:14] And in terms of like specific role models you know, I really loved you know Lana Condor

[00:05:21] and you know to all the boys I love before and all the rest of her work is also really

[00:05:26] wonderful.

[00:05:27] She does a wonderful job of transforming into her characters and playing really light characters

[00:05:31] as well as darker characters and I really loved that and Cape Lenshet, she's marvellous,

[00:05:38] plain and bottom Carter, she's just magical and yeah, I don't know, I went off with

[00:05:45] Hannah, I went on to Hannah there but yeah.

[00:05:47] That's okay.

[00:05:48] Do you have like a dream role that you want to maybe hopefully get in your hands someday?

[00:05:52] Yeah.

[00:05:53] What are you always dream about?

[00:05:54] I mean this has to be like a dream role for me as well of being an avatar but I really

[00:06:01] love fantasy.

[00:06:03] I love, you know, I mean I grew up as like a huge atla or avatar Harry Potter and Percy

[00:06:11] Jackson fan and you know, I just love all those worlds where it really just takes you into

[00:06:16] a whole different universe and I would really love to do more fantasy projects like that

[00:06:22] like this and you know, I would love to do, I feel like every actor says this but like

[00:06:28] superhero is like at least once in a lifetime right?

[00:06:31] Like you get to like do something like that where you get to it's just such a different

[00:06:36] from real life and it really is on another level and I really, I feel like doing everything

[00:06:42] kind of and having a varied career where I get to play a variety of roles and get to explore

[00:06:49] different aspects of humanity and get to be myself, get to be other versions of myself,

[00:06:55] get to be things that are completely different by myself.

[00:06:56] I think all of that is just really appealing to me.

[00:06:59] You mentioned like a superhero, how about a villain would you ever want to do that?

[00:07:02] Yeah, as I, you know, I think it's interesting because well, I guess because we're my characters

[00:07:08] in Fire Nation so like technically we're the bad guys and you know, I think I would really

[00:07:14] love to play a villain, you know, I think a lot of people don't necessarily see me

[00:07:17] as that in real life which is good.

[00:07:21] But I think it's fun to get roles where you know, you tell your friends and they're

[00:07:27] like super surprised.

[00:07:28] Like really?

[00:07:29] You're playing that?

[00:07:30] I feel like that's super fun because you're like yeah, I get to play something that's

[00:07:32] super different for myself and like that's, I get to do acting like that's what we do.

[00:07:37] Yeah.

[00:07:38] That's awesome.

[00:07:39] So yeah, let's jump into your role now as my, did I read somewhere you get an originally

[00:07:44] goal for this role at first?

[00:07:46] Did you go for a different role?

[00:07:47] Yeah, I did.

[00:07:48] I went out for, because they were under code names so I could only decipher it in retrospect.

[00:07:54] I was like, oh, wait, that's the role I was auditioning for like Suki and then I also auditioned

[00:08:00] for Tileee right before auditioning for May.

[00:08:05] And at the time they had completely different names.

[00:08:07] I don't remember the codename for Suki but I remember that Tileee was Tara or Tara or

[00:08:13] whatever.

[00:08:15] May was Molly and so I was like, wait a minute.

[00:08:19] These characters are very familiar and especially once I was like, I didn't know they were making

[00:08:25] it a live-action adaptation of this.

[00:08:26] So I was kind of, I didn't even know that was a possibility until I looked into I was like,

[00:08:32] no, this is really like real.

[00:08:37] So you did say no clue that you were going in for pretty much the last airbender.

[00:08:42] When did you realize that?

[00:08:43] When did you realize this was going to be a live-action?

[00:08:46] It was a little later into the process.

[00:08:51] I think it was like by the, I don't even remember, I feel like twice.

[00:08:56] It's been a while.

[00:08:57] I think it was before my callback that I had where I got you like meet with Albert and

[00:09:04] everybody and I think at that point they had already seen my materials because of my other

[00:09:08] characters but I got to kind of meet with them, chat with them and they were all super

[00:09:14] nice and warm and friendly.

[00:09:15] And I was like, I really want to work with these people and it happened and I'm very,

[00:09:21] very grateful.

[00:09:22] Now were you most excited that you got the role of May or are you like, did you kind of

[00:09:27] want to get the other roles at first?

[00:09:30] You know what?

[00:09:31] I hadn't formed an attachment to any particular role if anything I'd form a attachment to

[00:09:36] project because especially once I found out what it was, like it is such a blessing just

[00:09:40] to be able to be involved in a project like this with people like this.

[00:09:46] I'm great.

[00:09:47] I'm really, really grateful for my role and I think my role in particular for me has been

[00:09:52] such a wonderful challenge in certain aspects and something that I really, I think is just

[00:09:59] perfect for me.

[00:10:00] It came into perfect time in my life for me and yeah, I think Tylee, I know a lot of people

[00:10:05] say in real life I give like Tylee energy but Momona, Tamaata who plays Tylee does such

[00:10:11] a wonderful job embodying that and I'm like she is just so perfect for that.

[00:10:16] And this has just been so different for myself that I just really love it.

[00:10:21] What's been like your experience playing this character?

[00:10:24] How does that make you feel?

[00:10:26] Oh, it has made me feel so many things.

[00:10:30] It's been really exciting I think overall it was, it was really interesting to, it's a new

[00:10:36] process for me watching the cartoon with an eye for I'm going to be doing that.

[00:10:42] So you know with my previous projects, the previous series I did Council of Dads was based

[00:10:48] on a book however my character it was kind of based on as opposed to imitating a character

[00:10:57] from it because my character was nilapop because it was, it's new.

[00:11:02] So when you got new material, you have no expectations regarding that and you're not

[00:11:08] really trying to be somebody or trying to imitate somebody else's work.

[00:11:12] For this I wouldn't say I'm necessarily trying to imitate Cricut's work, Cricut who voiced

[00:11:18] the original May but I would say that I'm trying to take some of what she did especially

[00:11:23] in terms of her voice and the demeanor of the way the character was drawn.

[00:11:30] And I'm trying to bring that to life in a way that still feels grounded in reality

[00:11:35] and very real for me and that was really, really fun.

[00:11:41] How did you like approach it?

[00:11:42] You mentioned the voice.

[00:11:43] People want to know like how did you approach the process like finding the voice in my

[00:11:47] voice?

[00:11:48] A lot of sounding really odd.

[00:11:50] Like, ah, like get my voice.

[00:11:54] I feel like right now my voice is a little bit raspy from the yelling I've been doing.

[00:12:01] Don't worry guys it's just, yeah don't worry.

[00:12:05] But yeah I feel like her voice has that rasp to it and it's also placed a little bit lower

[00:12:11] so I knew I wanted to bring my voice down because especially when I'm excited my pitch

[00:12:15] goes up.

[00:12:17] But being a singer you know we play with pitch and range a lot and I felt pretty comfortable

[00:12:24] in my lower ranges especially now.

[00:12:28] But yeah lowering that pitch bring a little bit more air into that like so it can get breath

[00:12:34] to your sound and then introducing some like the rest into it.

[00:12:38] I think that was really like kind of a concoction if that makes sense.

[00:12:44] And yeah I think it was a playing around with it because I know a lot of the other actors

[00:12:49] as well.

[00:12:50] You have to be able to do the voice while also making it feel natural for you otherwise

[00:12:54] you're just so focused on doing a voice and trying to imitate somebody else that you

[00:12:59] lose yourself in that and you can't really be present while you're filming the scene

[00:13:03] and that really just takes away from everything.

[00:13:06] I don't want to talk to me spoiler screener because people are still watching this series but

[00:13:09] we have a couple of scenes with you with a little knife flip in everything.

[00:13:14] How did you learn that or before we're going on set that you have like any practice.

[00:13:17] Like tell us about the process of that.

[00:13:19] So I have martial arts experience however I'm not experienced with weapons in particular.

[00:13:25] So when I got there I was very up front with them like I do not know how to handle weapons

[00:13:31] like my dad collects knives but I am not throwing them at people so what's what are we going

[00:13:39] to do here and the wonderful stunt training team was like oh no we got you covered so

[00:13:43] they taught me how to do that knife flip.

[00:13:46] It was really fast like it was about like 15 minutes before we started shooting and I was

[00:13:51] like guys I need somebody help me and so they taught me that and they're like if you can't

[00:13:56] do it that's fine we're just not going to have a knife flip or anything of the sort in

[00:14:01] this episode and I was like no no no I really want to do something with my knives just

[00:14:06] because it's such a large part of her character and it just speaks so much to her story even

[00:14:13] if you know we don't get a lot of scenes and stuff like that I think that's a really crucial

[00:14:17] part to include.

[00:14:18] So he was like okay okay I can figure something out and so we were just staring there we're

[00:14:24] watching them set up the cameras I'm like okay quick quick quick quick quick I have to learn

[00:14:27] how to do this and now I was just practicing over and over again I'm like okay and I was

[00:14:30] really nervous when I got on to the volume I stepped up to the volume and I was like okay

[00:14:33] I have to deliver my lines do that correctly and then I have to make this knife flip look

[00:14:39] at least somewhat natural and yeah I mean it worked out so I'm grateful for that and

[00:14:47] thank you to the camera people at the set team and everybody else for making that look good.

[00:14:54] So I believe in the animation your character we don't see her till like the second season

[00:14:58] of that right?

[00:14:59] Yeah yeah.

[00:15:00] You're right away into the first season of this if we see a season two do you hope you

[00:15:06] get more fighting scenes now in season two?

[00:15:08] Oh my gosh yes I'm looking so towards those fighting scenes because you know originally

[00:15:14] in this season we had a fighting scene although it was not like yeah it's not like a

[00:15:20] crucial part of the plot so you're not guessing on the scene anything but we had a little

[00:15:25] fighting scene and it was kind of like a practice scene where you see me and the girls we're

[00:15:32] just training and that was super super fun and we got to go to stunt training for that

[00:15:39] and I want to do more stuff like that because it really was fun and you know we had our stunt

[00:15:46] doubles and I think because of the nature of our clothing it was well that wasn't adjustment

[00:15:51] we have like those pointed boots and we have layers and layers of clothing so like learning

[00:15:56] how to move in that was really interesting because that was really different from stunt

[00:15:59] training.

[00:16:00] We're like okay we got this down there oh no you've got to do it in the clothing in character

[00:16:04] and all of the stuff we were okay okay this is it's a it's a really fun challenge.

[00:16:09] So also with your character too like in the animation like what do you think first of

[00:16:13] like what do you think of like my future going forward you think like a relationship with

[00:16:17] Zuko kind of like the animation or you think you're gonna try to spin it off do something

[00:16:20] different what do you think?

[00:16:22] Well then of the day I'm not a writer so I don't really have control over the narrative

[00:16:28] here however um and do you know like that is a significant part of the story I think

[00:16:34] especially into book three.

[00:16:37] So um you know fingers crossed we can't that far.

[00:16:41] I do believe that the writers are aiming to be faithful to the the source material in

[00:16:46] terms of overall character arcs and while you know certain plot elements might be intertwined

[00:16:51] in order for time purposes and others like that I think overall we're still going with

[00:16:55] the original character arcs at least from what I've been told but we'll see right um

[00:16:59] British restaurant season two and when I get those clips we'll see what happens and

[00:17:04] I'm excited.

[00:17:05] Yeah.

[00:17:06] You mentioned challenges earlier too with my like what do you think was like how did you

[00:17:09] overcome some of these challenges for this character that you played?

[00:17:12] Yeah I think it was also like reflecting on myself and the way that I express myself.

[00:17:21] I feel like I have tendencies to be very expressive and very happy like when I interact with people

[00:17:30] especially because that's just you know you get positive feedback from that like people

[00:17:36] respond well to that when you're growing up and so this becomes a part of who you are

[00:17:40] that's why I look environment plays such a large role in the way that you turn out and for

[00:17:46] May she gets positive feedback when she is not showing a lot of emotions when she's quiet

[00:17:53] she's well behaved and that's why she turned out the way that she turned out so understanding

[00:17:57] the differences in the way that we were raised and the differences in our environment and

[00:18:01] how that played a role in the way we express ourselves and I think to do not just I didn't

[00:18:09] want her just to be just deadpan because at the end of the day that I think she's still

[00:18:15] a human like not I think she is still a human and you know we have emotions and even if you

[00:18:21] appear deadpan you still have all those human emotions underneath so that is something

[00:18:26] really interesting to explore because at the end of the day we are you know connected by our

[00:18:30] humanity and we express ourselves differently but it's all there and we have to connect like internally.

[00:18:37] The last airbither has the fan base is huge I mean there's like forums and Facebook pages

[00:18:44] that's like what's been like the reaction from the fans now seeing a live show for the

[00:18:53] from the animation. I think it's just been like a lot of people and from all over the globe too

[00:19:00] I did not expect that and I really appreciate all the people who have been sending like love and

[00:19:06] support at these times and I know that there are people out there who who have troubles with certain

[00:19:13] aspects of the way things are portrayed because that is the nature of the way things are going to be

[00:19:18] when you adapt such a beloved work of art and you know this is something that they've really

[00:19:24] connected to and they they're really attached to that version of this and you know at the end of

[00:19:29] the day we are a different version of it. We're not going to be exactly that and we were never

[00:19:33] trying to be exactly the original but I we made this for the people who can appreciate you know

[00:19:41] a new iteration of this a new version of Avatar for you know a new generation as well and

[00:19:47] and yeah I really want to thank people for the love that they've given.

[00:19:53] Last question Avatar what's been like your favorite moment throughout all this?

[00:19:58] Ooh that one's difficult. I would say when we were actually karaoke that might have been my

[00:20:08] favorite moment just because like in that moment it was kind of like realizing about all the wonderful

[00:20:14] people I got to be surrounded with and you know and I really loved I really loved working with

[00:20:20] these people and it was kind of like that kind of just sunken and we got to just have fun

[00:20:25] and that's what we were really doing all day on set. We're just having fun and

[00:20:30] and yeah we all got to be together and that was with me although I think a close second has to

[00:20:36] be sneaking through some of those sets because that was fun. We got to go where do we go? They were

[00:20:43] like half built. We got to go into like some of the Fire Nation sets and we got to see like the

[00:20:49] green screens and oh my gosh they have so much cool stuff because I hope there's some like behind

[00:20:53] the scenes footage of this because it was so cool and I think everybody deserves to see that.

[00:20:58] Easy, amazing. So what's next for you now? Any other projects that I've felt about that you're coming

[00:21:02] out or you're working on? Yeah I mean I feel like ever since you know we had this act strike last year

[00:21:09] I feel like ever since that I've actually been much more involved in music composition than I

[00:21:14] had been before because before that you know you're just going audition after audition after

[00:21:19] audition and then filming and all that stuff and it gets busy and there's 24 hours in the day

[00:21:25] but with that sex strike I was like okay well what can I do in this time? What do I want to do

[00:21:31] with my time? Creatively what's going to be fulfilling for me if I can't be auditioning right now

[00:21:35] and music just you know it's always there for me and so I was like I think I want to take some

[00:21:41] time with this and I did and I wrote some more songs and I'm still working on some songs and stuff

[00:21:46] like that and yeah I really am considering like dropping music some day I just don't have a timeline for it.

[00:21:55] Yeah, there you go. Tell you how come the listeners and the fans of the last year are going to find

[00:22:00] you on social media to keep up with you for hopefully soon we hear about a season two where can they find you?

[00:22:07] Let's see if I can remember my okay my Instagram handle is

[00:22:12] THALIA underscore underscore TRAN so my first I'm first name I just go on a score my last name

[00:22:21] all right from there you will in my bio you'll see my user names for my other platforms because

[00:22:27] I don't remember those at the moment I should probably learn those so that I can tell people but yeah

[00:22:34] that's awesome tell you how I'd thank you for giving me a few minutes today there's

[00:22:37] something great hope through here about a season two and then we can get you back on and

[00:22:39] continue on about your character and everything else. Yeah, I do wonderful yes thank you