Ian Ousley: The Brain of the Operation

^{Shirt Dior, Pants + Jacket Aknvas, Shoes Adieu}

Ian Ousley brings sharp timing, physical instinct, and plenty of heart to Sokka, the non-bender who becomes one of Team Avatar’s most essential forces. Off screen, Ousley’s world is just as layered, from fashion and vintage design to martial arts, weapons training, and a very committed approach to cactus juice. As Avatar: The Last Airbender enters its next chapter, he opens up about why the story still matters, how Sokka finds his strength, and why sometimes the greatest power might simply be getting your enemy’s socks wet.

Editor-in-Chief Kelly Mi Li @kellymili
Photography Steve Limones @stevelimonesphotography
Fashion Director Benjamin Holtrop @benjaminholtrop
Creative Direction Aleksandar Tomovic @alekandsteph
Movement Director James Burke @jameslukeburke
Video Alberto Gonzales @alberto_filmdirector
Photography Assistant Nick Ahmet @nick_amet
Fashion Styling Assistants Emily K.E. Johnson @emilykejohnson & Welsh @awelch.ingram
Social Media Tesia Kuh @thefirstthree.co
Production Assistants Lizzie Mansour & Aisha Dandia
Location The London Hotel West Hollywood @thelondonweho
Special Thanks to Mei Coble & Netflix

Do you enjoy fashion?

Yeah, I love fashion. I have been into fashion since I was about 15 years old. I had an internship with a professor at FIDM, actually, and I was designing my own stuff.

I was doing a clothing company with a few of my friends. At that time, when I was 15, the vibe was definitely inspired by what got me into fashion, which was sneakers and streetwear, like hoodies and stuff like that.

More recently, I did a clothing company with a couple of my friends about two years ago, and that was a lot more high fashion, inspired by true vintage clothing. Stuff from anywhere between the 1890s and the 1970s. We actually had a couple of our clothes in a music video for Kendrick Lamar, the “Not Like Us” video. It was pretty nuts.

Do you have a favorite outfit that you wore during the last press tour?

I love Celine, so I was wearing a lot of Celine during the last press tour. I love Hedi Slimane, so for this press tour I was wearing a lot of archive YSL from when he was creative director there, some Dior, and some archive Raf stuff.

For someone who has never seen Avatar, if they asked you why they should watch it, what would you tell them?

I would say because it is one of the best animated shows of all time. I rarely meet somebody who did not see it as a kid, so if they have not seen our show, they have to come back and revisit all of those themes.

You do not understand how deep and how fun the show is. When you are watching the animated show as a kid, you do not even realize it, but it is about genocide, political power, hope, found family, and how to persevere through crazy things happening in the world. I do not know about you, but I feel like it is a good time to watch a show like that.

Sokka is the only non-bender on Team Avatar, but he becomes one of the most essential people. What does that say about him?

He is just different. He is built different. He does not need the powers.

From a story perspective, it means that he is the voice of the audience, which is a cool element, pun intended, to his character. It is a big struggle for him at first. He is so against all of the magical powers and is not into it, but as he goes through the journey of being with Katara and Aang, he sees how much bending can help the world and how it actually needs to save the world.

He embraces it and becomes more of a planner. He has always wanted to be a combat master, the most alpha version of himself. In a way, he does become good at combat because he is around Katara and Aang, who are fighting the Fire Nation all the time, but he realizes that his strength is really engineering, planning, and being the brains of the operation. On top of that, he is also good at improvising when things go wrong, because as we know, things do not always go according to plan.

You have a taekwondo background. Did any of that actually come in handy?

It came in handy when I sent my action reel and self tape. They were probably like, “Wait, that might be helpful. We will not have to get a stunt double as often.”

They asked for it in such a vague way because everything was under a code name, and we did not know what we were auditioning for. I was sending videos of myself doing tricking, flips, martial arts, and even skateboarding because they just asked for any kind of movement or action.

It was cool to be part of a show with so much martial arts. My background is specifically in weapons. I have a world championship in weapons, which was a huge jackpot for me because Sokka has all the weapons. He has the boomerang, the war club, spears, and later in the animated show, space swords.

What is one skill you can do now that you could not do before the show?

I learned every single kind of bending, which was 100 percent necessary. It was not 100 percent necessary, but it was a ton of fun.

They were calling me the Avatar by the end of boot camp. I knew air, I knew earth. I am joking, but it was fun to learn. They created and molded different martial arts with fantasy to make our version of firebending, earthbending, airbending, and waterbending. I was in boot camp with the rest of them for season one, learning what those roots were and how to portray them. Obviously, I never used any of that, but I learned it all, and it was really fun.

If you could pick one bending power, which one would be the most useful in real life?

It is a real toss-up between earthbending and waterbending.

For earthbending, if you see a big hill, you can immediately make an elevator from the ground, and now you are on the same level as the hill. You can get a view at any time. That is very handy.

For waterbending purposes, let’s say you have an enemy or a really annoying coworker near the water cooler. Waterbending straight to the socks, and they have no idea what happened. So it is a real toss-up, but everyone is getting wet socks on set. That is all I am going to say.

What is cactus juice?

It is like a state of mind in a long way. What do you mean, what is cactus juice? You do not know?

I heard you were really excited about filming that scene. Did you pull any specific references for it?

Yes. I was watching that scene religiously. I was having nightmares. I would wake up screaming “cactus juice” every other night before the scene.

There were lots of insults that Sokka is throwing out. One of my favorite things was Toph being a mushroom. I threw that out there. I do not think it made it, but it was almost like a trauma response.

I cannot even remember how much of that stuff I was pulling or what made it, to be honest, because I was really sick that day on set. I was lying on the ground for the scene, and I kept tilting my head back over the pillow, and my whole vision would go black from top to bottom. When you are that sick, you know what I am talking about. So I really felt like I was on cactus juice or something else. I was struggling, but I watched it, and I think the fans will be happy.

Which castmate is most likely to prank someone on set?

Me, by the way. I am not even going to front.

Who is most like their character in real life?

Gordon.

Who is the most gullible?

Gordon, by far. By a long shot.

Who is the most competitive?

I think we are all really competitive, to be honest. But sleeper pick, Kiawentiio.