Oona Castilla Chaplin (born 4 June 1986 in Madrid, Spain) is a Spanish-British actress of English, American and Chilean descent.
She is one of those Chaplins—granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin and Oona O'Neill, daughter of Charlie and Oona's daughter Geraldine Chaplin, and great-granddaughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill. In her youth Oona traveled around the world, visiting Switzerland, Cuba, America, and other countries. At age fifteen, she won a drama scholarship to Gordonstoun school in Scotland, where she began acting in school plays. After graduating from Gordonstoun, she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Her first starring role was in the Spanish horror film Imago Mortis alongside her mother. Oona has since appeared on several British TV shows, such as Married Single Other, Sherlock, The Hour, and Game of Thrones.
Roles
- Romeo and Juliet as Juliet
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (2003 production) as Bottom
- Spooks (2007 episode "The Virus, Part 2") as Kate
- Inconceivable (2008) as Laura Chapel
- Spooks Code 9 (2008 episode "Episode 2") as Kate
- Quantum of Solace (2008) as the receptionist at Perla de las Dunas
- Imago Mortis (2009) as Arianna
- Pelican Blood (2009) as Linda
- Married Single Other (2009 episodes) as Fabiana
- ¿Para qué sirve un oso? (2010) as Rosa
- The Devil's Double (2011) as Beauty
- The Hour (2011) as Marnie Madden
- Sherlock (2012+) as Jeanette
- Game of Thrones (2012-2013) as Talisa Maegyr
- Dates (2013) as Mia
- Black Mirror (2014 Christmas special) as Greta
- The Longest Ride (2015) as Ruth
- Taboo (2017-) as Zilpha Geary
- Avatar as Varang
- Avatar 3 (2024)
- Avatar 4 (2026)
Tropes relating to her work:
- Ability over Appearance:
- Says she was surprised that she was cast as Robb Stark's love interest - feeling sure that the producers wanted a white English Rose sort. The show runners were inspired to change the character from Jeyne - a Westerosi - to Talisa - a Volantene - to explain her darker features.
- It was a similar case with The Hour. They wanted a white actress but she was told "you're not an English Rose but you can do this."
- Corpsing: A variation. When filming the infamous Red Wedding Oona opted to die with her eyes open, but because of the emotional nature of the scene, everyone on set was crying. So the director had to call cut more than once to tell Oona to stop crying, since she was meant to be a corpse.
- Fake Brit: She's put on a flawless English accent for The Hour, Sherlock, Black Mirror and Game of Thrones (which isn't set in England but everyone uses those accents anyway). However, she's English on her mother's side.
- Improvisation: Her film Realive was based on a lot of improvisation from her.
- Ms. Fanservice: In a few music videos she did in Spain. Game of Thrones also had her go topless in a sex scene, and shows her bare backside later when lying on a bed.
- Real-Life Relative: Her mother Geraldine stars with her in the film Anchor & Hope.
- Those Two Actors: She's starred with good friend Natalia Tena in Game of Thrones and Anchor & Hope, and also in her music video for "Neon Lights" (as part of Natalia's band Molotov Jukebox).
- What Could Have Been: She was going to play Jeyne Westerling from the books on Game of Thrones, but for whatever reason the show runners changed the character to a healer from Volantis who has a more straightforward love story with Robb Stark (as opposed to the Shotgun Wedding in the book). George RR Martin then had them rename the character Talisa instead.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: She has quite the blend of English, American and Spanish in her natural voice - which is to be expected, given her varied background. She has lived in Spain, Cuba, America and Scotland.
