  The Last Airbender co-star Nicola Peltz.
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Jackson Rathbone has some pretty good advice for his The Last Airbender co-star Nicola Peltz for when it comes to starring in major franchises.
Rathbone, after all, plays wide-eyed, fair-haired vampire Jasper Hale in the Twilight series of films with the latest and third installment, Eclipse, also in theatres this week.
"The best advice I could give, she already knows, and she lives and exemplifies, which is to stay grounded," said Rathbone, 25, seated beside Peltz, 15, recently in Toronto.
"I mean, she's such a sweet girl. People are going to be blown away by her. They're going to be pounding down her door, once they see her in this film. It's going to be incredible. And, you know, she's prepared for it."
Two two play sibling warriors in action-adventure-fantasy The Last Airbender, which hits theatres on Thursday. The film directed by M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense), is based on an animated TV program, Avatar, which began running on Nickelodeon in 2005.
The story is about a prophesied Avatar named Aang (newcomer Noah Ringer) capable of bending fire, air, water and earth who is discovered by waterbending sister Katara (Peltz) and brother Sokka (Rathbone) just as they prepare to fight the Fire nation lead by evil Prince Zuko (Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel).
Rathbone, born in Singapore because of his father's oil company job, actually auditioned for Prince Zuko before going to "mix and match" sibling auditions with the New York-born Peltz in Shyamalan's native Philadelphia.
"A year later (Shyamalan) called me back for the role of Sokka, and that was really exciting and then I got to read with this one (Peltz) and as soon as we read together it just felt really solid," he said. "I think what he was looking for was an ensemble, like the characters to all fit with one another."
Peltz, meanwhile, first auditioned when she as 13 years old and had yet to land a major role.
"I was very happy when I was cast," said the actress, who watched the Avatar TV show with her two younger brothers (she has seven siblings in total).
"When I got the role, my little brothers didn't believe me at first. They're like, 'You're not Katara!' I was like, 'Yes, I am!' I was really excited."
Peltz, who will next star opposite Twilight's Robert Pattinson, as well as Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weiss in Unbound Captives directed by Madeleine Stowe, said her background in playing female regional hockey helped to prepare her for the rigourous training required for the role of Katara. (Her 20-year-old brother Brad was drafted by the Ottawa Senators last year.)
"I started last year in October and then in February we all went to Philadelphia to do boot camp, as they called it," said Peltz.
Rathbone started training last January at the Paramount lot before studying wrestling and grappling at the boot camp.
"We really wanted the character to be less of a technical fighter, and more of a straight-up warrior, more heart than technique," said Rathbone. "They wanted my moves to be more street fighting."
Both Rathbone and Peltz have signed up for the proposed trilogy of Airbender films, given the animated TV series lasted three seasons.
And if that doesn't work out, there's always Twilight -- at least for Rathbone -- with shooting on the fourth installment, Breaking Dawn, scheduled to start later this year in Vancouver.
"It's exciting," he said of Eclipse's release this week. "It is crazy to have Twilight coming out June 30 and The Last Airbender coming July 1."
jane.stevenson@sunmedia.ca
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