Hey, Zehra
Oh, hi.
How are you?
I'm good. Has going to hear from Rosen.
Have you got A/C -
how is it in your place?
I'm in a flat, so I've got a fan
I've got a phone.
Nobody has AC there now. No.
Easily
just can't afford to
hear.
My God. Yeah.
Oh Yeah, it's intense.
It is intense.
Okay, so let's get started.
I attended the press conference for the trailer a couple of weeks ago.
And you admit it, you weren't quite a swimmer, so.
Oh, so was that a little bit daunting for you?
You remember when we wrapped and we finished the
all right, our Thai
folks, the Thai team contingent had a little party.
They were heading off and they had a gathering
in one of their apartments and cheeses, some amazing food.
But I was talking to Jason, one of the divers, Jason Mallinson, that night.
And it was the first time I really got to articulate to Jason
that I was I was really nervous in the water.
I wasn't a great swimmer at all.
And he was he was rather surprised.
But, yeah, it was a lot of faking going on, which, I mean, you're acting.
So, you know, it's
there's always a certain amount of faking going on
as you try to make it, of course.
But I was I wasn't I can't say I was fully comfortable
at any any time in the process of shooting this in the water.
Yet we had incredible teachers.
We had Rick Stanton and Jason Mallinson, who were two of the British cave divers
that were there, that were two of the lads that brought house and the kids.
So to have them as references was kind of extraordinary.
And they were in the water with us as well.
They got in the water and they were helping out in that way.
And we also had just a team of incredible
divers from Australia supporting us.
So it was
you did feel that there was an enormous amount of safety around everything,
but at the end of the day, when they built these cave systems
that we used, that we dived in, and when you're diving
and there's a ceiling above your head and you know there's holes in the walls
that we could get out, of course, there was always an exit route,
but it did play a fair number on your on my noggin anyway
because I was a pilot.
So when you were thinking, why did I sign up to this?
Yeah, there was a point where I realized I had no idea
that there'd be as much diving as there was.
I was like, What was I thinking?
I do remember going, I know.
I just didn't.
I if you had a given me,
if you had to ask me before we started shooting,
how much of the shoot would be in the water,
how much the shoot would be out of the water?
I probably would have said 80/20
I think it was more 55/45.
I think I think 45 in the water.
I think it was we spent a lot of time in the water and it was amazing.
It was an extraordinary opportunity
to get to do something you would never get to do. And
when I think of the nervousness actually of going into the tunnel system
the first day versus the last day, actually,
I started getting nervous towards the end it of like at the start
I was nervous and then I got a little bit kind of comfortable with it.
And then towards the end I thought, this is when shit goes wrong
towards the end.
And so I started to get I started to lose my mind again the very last day.
I was so relieved when we were all done.
But here we are. Yep.
And obviously you play a real life character.
John I'm not going to pronounce his last.
I'm really bad, but that's the one.
Did you spend much time with him to prep for this?
Well, I used to British accent as well.
I always thought that was impressive. I like that.
You don't want me dead.
I let you off the hook.
You don't have to refer to it at all. But
John was.
John was incredibly generous with his time.
Like so he's a he's just he's a really lovely man.
He's got a lovely sense, a lovely sense of humor. He's
obviously got all of steel.
I mean, pathologically calm under pressure,
which is exactly what you needed in this situation those four years ago.
And but because it was cold, I would have flown to see John,
but there was no fly and there was no anything going on, really.
And it's why we shot in Australia was because we could still
because they had COVID under, under a certain amount of control at that point
and as the rest of us were flying around the world, you know,
but John was available to me via face time and I would set up,
you know, one or two in the morning here,
nine or ten and in the morning where he wasn't in Britain.
And we would speak for an hour or two and I he was open.
I'd ask him anything about his life for both cave diving as a hobby,
about the particular events and how they unfolded,
about what his thought process was during it all when he got nervous,
if he got nervous, you know, all of it really, he was incredibly generous.
So I and he
and while we were shooting as well,
if I had a question and questions always came up
because we were trying to figure out exactly how things unfolded
and there's
so much documentation of the events, but there's still when you start
going into the details, there are certain twists
and turns and times where they tied off a thing.
And you wanted to ask exactly how it played out.
And I would just text John and he would come back with the answer
of exactly what happens at the time, you know.
So he was he was a great kind of resource for me.
He was very involved, heavily involved in that.
The that's also quite good, the romance between
John and
Rick as well for
the film,
which also brings a little bit levity to it sometimes as well, which was quite nice
because my anxiety levels were up here at times where they could say,
How is that with you?
With Viggo Mortensen on the set as well?
How did that play off?
Did you play off quite well, yeah, it was easy.
I mean, Viggo's all about the work, you know, he he from from first conversation and first meeting.
It's really apparent how I think particularly maybe with this
over piece of fiction, how important it was to him to
pay attention to all the areas that needs attention, and particularly to constantly
strive for accuracy and constantly strive to do whatever it took.
Like Viggo would work Sundays, he really would.
If you said, you know, on a six day week with Sunday being the day off,
if you said to be go at 11:00 on Saturday night, can you come in at 6 a.m.
Sunday morning and do a 12 hour shift?
He'd be absolutely. It was for the good of the film.
So to be around that level of commitment is is brilliant as an actor, you know,
and it raises your game as well.
And and I had a laugh with Viggo be go off camera and yeah there was a
there was a kind of a we discovered I'm not saying the reality of
but we discovered a kind of a and it was designed within the script
an awkward affection, an awkward familiarity between John and Rick.
That was lovely to explore.
You know, it's not it's not the
what would be the more quintessentially Americanized version of high fives.
And you're the man, you know, you're the man.
You know, it was the two of them kind of an awkwardness, kind of more reserved,
but very real affection and and respect and fondness for each other.
I spoke to Ron Howard earlier on today, actually, and he mentioned how
you guys were you know, you were adamant about doing your own stunts.
Yeah, I have.
Again, I have to give that one more to Viggo than myself.
I think Viggo kind of was the one that thought that that'd be great.
And I was in for a penny.
In for a pound, I suppose, which I came to regret.
But no, I was cool.
I mean, you always
number one, it's just fun, you know, if you've any kind of sense of adventure.
T And there's, there's horse riding stunts going on in this fight
and stone seem to jump off a building or do some cave diving.
You know, there's going to be a lot of safety around this.
You know, you're going to get an ample opportunity
to do things over and over again before you have to put them in front of camera.
And you kind of assume it's going to be a bit of fun and a bit of an adventure.
And so with that in mind, yeah, we did as much as we could
and the majority of the time was was done by I mean, as I said, we spent we
spent almost half our time in the shoot, in the water, you know, for sure.
For sure. Much more than I thought we would. Much, much more.
And it was scary than I thought it was going to be.
And we were asked to to do things that I didn't.
I had never imagined we were going to be asked to do.
Particularly again, there was safety divers everywhere.
The water was a lot clearer.
The things where, you know, I'm not comparing it to what they actually did
in 2018,
but for a bunch of actors to just carry a live person
with a mask on their face and them with their hands
tied behind their back, under the water and through little things and around
and try to make sure their head didn't because you're sending them first
through a hole and then holding onto their ankles
while you swam and then grabbing the knee and then grabbing their waist
and then grabbing the back of their shoulder
and then getting their body beside you again before you swam off,
all the while holding on to the cable. I was
actually getting a bit anxious.
I get a bit anxious now.
Just thinking about it was what we were doing every day.
But like it was, it was as I said,
there was a lot of safety around and it was amazing adventure, you know?
Well, thank you so much for talking to me.
Today is an absolute pleasure and a pleasure talking to you.
Thanks a million.
And I think you're brilliant as well, by the way.
Thanks. Nice. Thank you.