Dev Patel has defended the use of the term “bender” in The Last Airbender.
The film, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, is about a boy who can control the four elements – earth, wind, fire and water. In the movie, the boy is referred to as a “bender” and in one scene, his aunt says: “I knew from the first time I discovered that you were a bender that this would be your destiny.”
Patel, who plays a young prince, said of the term: “When I came onto the movie, I was like, ‘Really’? Benders?'”
Asked why he did not inform the director of the British slang connotation of the word, he told The Times: “It was too integral to the movie. We couldn’t call them fire or air manipulators. It would have been moving too far from the source material.”
The Last Airbender hits the theatres on August 13 in UK.
Source: www.digitalspy.com
I don’t know what is the big deal here.
OMGosh! People, give M. Night a break already!!! You will find words in ALL movies that have a different meaning in another language. Gay means happy but people turn it into something else. Rubber means eraser in Britian but in american slang something entirely different.
You know, if people choose to look for bad… they’re going to find it. If people choose to look for good, guest what??? They’re going to find it.
This is not a Disney or Dream Works film so you ARE NOT going to find any “hidden” filth in it as you do the other films, which by the way, is shamefully and intentionally put in the movies by those working on the animation [they think it is funny] – NOT the writers or director.
it seems that the word ‘bender’ has it’s own definition in the british slang