インタビュー | miyako | Schön! Magazine

top. Buneko Cashmere Tales
skirt. H&M Studio
shoes. Saint Laurent
earrings. Pianegonda
tights. Wolford

Embodying the character from a beloved animated series is no easy feat, but Miyako makes it look as effortless as Toph’s earthbending. For season two of Netflix’s ‘Avatar: the Last Airbender,’ Miyako takes on the role of Toph Beifong, aka ‘The Blind Bandit,’ aka ‘The Greatest Earthbender in All the World,’ and she does so with a fervour that translates to the screen. It’s a role of a lifetime, and it’s one that she doesn’t intend to squander — a responsibility that she holds dear. Not only a responsibility to fandom, but also the communities that she’s representing on screen. 

The adaptation is not a one-for-one remake, she explains to us. It takes turns, makes bold choices, but keeps the essence of what makes ‘Avatar’ special. A fan of the animated series herself, she knew that bringing this story to fruition would be a challenge, but a worthwhile one. The plus side of having an adaptation like this is getting to experience the story through a new lens, enriching the world we already know and love as fans. But it’s more than just honouring the fandom and the character of Toph; it’s about shedding light on the AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) community, in addition to the blind and low vision community, too. Putting in the work and meaning it makes all the difference. And Miyako does that and then some.

Chatting with Schön!, Miyako discusses the weight of fandom, what makes their adaptation different from the original, and more.       

top. Samuel Gartner
trousers. Peggy Hartanto
opposite
top. Peggy Hartanto
hat. Uncuffed Leather

Let’s wind the clock back to the audition. What was the time between auditioning and finally finding out you got the role? 

There was a lot of time in between. The thing about auditioning is that you can only control so much; you can only control how good the tape is, especially with the way that we do auditions nowadays. It’s less in person and more taping on a phone against a blank background. Once the performance part is done, you send it off, and you don’t really know what happens to it after that. It’s like putting a letter in the mail. You only know what’s in the letter. You don’t know how or when it’s going to get there.

There was a point where I didn’t hear something after an in-person session. I thought, “Well, that’s it. That means I didn’t get it.” I was getting discouraged about it. Then I was called in to do a session with Gordon (Cormier). I thought, “Okay, one step closer.” Something is comforting in knowing everybody else auditioning is going through the same process as you. You have to trust that you’ve done well enough with the material they’ve given you. Also, for me, a lot of it was putting it out of my head once I was done with it. I feel like I’m one of those people who can get really in my own head about things. I found it more helpful to just think, “It’s out of my hands. It’s out of my hands.” I did the tape. I did everything I could. 

Did you know you were auditioning for ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ right away? Or was it kept a secret? Did they give you a fake scene to read? 

I think it was a bit of both. Jenny Jue, our amazing casting director, and her team put out a little open casting on Instagram. I think it was opening the casting up to people from the blind or low vision communities. She made a little video the other day that’s up on her profile, about the entire casting process. My tapes all the way up until the final thing.

I knew I was auditioning for Toph, and I got the audition from Instagram, but they did give us dummy scenes. We knew who we were auditioning for, but we were also baseball prodigies in the scene. We were training a kid named Sam who was supposed to be Aang. In the scenes for the audition, I remember the character not being listed as blind or low vision. So, part of it was discerning what to do with the script, because it’s difficult, when you know which character you’re going out for, you know what the actual gist of it is. Then, you get a completely different dummy scene. Do I act like I know what character I’m supposed to be playing, or do I just go with the dummy scene? I think I did a take of both. 

jacket + skirt. Peggy Hartanto
shoes. Stuart Weitzman
jewellery. Pianegonda
opposite
jacket. Peggy Hartanto
trousers. H&M Studio

You mentioned that you read a scene with Gordon as well. What scene did you read? 

By the time that I read with him, I think it was the last round of the audition process. Producers and the executives were very real with us about what we were doing. We read the scene in the Beifong Courtyard where Toph is talking about the badger moles. That monologue, we went through three or four times in one session. But when we got to set to film that scene, we were both like, “When will we be done with this? This scene is going to take forever.” 

And then finding out that you got the role, where were you? Who did you tell? 

I was in my home at the time; I was told that I was being asked to do a stunt fitness test on Zoom. I was told that I was going to meet with our casting director to make sure that I could do the stunts. I was in workout gear because I was like, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. What are they going to make me do on a Zoom? They’ve seen that I have limbs, they know that I have a body. So, what’s going on?” And Christine Boylan, our executive producer and showrunner, was on the call and said she’d walk me through what’s going on.

I said, “You’re going to walk you through a stunt?” I was confused. I think the whole time, once she started talking, I was getting the idea. In my head, I was like, “Oh, I know what this is. Wait, if I know what this is, does that mean I’m booking it?” I think immediately after it happened, I laid on the ground for 30 minutes because I was overcome with so many things. For me, this has been a long-awaited fan casting and has now turned into a real casting.

I almost needed everybody to stop for a couple of minutes. I immediately told my immediate family. I was very careful about who I told. I will say, I’m pretty sure Gordon actually spoiled it for me before I got that call. I do remember talking to him. I think we both are on Snapchat. It was either him or his dad who sent me a video or a voice note. He was saying, I have to be patient about it. But the tone in his voice, I was like, “What is going on right?” And then maybe an hour later, I got it. I think he was excited about it to the point where he almost couldn’t contain it. He knew he couldn’t tell me. But he wanted to so badly. He kept saying, “I don’t know, Miyako, you just gotta wait.” I was like, “You’re being weird.”

It sounds to me that he was almost bursting at the seams to tell you. I love that. I’d like to touch on Toph herself. She is a beloved fan-favourite from the animated series. I know that you were a fan of the animated series growing up as well. What did you love about her, and how did you go about making her yours?

I feel like there are so many things to love about her. I really loved her spunk. As a kid, I was always called very sassy. Just generally speaking, I was very sassy. I was always bossy, to be honest, especially as a child. I was very bossy. But one of my favourite traits is her self-assuredness and the way she stands fully in herself. She learns to bend in terms of her stance on things. She learns to be more of a team player throughout the series. With any adaptation, the concern is always how one for one are we going to be? We always went into it knowing we were an adaptation. We’re inspired, but we’re like a remix.

I think for me, I just spent a lot of pre-production time analyzing Toph as a character with our acting coach, Sarah Arrington. We basically broke her down in terms of what she is at her core. I already decided to keep a lot of her traits. The biggest thing that I made a choice to make my own was her voice, because Michaela Jo Murphy, who voiced Toph in the original, had laid down such an iconic way that she speaks. I knew that was going to be something as a fan; I wanted to hear it. I wanted to hear someone emulate them. Our version of Toph is slightly older, and Gordon had a huge growth spurt, so for us, it was finding a place where her voice, the way she speaks, and the intonations and the tone, could kind of mix with mine. I tried to keep as close to the original as possible, while also mixing it with my voice.

top. Lalo Cardigans
earrings. Noritamy

One of my favourite lines is when she calls the Boulder the Pebble, and you delivered it perfectly. You spent six weeks in ‘Toph training camp.’ How did that challenge you, since we’re talking about breaking down to the bare bones? What did those six weeks look like?

The first person I met with was Sarah, our acting coach. Then I met with Joe Stretchay and his assistant. He was our blindness consultant on the show. He’s done many other shows, such as ‘Daredevil’ and ‘All the Light We Cannot See.’ I went into it unsure because I’m not blind. I don’t know what it’s like to be blind. So, for me to go into a character that has such an intimate experience with that community, I was nervous about portraying it accurately, but also respectfully. How do I talk about it afterwards? It’s going to be a huge point of discussion.

He was such a trooper. He came in every day on set. He was at every step of rehearsal. He was there for anything I could possibly need. I learned so much. He was really focused on giving me an education rather than just training me for the role, which allowed me to really take his teachings and sprinkle them in. By the end of the season, and by the end of both seasons two and three, I was so confident to the point where there were things that Toph just did that were a part of her daily routine, and that I thought were interesting to emulate. I tried my best to put them in as much as possible.

What also came from those six weeks was us going into stunts. I previously hadn’t done too many of my own stunts, since, for a while, I was a kid, so I couldn’t really do that. But I remember going into the first rehearsal I had, I was trained by one of our amazing stunt coordinators, and I said, “I’m going to be barefoot.” I’ve already decided that for the show, I will be barefoot as many times as possible. I went into stunt training every day and was not wearing socks or shoes. Joe was also there.

We spent the most time learning the boulder fight choreography, which was our biggest choreography at the time, learning the basic stances of what they’ve determined earthbending to be, and specifically, Toph’s fighting style, which I believe is classified as southern praying mantis.
She has her own very unique fighting style that stems from the earthbending that they’ve taught the other characters. We spent a lot of time just learning basic forms and learning the general hand shapes that make it earthbending. So that way, by the time we got into filming more, we could come up with choreography or smaller things.

They made feet for you as well. How many of those did you go through while training?

Oh, I only wore one. They only made one pair. I have ridiculously small feet. I say that, but I’m a size three in kid’s shoes. I can barely wear women’s shoes. We used one pair throughout the entire season. I think we had doubles because we have two units on our show, one for main filming and then some for stunts. But I never wore them if I had the option, since there are some locations in Vancouver where we’re out there in the mud, and it’s not safe for me not to be wearing shoes.

But even for the scene in episode five, where I’m holding up the library, it had snowed a couple of nights before that scene. So, our director, Amit Gupta, was like, “Please wear your shoe things.” Our costume department was very adamant. It is freezing cold. Vancouver cold is no joke. Then we started filming the actual scene. Part of it was going to be focused on the feet. I was like, “Can I take these things off and I’ll just do it for one take?” I don’t want these crazy things on camera. They were thick, too. Genuinely, I think they made my feet probably two or three sizes bigger than they are.

That sounds so uncomfortable!

They were silicone. They’re jelly-like. When I say I’ve never felt anything like this, I mean, I have never felt anything like this. When I was standing on the floor, I couldn’t feel the ground beneath me. As a principle, of that character, being barefoot, genuinely, helped me a lot. Especially in the beginning, I had the acceptably blocked vision and whatnot. It honestly really helped me get into character and ground me in a space. No pun intended. So, when I wore those feet, they were so strange.

top + trousers. Peggy Hartanto
shoes. Jimmy Choo
hat. Uncuffed Leather
opposite
jacket. Peggy Hartanto

You’ve spoken before about the weight of playing Toph. What does that responsibility mean to you?

To me, it was about representing the communities that I was representing on screen. My AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) community, my people, but also the community of Blindness and Low Vision, who I have immense respect for. Portraying a character, as you said, that’s so iconic, and portraying her accurately while giving her a new spin at the same time is a responsibility I took seriously, since our adaptation is not one for one.

It is a little bit of a remix in certain ways. There are situations and scenes that you don’t see Toph in, in the animated series, that she is a part of in our series. It felt like, “How do I do this respectfully to the communities I’m a part of, but also truthfully to the fans?” And, “How do I, for me, show up to work every day and do work that I am proud of?” It was a mix of all three of those facets.

You’ve mentioned multiple times that the series is not one for one of the animation, but that’s one of my favourite things about it. We’re getting more depth, more insight into these characters with additional scenes. A couple of my favourites were Toph and Sokka at the Poetry Slam. That took me clean out, but it was also a wonderful moment between those two. And then Toph and Uncle Iroh have their heart-to-heart in the tea shop, whereas in the animated series, they meet on the road. Do you have a favourite additional scene?

I am a big fan of the way they’ve done the Spirit Library. Mind you, I will say, I had a logistics issue. I remember going to our writer, Gabe Llanas, and saying, “So explain this to me,” since, as we know, Toph needs her bending to see. In the original series, she doesn’t go into the library, she doesn’t need to. Once we figured it out, it was an interesting and important scenario to see her in, especially her talk with Kiyoshi. That was fun. Putting her in a new environment and giving her a whole new perspective when she holds up the library, I feel like it was a strong move with the writing.

With Iroh and the teashop, it was interesting to have it post the village fight, which means that Toph has already met Iroh. She knows it’s him because of his vibrational signature, and he knows because he’s seen her. One thing that we spent a lot of time on is that they both chose to be strangers at that moment, whether for themselves or for each other. They choose to take each other in just for their story, and just for what they’re telling each other in that moment, which I think is philosophical. It adds a slightly more thoughtful emotional level. It feels more poignant to me. I love that they know exactly who they are, but they’re choosing to be in this moment. They’re actively deciding to see each other as human beings as opposed to enemies. You’ve met with Michaela (Jill Murphy) a few times before.

You’ve both brought your own flavour to the character. When you two first met, what did those conversations look like?

Michaela is lovely. I think that she, like me, is just a real artist. She wants the work that she did to mean something to other people, to be important. With the adaptation and the live-action series, she showed nothing but support for. The first thing she did when my casting was announced was show people how to pronounce my name. She introduced me as the new Toph, and I hadn’t even met her yet. So, when I saw the video, I was like, “Holy shit, what the hell is going on?” Then I met her. We were both at a convention.

I saw her interact with fans. We went to dinner afterward with her and Zach (Tyler Eisen), who voices Aang in the animated series, and Gordon. She was just so sweet. She and I text all the time. She’s a real girl at heart. She’s just a genuinely good person. She just wants people to be impacted by either what she’s done or things that are associated with her. Those early conversations had nothing to do with the show at first, but more about getting to know her as a person.

Lastly, what has been the most rewarding thing about bringing Toph Beifong to life?

I feel like the fan response is always something that I can’t quantify. We have new gen fans who are seeing our version of the show before they even see the animated series. The response to Toph, to the character, to the way we went about her for all her flaws and everything else has been immensely positive. I have people messaging me and commenting everywhere that they appreciate my performance.

The communities I represent have been very positive. I’ve been doing some work with Joe. We went to Wayfinder Family Services, which is an institute and educational facility as well as a living facility for people of the blind and low vision community, but also the disability community in general. I’ve been loving getting to get into the real work, which is the work I do as me, as myself, where I don’t get to play around in a costume for 14 hours. Now I get to go out as me and have a real impact in the world. I feel like it’s been very exciting.

I think I’ve learned a lot from playing her. I grew so much as a person, just throughout the experience of being in her shoes, on a daily basis. Or not, not shoes. She doesn’t wear those, but, she’s helped me open up a lot of things in my head and in my heart.

top + skirt. Lalo Cardigans
opposite
top. Samuel Gartner

photography. Kiu Kayee
fashion. Monica Murillo
talent. Miyako
hair. Remy Moore for The Only Agency using Bumble and Bumble
make up. Akina Shimizu represented by A-Frame Agency
production. Cassidy Cocke
photography assistant. Valentina Berti
interview. Dana Reboe

top. Buneko Cashmere Tales
skirt. H&M Studio
shoes. Saint Laurent
earrings. Pianegonda
tights. Wolford

Embodying the character from a beloved animated series is no easy feat, but Miyako makes it look as effortless as Toph’s earthbending. For season two of Netflix’s ‘Avatar: the Last Airbender,’ Miyako takes on the role of Toph Beifong, aka ‘The Blind Bandit,’ aka ‘The Greatest Earthbender in All the World,’ and she does so with a fervour that translates to the screen. It’s a role of a lifetime, and it’s one that she doesn’t intend to squander — a responsibility that she holds dear. Not only a responsibility to fandom, but also the communities that she’s representing on screen. 

The adaptation is not a one-for-one remake, she explains to us. It takes turns, makes bold choices, but keeps the essence of what makes ‘Avatar’ special. A fan of the animated series herself, she knew that bringing this story to fruition would be a challenge, but a worthwhile one. The plus side of having an adaptation like this is getting to experience the story through a new lens, enriching the world we already know and love as fans. But it’s more than just honouring the fandom and the character of Toph; it’s about shedding light on the AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) community, in addition to the blind and low vision community, too. Putting in the work and meaning it makes all the difference. And Miyako does that and then some.

Chatting with Schön!, Miyako discusses the weight of fandom, what makes their adaptation different from the original, and more.       

top. Samuel Gartner
trousers. Peggy Hartanto
opposite
top. Peggy Hartanto
hat. Uncuffed Leather

Let’s wind the clock back to the audition. What was the time between auditioning and finally finding out you got the role? 

There was a lot of time in between. The thing about auditioning is that you can only control so much; you can only control how good the tape is, especially with the way that we do auditions nowadays. It’s less in person and more taping on a phone against a blank background. Once the performance part is done, you send it off, and you don’t really know what happens to it after that. It’s like putting a letter in the mail. You only know what’s in the letter. You don’t know how or when it’s going to get there.

There was a point where I didn’t hear something after an in-person session. I thought, “Well, that’s it. That means I didn’t get it.” I was getting discouraged about it. Then I was called in to do a session with Gordon (Cormier). I thought, “Okay, one step closer.” Something is comforting in knowing everybody else auditioning is going through the same process as you. You have to trust that you’ve done well enough with the material they’ve given you. Also, for me, a lot of it was putting it out of my head once I was done with it. I feel like I’m one of those people who can get really in my own head about things. I found it more helpful to just think, “It’s out of my hands. It’s out of my hands.” I did the tape. I did everything I could. 

Did you know you were auditioning for ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ right away? Or was it kept a secret? Did they give you a fake scene to read? 

I think it was a bit of both. Jenny Jue, our amazing casting director, and her team put out a little open casting on Instagram. I think it was opening the casting up to people from the blind or low vision communities. She made a little video the other day that’s up on her profile, about the entire casting process. My tapes all the way up until the final thing.

I knew I was auditioning for Toph, and I got the audition from Instagram, but they did give us dummy scenes. We knew who we were auditioning for, but we were also baseball prodigies in the scene. We were training a kid named Sam who was supposed to be Aang. In the scenes for the audition, I remember the character not being listed as blind or low vision. So, part of it was discerning what to do with the script, because it’s difficult, when you know which character you’re going out for, you know what the actual gist of it is. Then, you get a completely different dummy scene. Do I act like I know what character I’m supposed to be playing, or do I just go with the dummy scene? I think I did a take of both. 

jacket + skirt. Peggy Hartanto
shoes. Stuart Weitzman
jewellery. Pianegonda
opposite
jacket. Peggy Hartanto
trousers. H&M Studio

You mentioned that you read a scene with Gordon as well. What scene did you read? 

By the time that I read with him, I think it was the last round of the audition process. Producers and the executives were very real with us about what we were doing. We read the scene in the Beifong Courtyard where Toph is talking about the badger moles. That monologue, we went through three or four times in one session. But when we got to set to film that scene, we were both like, “When will we be done with this? This scene is going to take forever.” 

And then finding out that you got the role, where were you? Who did you tell? 

I was in my home at the time; I was told that I was being asked to do a stunt fitness test on Zoom. I was told that I was going to meet with our casting director to make sure that I could do the stunts. I was in workout gear because I was like, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. What are they going to make me do on a Zoom? They’ve seen that I have limbs, they know that I have a body. So, what’s going on?” And Christine Boylan, our executive producer and showrunner, was on the call and said she’d walk me through what’s going on.

I said, “You’re going to walk you through a stunt?” I was confused. I think the whole time, once she started talking, I was getting the idea. In my head, I was like, “Oh, I know what this is. Wait, if I know what this is, does that mean I’m booking it?” I think immediately after it happened, I laid on the ground for 30 minutes because I was overcome with so many things. For me, this has been a long-awaited fan casting and has now turned into a real casting.

I almost needed everybody to stop for a couple of minutes. I immediately told my immediate family. I was very careful about who I told. I will say, I’m pretty sure Gordon actually spoiled it for me before I got that call. I do remember talking to him. I think we both are on Snapchat. It was either him or his dad who sent me a video or a voice note. He was saying, I have to be patient about it. But the tone in his voice, I was like, “What is going on right?” And then maybe an hour later, I got it. I think he was excited about it to the point where he almost couldn’t contain it. He knew he couldn’t tell me. But he wanted to so badly. He kept saying, “I don’t know, Miyako, you just gotta wait.” I was like, “You’re being weird.”

It sounds to me that he was almost bursting at the seams to tell you. I love that. I’d like to touch on Toph herself. She is a beloved fan-favourite from the animated series. I know that you were a fan of the animated series growing up as well. What did you love about her, and how did you go about making her yours?

I feel like there are so many things to love about her. I really loved her spunk. As a kid, I was always called very sassy. Just generally speaking, I was very sassy. I was always bossy, to be honest, especially as a child. I was very bossy. But one of my favourite traits is her self-assuredness and the way she stands fully in herself. She learns to bend in terms of her stance on things. She learns to be more of a team player throughout the series. With any adaptation, the concern is always how one for one are we going to be? We always went into it knowing we were an adaptation. We’re inspired, but we’re like a remix.

I think for me, I just spent a lot of pre-production time analyzing Toph as a character with our acting coach, Sarah Arrington. We basically broke her down in terms of what she is at her core. I already decided to keep a lot of her traits. The biggest thing that I made a choice to make my own was her voice, because Michaela Jo Murphy, who voiced Toph in the original, had laid down such an iconic way that she speaks. I knew that was going to be something as a fan; I wanted to hear it. I wanted to hear someone emulate them. Our version of Toph is slightly older, and Gordon had a huge growth spurt, so for us, it was finding a place where her voice, the way she speaks, and the intonations and the tone, could kind of mix with mine. I tried to keep as close to the original as possible, while also mixing it with my voice.

top. Lalo Cardigans
earrings. Noritamy

One of my favourite lines is when she calls the Boulder the Pebble, and you delivered it perfectly. You spent six weeks in ‘Toph training camp.’ How did that challenge you, since we’re talking about breaking down to the bare bones? What did those six weeks look like?

The first person I met with was Sarah, our acting coach. Then I met with Joe Stretchay and his assistant. He was our blindness consultant on the show. He’s done many other shows, such as ‘Daredevil’ and ‘All the Light We Cannot See.’ I went into it unsure because I’m not blind. I don’t know what it’s like to be blind. So, for me to go into a character that has such an intimate experience with that community, I was nervous about portraying it accurately, but also respectfully. How do I talk about it afterwards? It’s going to be a huge point of discussion.

He was such a trooper. He came in every day on set. He was at every step of rehearsal. He was there for anything I could possibly need. I learned so much. He was really focused on giving me an education rather than just training me for the role, which allowed me to really take his teachings and sprinkle them in. By the end of the season, and by the end of both seasons two and three, I was so confident to the point where there were things that Toph just did that were a part of her daily routine, and that I thought were interesting to emulate. I tried my best to put them in as much as possible.

What also came from those six weeks was us going into stunts. I previously hadn’t done too many of my own stunts, since, for a while, I was a kid, so I couldn’t really do that. But I remember going into the first rehearsal I had, I was trained by one of our amazing stunt coordinators, and I said, “I’m going to be barefoot.” I’ve already decided that for the show, I will be barefoot as many times as possible. I went into stunt training every day and was not wearing socks or shoes. Joe was also there.

We spent the most time learning the boulder fight choreography, which was our biggest choreography at the time, learning the basic stances of what they’ve determined earthbending to be, and specifically, Toph’s fighting style, which I believe is classified as southern praying mantis.
She has her own very unique fighting style that stems from the earthbending that they’ve taught the other characters. We spent a lot of time just learning basic forms and learning the general hand shapes that make it earthbending. So that way, by the time we got into filming more, we could come up with choreography or smaller things.

They made feet for you as well. How many of those did you go through while training?

Oh, I only wore one. They only made one pair. I have ridiculously small feet. I say that, but I’m a size three in kid’s shoes. I can barely wear women’s shoes. We used one pair throughout the entire season. I think we had doubles because we have two units on our show, one for main filming and then some for stunts. But I never wore them if I had the option, since there are some locations in Vancouver where we’re out there in the mud, and it’s not safe for me not to be wearing shoes.

But even for the scene in episode five, where I’m holding up the library, it had snowed a couple of nights before that scene. So, our director, Amit Gupta, was like, “Please wear your shoe things.” Our costume department was very adamant. It is freezing cold. Vancouver cold is no joke. Then we started filming the actual scene. Part of it was going to be focused on the feet. I was like, “Can I take these things off and I’ll just do it for one take?” I don’t want these crazy things on camera. They were thick, too. Genuinely, I think they made my feet probably two or three sizes bigger than they are.

That sounds so uncomfortable!

They were silicone. They’re jelly-like. When I say I’ve never felt anything like this, I mean, I have never felt anything like this. When I was standing on the floor, I couldn’t feel the ground beneath me. As a principle, of that character, being barefoot, genuinely, helped me a lot. Especially in the beginning, I had the acceptably blocked vision and whatnot. It honestly really helped me get into character and ground me in a space. No pun intended. So, when I wore those feet, they were so strange.

top + trousers. Peggy Hartanto
shoes. Jimmy Choo
hat. Uncuffed Leather
opposite
jacket. Peggy Hartanto

You’ve spoken before about the weight of playing Toph. What does that responsibility mean to you?

To me, it was about representing the communities that I was representing on screen. My AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) community, my people, but also the community of Blindness and Low Vision, who I have immense respect for. Portraying a character, as you said, that’s so iconic, and portraying her accurately while giving her a new spin at the same time is a responsibility I took seriously, since our adaptation is not one for one.

It is a little bit of a remix in certain ways. There are situations and scenes that you don’t see Toph in, in the animated series, that she is a part of in our series. It felt like, “How do I do this respectfully to the communities I’m a part of, but also truthfully to the fans?” And, “How do I, for me, show up to work every day and do work that I am proud of?” It was a mix of all three of those facets.

You’ve mentioned multiple times that the series is not one for one of the animation, but that’s one of my favourite things about it. We’re getting more depth, more insight into these characters with additional scenes. A couple of my favourites were Toph and Sokka at the Poetry Slam. That took me clean out, but it was also a wonderful moment between those two. And then Toph and Uncle Iroh have their heart-to-heart in the tea shop, whereas in the animated series, they meet on the road. Do you have a favourite additional scene?

I am a big fan of the way they’ve done the Spirit Library. Mind you, I will say, I had a logistics issue. I remember going to our writer, Gabe Llanas, and saying, “So explain this to me,” since, as we know, Toph needs her bending to see. In the original series, she doesn’t go into the library, she doesn’t need to. Once we figured it out, it was an interesting and important scenario to see her in, especially her talk with Kiyoshi. That was fun. Putting her in a new environment and giving her a whole new perspective when she holds up the library, I feel like it was a strong move with the writing.

With Iroh and the teashop, it was interesting to have it post the village fight, which means that Toph has already met Iroh. She knows it’s him because of his vibrational signature, and he knows because he’s seen her. One thing that we spent a lot of time on is that they both chose to be strangers at that moment, whether for themselves or for each other. They choose to take each other in just for their story, and just for what they’re telling each other in that moment, which I think is philosophical. It adds a slightly more thoughtful emotional level. It feels more poignant to me. I love that they know exactly who they are, but they’re choosing to be in this moment. They’re actively deciding to see each other as human beings as opposed to enemies. You’ve met with Michaela (Jill Murphy) a few times before.

You’ve both brought your own flavour to the character. When you two first met, what did those conversations look like?

Michaela is lovely. I think that she, like me, is just a real artist. She wants the work that she did to mean something to other people, to be important. With the adaptation and the live-action series, she showed nothing but support for. The first thing she did when my casting was announced was show people how to pronounce my name. She introduced me as the new Toph, and I hadn’t even met her yet. So, when I saw the video, I was like, “Holy shit, what the hell is going on?” Then I met her. We were both at a convention.

I saw her interact with fans. We went to dinner afterward with her and Zach (Tyler Eisen), who voices Aang in the animated series, and Gordon. She was just so sweet. She and I text all the time. She’s a real girl at heart. She’s just a genuinely good person. She just wants people to be impacted by either what she’s done or things that are associated with her. Those early conversations had nothing to do with the show at first, but more about getting to know her as a person.

Lastly, what has been the most rewarding thing about bringing Toph Beifong to life?

I feel like the fan response is always something that I can’t quantify. We have new gen fans who are seeing our version of the show before they even see the animated series. The response to Toph, to the character, to the way we went about her for all her flaws and everything else has been immensely positive. I have people messaging me and commenting everywhere that they appreciate my performance.

The communities I represent have been very positive. I’ve been doing some work with Joe. We went to Wayfinder Family Services, which is an institute and educational facility as well as a living facility for people of the blind and low vision community, but also the disability community in general. I’ve been loving getting to get into the real work, which is the work I do as me, as myself, where I don’t get to play around in a costume for 14 hours. Now I get to go out as me and have a real impact in the world. I feel like it’s been very exciting.

I think I’ve learned a lot from playing her. I grew so much as a person, just throughout the experience of being in her shoes, on a daily basis. Or not, not shoes. She doesn’t wear those, but, she’s helped me open up a lot of things in my head and in my heart.

top + skirt. Lalo Cardigans
opposite
top. Samuel Gartner

photography. Kiu Kayee
fashion. Monica Murillo
talent. Miyako
hair. Remy Moore for The Only Agency using Bumble and Bumble
make up. Akina Shimizu represented by A-Frame Agency
production. Cassidy Cocke
photography assistant. Valentina Berti
interview. Dana Reboe