Ian Ousley

Ian shares the lessons learned in honing his craft, both as a martial artist and as an actor. He is more than familiar with harnessing emotion and channelling it into both productivity and creativity. He craves an expansive life, both professionally and personally. He wants to travel, change perspectives, and be challenged. And playing Sokka in Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action has certainly been a beautiful challenge, but one he handles with great care and respect.

Ian knows that fanboys make the best adaptations. When we talk about his experience bringing Sokka to life, he admits he did not sleep most nights when he first got the role, being very aware of the responsibility of diving into a world with an existing avid fanbase. He was once one of those fans and grew up watching the animated show. His enthusiasm for the universe beams through the screen when he talks about meeting kids who are dressed up as Sokka and dissecting storylines and theories together.

Avatar: The Last Airbender Seasons One and Two are available to stream on Netflix.

Do you have anything that you’re obsessed with or obsessing over at the moment?
Rest. [Laughs]

That’s a good one!
I've been travelling. Travel is my thing. I was just in New York, and then went to Indiana to see my dad, then Madrid, then Poland, and then back to Madrid. I’m seeing the world while I'm still in my 20s and trying to get some life experience under my belt. Every time I travel, I learn things about people that change my perspective. Everyone’s just going through the same set of issues, and everyone does life pretty much the same, just in their own style.

When you’re in a creative industry, your personal and work life tend to become quite enmeshed; you’re often working with your friends, so it’s always refreshing to take a step back. I have a lot of journalist friends, and we will think something is a huge deal, then talk to someone from a different industry, and it really forces you to check your ego a bit. I have friends who are essential workers, and they always help me put things into perspective.
A hundred per cent. That's the perfect example. As an actor, your job is to portray humanity at its most authentic, whether that be in the most fantastical of circumstances, like Avatar: The Last Airbender, or a stripped-back indie film. You're completely consumed with your industry because people care so much about it. I'm always trying to get away to refocus on what really matters and have those anchors.

Did you always want to go into acting? What was the spark that led you down that path?
I did Taekwondo since I was eight and started competing at nine, so a lot of my life was not very normal from that point. I competed so often that I ended up being homeschooled so I could travel more. A talent scout in College Station, Texas, where I'm from, spotted me and invited me to audition for an open call before I even knew what that was. 500 kids auditioned for this class, and I was one of the 30 they took. That was a big change from Taekwondo, where two of the eight competitive events involve fighting each other with your body and a weapon. The other six are performance-based; you are trying to tell a story about war with your body, and three adults are looking at every single thing that you do. When you're done, they don’t say, “Man, that was a really great job!” It's like, “Out of nine, that was a four.”

Do you think that gave you thick skin going into acting? You were so young and already in a position where your performance is being judged, and physically, you develop a lot of control and body awareness.
I think there are two parts to it. In a casting room, you're being judged; they aren’t giving you a score in front of you, but you can get a sense. But I also think that I've always been really flavourful with my personality, so I think they saw that and were like, “Oh, he's a weirdo.” I had to work really hard to win a [Taekwondo] world championship, but for years that was the only thing I cared about. I would say that was my thing. Acting was a complete shift. But my career progressed naturally from a recurring guest role to a bigger role and then a lead role. I’m very grateful for that trajectory; I had time to learn. When I found acting, I was like, “I love this. I can’t stop thinking about it.”

What was the biggest thing you took from your life into acting? And on the flip side, what did you learn through work that you have applied to your life?
The philosophy that I follow in acting is putting [yourself] in the most intense imaginary circumstances and then living them out through who you are. That means you have to bring everything into every role. It's not the easiest to be vulnerable in front of other people. In Texas, that was not necessarily encouraged or discouraged. But in acting, it is the superpower. I was like, “Oh, I have a lot of emotion that often feels destructive that I've never been asked to harness for something creative,” and at 14 years old, it was a great time to learn to get those feelings out.

Now, let’s focus on Avatar: The Last Airbender. The animated series was a really big part of a lot of people's childhoods, mine included. I binged it again a few years back when I got my wisdom teeth out; it was my post-op treat. Were you nervous to take something on that already had such an established fanbase?
Yeah, of course. I couldn't sleep most nights. I'd wake up saying a line, like “water tribe!” I also grew up loving the show. It’s what made the experience for all of us special from season one. Everybody understands the responsibility of the world we're trying to build.

There’s always something to be gained when you’re a fan of the work that you’re doing as well.
100%. It's the balance between nerding out and adding to [the story and the universe]. The animation is freaking perfect, I would argue, so you want a reason for doing this again in a live-action setting. There is real importance to watching these characters go through [issues that are] prevalent now, like genocide, and seeing them deal with them in fantastical worlds, but in a more real way than the animated version. You know that Aang is really twelve in the first season of our show, and all his people just got wiped out. That hits differently when you're seeing a real kid go through it all.

As you said, the live action is a little bit heavier and grittier than the animated version. What aspects of Sokka’s character benefited from that darker mood?
What was hard about adapting an animated show is that you can't lose the levity. If you lose Aang being a kid who's had to take on the role of saviour of the world, then you've lost what makes Avatar: The Last Airbender special. In season two, we got to dive into Sokka's relationship with Yue, but also his complicated relationship with Suki, which I always wanted more of from the animated show, watching as an adult. We got more time to explore those emotional arcs. He hasn't ever had to [deal with things emotionally], not because he doesn't have the emotional intelligence to understand what's going on, but because it's been his superpower to ignore that when he had to take care of his sister and the village.

How has the reception been from existing fans? Did you feel a level of responsibility in introducing the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe to a new generation?
The most special part of my job is meeting kids at a convention dressed up as Sokka. That is the coolest thing in the world because I relate to once being a kid and loving the show. I have met people who started the animated series after watching the live action. I love to nerd out with the fans; those conversations really enrich the fanbase, and we hadn’t had new content in a while.

What are your dream next steps career-wise?
I would love to be challenged; I think that’s all you can really ask for when you’re trying to build your career. I really try to emulate and consume surrealist and stylised work. I think of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s relationship as they built their careers. That’s what I’ve been looking for. I want someone who understands that weirdness and can also create a world that brings out extravagant human emotion. I think Robert Pattinson is a genius in how he’s pivoted; Colin Farrell, Jim Carrey, Willem Dafoe - those guys are absolutely transformative. I have also always loved DC, and I think James Gunn is one of the most exciting things to happen in big IP in a long time. He’s so creative; I’ve loved the new DC universe. I need him to make a Teen Titans movie; I want to play Beast Boy.

Perfect, we’ll manifest that for you!
Thank you, prayers up! I just finished my first feature film, The Avoidant, and am really excited about that!