#visual tales

BIBI XIA: Hi fellow Texan! How was growing up in Texas and when did you move to LA? IAN OUSLEY: I love LA and have been here since 2016 when I was just 14 years old. I grew up in College Station, Texas, which as you know is a city built for college students. While most people come from Houston or Dallas for college, it’s a different town when you’re growing up in it. People who grew up there wanted to do team sports like football, but I took a very different path because of my asthma, and being in the grass was terrible for me. This led me to do Taekwondo at 8-9 years old because it was an indoor solo sport. School was very competitive and I knew I wanted to take a different path than going to college. So I took the non-traditional route of an indoor sport, noncompetitive with academics, and then transitioned into an artist career path here in LA.

BX: I’m sure you’ve been asked a lot of the same questions regarding Avatar, so something more specific I had in mind is if you could water bend in your everyday life, what would you use it for? IO: It’s a hard question to answer because in the show, they are at war, and it’s hard to think about applying it in everyday life. Water bending is cool because you can heal people with it. If I was one of the only water benders I’d probably go into medicine. Or, I can just become the most wealthy entrepreneur in the water slide business and open up Schlitterbahns left and right.

BX: What was your most memorable scene from the show and why? IO: I would say the most memorable scene as an audience would probably be the Avatar Kyoshi scene. I especially liked how she showed up when Katara and Zuko were fighting, and how she just appeared. What was yours? BX: Same! That scene was so memorable, that I hit replay as soon as it was over.

BX: Who is most like their character and who is least like their character and why? IO: I think Gordon is most like his character in real life, he’s just this very goofy and energetic kid off-screen. The least like their character is an easy answer because Zuko is this person consumed by power and anger, while Dallas in real life is an angel and a softie.

BX: Would you say you’re similar to Sokka? IO: I think there are a lot of similarities between me and Sokka. We both love humor and use it as a tool more than part of our personality. Luckily both my parents are still in my life and that does fundamentally change. Sokka lost both of his parents and has such a big responsibility to take care of a village. So we are different in that we went through different life experiences even though there are similarities. 

BX: Do you find it more challenging to portray someone more similar to you or very opposite to who you are? IO: I prefer portraying a character that’s vastly different from my own personality. When you’re acting and you have different circumstances to portray that are further away from your own, you have the opportunity to really build out a character. I do a lot of prep before doing something, it’s important that the characters have their own physicalities, their own ways of reacting to things, and ground themselves. I’ve not had a role yet where those characteristics are similar to mine. It’s less vulnerable when you’re not being compared to your character in real life. 

BX: Is there a role or character you’d like to play someday? IO: I’m really looking forward to playing a villain or something fantastical like a creature or motion capture. My number one role would be to play Beast Boy. 

BX: Speaking of Beast Boy, how was the hair and makeup process on the set of Avatar? IO: I was so lucky, my process was fairly short. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I get a haircut, and that was 30 minutes in hair and 30 minutes in makeup. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, it was only 15 minutes for hair, and all that was to center the ponytail. Most of the other cast members had a lot longer time like Dallas had spent at least 2 hours every day to get prosthetics for his character.

BX: What was your favorite costume and weapon on set? IO: Costume-wise, it’s definitely the warrior outfit with the chainmail and shoulder pads. Weapon-wise, I really liked the boomerangs and we had it made in various materials. I really liked the aluminum version and enjoyed playing around with it. I have a world championship in weapons for my martial arts. The war club I had was also really heavy on the top and light at the bottom so it was an interesting feel. 

BX: What are you most looking forward to for Seasons 2 and 3? IO: I’m most looking forward to being back with the fam, my co-stars. There’s a different bond you create with people when you’re doing a project together and building a shoulder-to-shoulder interaction instead of face-to-face. We’re all focused on a goal and moving towards that thing, it feels almost like being in a team sport. I’m also looking forward to reading the scripts and specific scenes from the show and how they will mix and evolve the characters. I hope that they incorporate more humor for Sokka.

BX: You started a fashion brand with your friends, KALÓ SOIL. Can you tell us about the inspiration and process of creating the piece you wore to the premiere?  IO: The inspiration behind this piece was white ravens. They’ve been a very important part of my life for the last year and a half. Ravens mean the provisions of God, and the concept of the white raven is a very glorious and triumphant raven. We were inspired by the layers and pleats that represented the raven and we used a lot of different textiles and textures for the piece. We had 7 crosses on the leather sashe and 7 represented the number for perfection.

BX: What’s next for KALÓ SOIL?  IO: It’s been such a beautiful opportunity to work with my business partners. They are really amazing creatives in designing and creative directing. We’re starting to do collections and our goal is to do a runway this year.

BX: Do you have any upcoming projects? IO: I’m working on a short right now with director Tony Tanchney and we’re really excited about it but I can’t tell you too much about what it is. It’s very different from the characters I’ve done before, so it’s interesting to see the contrast. But after that, it will mostly be Avatar for the next two and a half years.