Charlie Chaplin's Granddaughter Has Grown Up To Be Gorgeous
Charlie Chaplin wasn't exactly known for having good looks, but his granddaughter has turned out to be a real stunner. Oona Chaplin earned her big break as Robb Stark's strong and smart wife, Talisa Maegyr, on HBO's hit Game of Thrones, followed by a role as Zilpha Geary on FX's Taboo. The actress is a fearless performer and a gorgeous human who comes from Hollywood and literary royalty, so let's learn more about her.
She's extremely well-traveled
According to the Independent, Oona was born in Madrid to actress Geraldine Chaplin and Chilean cinematographer Patricio Castilla. As a child, she spent half the year in Spain and the other half in Switzerland. Her first language is Spanish, but she also speaks French and English fluently. Oona attended the Gordonstoun Boarding School in Scotland at the age of 15.
Because both her parents were in the movie business, she spent a lot of time traveling the world, visiting exotic locals such as Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Cuba. As she told the Independent, "I think that's the way it should be—being from millions of different places and traveling–it's the best education."
She comes from a super famous family
Oona's mother, Geraldine, is a very prolific film star perhaps best known for her role in Doctor Zhivago. Her father, cinematographer Castilla, reportedly fell in love with Geraldine when they were both working on the same film. While these two got together in the '80s, they waited decades to wed.
"They just got married about five years ago, but they've been together for a very long time and they're still in love — like, madly in love," Oona told Biography in 2015. "My dad gave up his career for my mom and became her one-man army. He sews her socks and replaces her t-shirts and writes quick emails and turns on the TV for her, runs her bath, puts the champagne in the freezer, all those things. They are so in love, and it's beautiful to me. I have it as an example, and that's what I aspire to in my life."
Oona's maternal grandmother is Oona O'Neill Chaplin, fourth wife of Charlie Chaplin. Grandma Oona was a famous socialite who actually dumped famed author J.D. Salinger for the much older Charlie.
"For me, it's always been a massive inspiration...my mother, my grandfather, my great-grandfather — they are just constant, healthy reminders of what one should strive for, of giving your everything to create lasting work, spreading love," Oona told Biography.
She loved being on Game of Thrones
Oona was very enthusiastic about her role on Game of Thrones, and for good reason. Not only did she Tweet prodigiously about the series, but she was vocal about how fun it was to act alongside (and kiss) co-star Richard Madden (Robb Stark.) She also forged a close friendship with co-star Natalia Tena (Osha,) as evidenced from numerous Twitter and Instagram photos. Alas, Oona's character meets a grisly fate in Season 3 that we still need therapy to process.
She was almost a Bond girl
In what was one of her first roles, Oona landed the part of Perla de las Dunas Receptionist in the 2008 Bond flick, Quantum of Solace. She was actually gunning for the larger "Bond girl" role of Strawberry Fields, but she lost out to Gemma Arterton, who happens to be a personal friend of hers, according to the Independent.
Oona took the lesser role in stride, saying that she enjoyed shooting her "minute and a half of glory," referring to herself as "a glorified extra," who "brought in a beer and then I got sort of half raped and then I ran away." She added, "It was a fun five days."
Um, what? Sounds better than "The Red Wedding"...maybe.
She's generous
Oona worked with Help Refugees UK to relocate refugees in France's Calais "Jungle" to a safer area in 2016. Help Refugees is an organization committed to providing "emergency aid and vital services to those affected by the global refugee crisis." Oona protested, along with other stars, to keep the camp open, but the French government wouldn't allow it and bulldozed the area.
She's a spicy dancer
Oona told the The Telegraph that her perfect weekend includes "salsa dancing in Vauxhall" in the Cuban salsa room until 4 a.m. "I've been salsa dancing since I was a toddler," she said. She also took ballet as a kid, but quit after she was told her, uh, behind was too big.
Years later, she appeared on three episodes of Married Single Other as a Brazilian cage dancer, so she got to show off some of her skills. As recently as 2014, Oona showcased her sultry dance moves in a Molotov Jukebox video.
She's not afraid of 'taboo' subjects
Oona appears alongside Tom Hardy in FX's Taboo, a story about a man (Hardy's James Delaney) and a woman (Oona's Zilpha Geary) who happen to be half-siblings and love interests.
In an interview with Nerdist
, Oona said, "I think that it comes down to every aspect of our lives. How do you feel about looking into the toilet and looking at your s***? Because we're all full of s**t. The show really revels in that, and I love it because of that." She called Hardy a "real hunter for truth."
Hardy also produces the show and reportedly thought up the script with his father.
She'll appear in the Avatar sequels
Though her turn on Game of Thrones marked a huge shift in her career—she refers to it as "a defining point in my life"—Oona's biggest career commitment yet has to be her signing on to the next four installments in James Cameron's epic sci-fi franchise, Avatar. According to The Hollywood Reporter, most of the details regarding the films are still shrouded in mystery, but it has been reported that Oona "will play Varang, a strong and vibrant central character who spans the entire length of the installments."
Oona has kept relatively mum about the blockbuster franchise as well, but in an October 2017 interview with Film School Rejects, she did say, "So right now in Avatar, it's crazy. People are just so creative and so happy to be going to work every day. There are challenges and there's freaking difficult s**t that you need to deal with and computer stuff that nobody understands except some genius, but people believe in the project so there's a lot of energy moving through that set."
She never wanted to be an actress
Given her mother and grandfather's success in the business, it seems like Oona's eventual move to the silver screen would have been a foregone conclusion, but she insists that following in her famous family's footsteps was not her intended path.
"I thought it wasn't a real job," she told Channel 4. "But it was thanks to the history of my family, and maturing enough to be able to see the social value that it has, that changed my mind."
"If I'm in a project, maybe whatever I do doesn't inspire people," She continued. "But maybe they look me up — speaking of technology — and maybe they see who my granddad was, and go and watch one of his films, or one of my mum's films, or read one of my great granddad's plays. To encourage that curiosity so people may rediscover those great storytellers — that's good enough for me."
That said, it took her a while to come around. She even spoke about being embarrassed to play "her grandfather's famous little tramp in a school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream," telling the Independent in 2011, "If I was asked to do that today I wouldn't."
Oona eventually abandoned her original post-secondary plans, which were to major in "politics and broadcasting," and chose to attend the famed Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) after sending in her application on a whim. "I said if they take me at RADA I'll do acting, but only if they take me at RADA ... and they did. I was f**ked," Oona said in her colorful parlance.