M. Night Shyamalan has admitted that he was unaware of how the term “bender” is used as slang in the UK.
Discussing the use of the term in The Last Airbender, Shyamalan told Metro that he did not consider changing the title.
When it was suggested that ‘some immature cinema-goers found dialogue such as, “look out he’s a bender” hilarious’, the director said: “I thought you guys used bender as a term for getting drunk, like, ‘I’m going on a bender’.
“I wasn’t aware of that term. It was just the title of the cartoon show.”
He added: “Sometimes the title gets changed for particular territories. The title of my film The Happening was changed in some countries because happening meant party.”