Avatar: The Last Airbender Toph actress speaks out amid controversial Netflix casting
Instagram:miyacechToph, the actress from Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender, speaks out for the first time following controversial casting.
Despite the first season of the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender receiving mixed reviews, Netflix has already greenlit the series for two more seasons, the second of which was recently confirmed to have finally entered production.
Alongside the announcement that work for the second outing is ramping up, Netflix officially confirmed that beloved character Toph would join Aang and company for season two. They also announced that Miya Cech would be taking on the role.
Cech is a huge up-and-coming actress who, at age 17, has already built a huge following and starred in multiple TV shows, films, and other projects.
However, the news of her casting has been met with huge backlash online, with fans of the beloved animated series slamming Netflix for not casting a visually impaired actor.
In the animated series, Toph’s unique and revolutionary Earthbender skills stem from her visual impairment, her acute sense of touch allowing her to feel vibrations through the Earth.
As part of Netflix Geeked, a new X post was uploaded to the official Avatar: The Last Airbender account in which Cech spoke out about her casting as Toph for the first time since it was announced.
In the video, Chec revealed she “grew up watching the animated series” and has watched it ten times from beginning to end. Furthermore, the actress admitted that Toph was always her favorite character and that “as soon as the casting notice came out, l begged my team to please get me an audition.”
She wrapped up by stating that she “hopes to do Toph justice and play her well.”
As well as uploading the new video, the Avatar team also addressed the controversy surrounding not casting a visually impaired actress, revealing that Cech has been “working with a producer and consultant, who is blind and a professional from the blindness community.”
They further noted that this has been done to “ensure the blindness community is represented.”