Oona Chaplin contemplated changing her surname early on in her acting career to dodge nepotism claims.

The 39-year-old actress is the granddaughter of the silent film legend Charlie Chaplin - who died of a stroke aged 88 in 1977, nine years before she was born - and the daughter of actress Geraldine Chaplin, 81, and cinematographer Patricio Castilla.

Despite Oona - who thought about changing her surname after graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), but decided not to - having secured roles because of her famous showbiz family, she has felt "undeserving" at times because of it.

The Avatar: Fire and Ash star told The Sunday Times newspaper: "It's been a journey to feel deserving, because I know that doors have opened for me that potentially wouldn't have opened if I wasn't associated with this brilliant man. It's definitely tricky to feel undeserving of the place you're in."

However, Oona's mindset changed from "guilt to gratitude by working really hard and knowing that whatever I do is never going to compare to what my grandfather did".

One positive of the Game of Thrones actress being related to Charlie is that new people may discover his movies,

Oona added: "If all my purpose in this realm is for people to say, 'Oh, Charlie Chaplin's granddaughter,' and they Google him and watch a movie of his, then I'm happy because he's such a genius."

In Avatar: Fire and Ash, Oona plays villain Varang, and director James Cameron, 71, selected her over three "movie stars" because he was impressed with her "sexuality", "dominating psychology", "fury" and being able to "move fluidly back and forth between those" in a way the others did not.

And Oona was thrilled to audition for James, and praised him for making her feel "at ease".

She recalled to The Hollywood Reporter: "There are not a lot of things that would have gotten me out of my treehouse, but a call to meet Jim Cameron definitely did.

"It was one of the most surreal moments of my life. He's one of my heroes - Aliens! Terminator! Titanic! I was very starstruck. But very quickly, he very much put me at ease because he just felt like a kid that wants to play."