In an interview with The New York Times, James Cameron focuses on the crazy demands from the actors, to submerge themeless, taking free-dive lessons, in order to breath-hold for long minutes. “You want it to look like the people are underwater, so they need to be underwater” he explains. Read the highlights below.
Cameron and the cast: Talking about Avatar 2
Avatar Director, James Cameron, and the top cast were interviewed by The New York Times, talking about Avatar: The Way of Water filming. We focused on materials related to cinematography, especially underwater cinematography. We wrote extensive articles about the methodologies used to shoot Avatar 2’s underwater sequences, as the major shots were performed underwater. Make sure to read our recent article that describes it well: The Underwater Cinematography Behind Avatar 2: 3D Beam Splitter and Nikonos Lenses.
Oh, I don’t know, maybe that it looks good? Come on! You want it to look like the people are underwater, so they need to be underwater. It’s not some gigantic leap — if you were making a western, you’d be out learning how to ride a horse.
Director James Cameron
Joking about the DC films
Anyway, Cameron was joking about the filmmaking techniques utilized in DC films. “Movies like ‘Aquaman’ and the upcoming live-action version of ‘The Little Mermaid’ take place underwater but don’t actually submerge the actors. ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ does, and the actors had to learn how to hold their breath for several minutes to shoot some of its undersea sequences. What’s gained from doing it for real? This question was asked by The New York Times. Here’s Cameron’s answer: “Oh, I don’t know, maybe that it looks good? Come on! You want it to look like the people are underwater, so they need to be underwater. It’s not some gigantic leap — if you were making a western, you’d be out learning how to ride a horse. I knew Sam Worthington was a surfer, but Sigourney Weaver and Zoe Saldaña, and the others weren’t particularly ocean-oriented folks. So I was very specific about what would be required, and we got the world’s best breath-hold specialists to talk them through it”
I had to learn how to free-dive to play that Avatar 2 role and that was just incredible. My longest breath-hold was seven minutes and 14 seconds, like crazy, crazy stuff…Yeah, I play a water person. I am a water person.
Kate Winslet
Learning free-diving: More than 7 minutes!
It appears that the main cast took free-diving lessons from dedicated specialists. Free diving is a form of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba gear. Besides the limits of breath-hold, immersion in water and exposure to high ambient pressure also have physiological effects that limit the depths and duration possible in free-diving. It’s a dangerous and very demanding sport. However, Avatar 2 cast was killing it. “I had to learn how to free-dive to play that role and that was just incredible. My longest breath-hold was seven minutes and 14 seconds, like crazy, crazy stuff…Yeah, I play a water person. I am a water person” said actress Kate Winslet.
Ocean Na’vi vs. forest Na’vi
NYT asked Cameron: “Did you have any idea she (Kate Winslet) was capable of that?”. Cameron answered: “No, and she didn’t either! But Kate’s a demon for prep, so she latched onto the free diving as something that she could build her character around. Kate’s character is someone who grew up underwater as an ocean-adapted Na’vi — they’re so physically different from the forest Na’vi, that we’d almost classify them as a subspecies. So she had to be utterly calm underwater, and it turned out that she was a natural”.
And thus, when you will be watching Avatar 2, think of this dedication and what the cast was going through to film those ‘real’ (=not like DC) underwater shots.
