'We both made the right decisions': These Avatar cast members dropped out of school to realise their dreams

Is the chance to work on one of the biggest film franchises with one of the biggest directors and some of the biggest names in Hollywood worth dropping out of school for?

For these young actors, the answer is a resounding "yes".

During an interview with regional media earlier this month, Avatar newcomers Jamie Flatters and Bailey Bass shared that they chose their dreams over education and made sacrifices to be a part of the franchise.

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Jamie, 22, said: "I just think in terms of what the Avatar process desires from young actors, it's basically to drop your life and then take on these roles. As someone who's always wanted to be an actor, I think that goes for me and Bailey both, we've always wanted to do something like this so we jumped at the opportunity of doing this, but it meant that you get taken away from your schooling.

"I was about to enter university and I didn't do that. But it gave me something beautiful... I needed to read, focus on education in my own time and give myself that sort of moral responsibility, which actually, you could argue school doesn't give you because you're only doing assignments because a teacher tells you to do it."

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For 19-year-old Bailey, she had to drop out of her dream high school but she has no regrets.

She added: "I got into my dream high school, which is a big performance high school in New York called LaGuardia... I actually ended up dropping out of high school completely after filming Avatar just because when you finally get what you have dreamt of your whole life, you got to jump at the opportunity."

Avatar: The Way of Water is set more than a decade after the first film and sees the Sullys — Jake (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), and their kids — travel across Pandora to seek sanctuary among the Metkayina clan after unforeseen events displace them from their home.

Jamie plays Neteyam, the eldest son of Jake and Neytiri, while Bailey plays Tsireya, the daughter of the leaders of the Metkayina clan — Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis).

It's not hard to understand why these up-and-coming actors would sacrifice their studies to join the franchise. Besides Avatar being helmed by legendary director James Cameron, they're slated to appear in Avatar 3 as well — which was shot concurrently with The Way of Water over a duration of three years.

That's two big Hollywood films under their belt and Bailey is aware of that as she shared later in the interview that she is "excited for the doors that are going to open after this movie comes out".

All about family

During a press conference for the film on a separate day, James shared that the inspiration for the sequel came from its leads (Sam and Zoe) becoming parents in the years that passed after the first film.

And that was something that Sam talked about with the prolific director as well.

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"I think Jim was only going to keep telling this story if he could improve where we took this family, where we took the emotion, and what more we can see of the planet... The way that Jim approached it was, well, you're going to have a family and we're going to put that family into more and more difficulty over this saga," said the 46-year-old actor in a separate media interview.

Sam, who has three kids, also drew on his parental nature to embody Jake in this next phase of his life and how he reconciles that fearlessness in him with his instinct to protect his family.

"You use the protective nature that has come from having kids... Jake's still a fearless character. He's still kind of a reluctant hero. But his responsibilities are bigger now. And I think the older you get, the more you realise what's important to you in this world?"

And despite the runtime of the film coming in at around 192 minutes, Sam doesn't think it'll pose an issue as the film is centred around creating an experience that resonates and a story that compels.

He explained: "If a story is good enough, you're going to compel an audience to sit and experience it and that's what we aim for... You don't aim for, when you're making a movie, a certain runtime; you aim for a certain emotional experience for an audience.

"And we've created a story about a family who is forced to leave their home and survive in a world even though they've got domestic issues that are going to be relatable to everybody. It just happens to be in an intergalactic battle.

"Part of the appeal of this story is that we're dealing with really detailed emotions that we can all relate to just in a spectacular kind of movie."

Catch Avatar: The Way of Water in cinemas now.

bryanlim@asiaone.com

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