‘Underwater’ cast members Kristen Stewart, Jessica Henwick, and Mamoudou Athie discuss the “gruesome” circumstances that came with filming the horror movie, Kristen Stewart explains why she’d never do a movie like this again, and shares the “dope” reason she shaved her head in this interview with CinemaBlend’s Jeff McCobb.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 Were you holding your breath underwater?
00:02 How do you prep for that kind of thing?
00:04 I'm just in the shower, just like letting it hit me in the face.
00:06 I'm wondering, I'm serious.
00:08 Listen carefully.
00:10 You are now 5,000 miles from land,
00:13 and you're descending seven miles to the bottom of the ocean.
00:17 Film's great.
00:23 Oh, sick.
00:24 I'm still catching my breath.
00:25 It's a lot.
00:26 My colleagues were drawing comparisons between Nora and Ripley from Alien.
00:32 I was wondering how you feel about that,
00:33 and if there's any other badasses that inspired your performance in particular.
00:37 Yeah.
00:38 Oh, man.
00:39 It's the worst comparison, 'cause she's, like, the best.
00:43 'Cause she is the best.
00:44 I think there are certain inspirations that are pretty striking.
00:47 We obviously are fans of Alien, Sigourney Weaver,
00:50 even just, like, the Abyss.
00:53 Like, certain sort of really claustrophobic sort of underwater movies
00:57 were definitely heavily influenced in the movie.
01:00 So, yeah, I mean, that's rad.
01:02 I think it's kind of rare to have, like, a female character be the one that, like,
01:05 steps up in the end and kind of, like,
01:08 shoulders the weight of whatever, the sort of, like--
01:12 She's, like, whatever.
01:13 She's a weird, bald-headed, strange, anti-social little, like, you know, anti-hero.
01:20 So I get the comparison.
01:21 But at the same time, bow down to the inspiration.
01:24 You are no stranger to action in film.
01:28 But this is a super unique concept.
01:29 It's super action-packed.
01:31 What was it about the action and physicality in this film
01:33 that's different from your past experiences?
01:35 See, the funny thing is, when I signed up to the film,
01:37 I didn't think of it as an action film,
01:38 and I didn't even contemplate the physical aspect of it.
01:41 And then I was--
01:43 I'm sorry. I just burped.
01:45 It's okay. We all do it.
01:46 Then I was blown away by how dumb I was.
01:50 Why?
01:52 Because, it's like Vincent said--
01:53 Oh, yeah. Did you read the script?
01:54 Did you read the script? It says right there.
01:56 It's like, yeah, go wet underwater.
01:58 Yeah, that we would have to face all of these difficult aspects to the film.
02:03 Will says one day we're all moaning about the suits,
02:05 and he's like, "Come on. Come on. Did you read the script?"
02:09 It was cold underwater.
02:11 It really made me laugh.
02:13 And I was kind of embarrassing, actually.
02:15 So you were caught off guard by how physically taxing it was, then?
02:17 Yeah.
02:18 Yeah, because it's not like we're doing chase scenes or anything.
02:21 It's just that those suits were so cumbersome.
02:24 And--
02:26 And oddly fitting.
02:28 Yeah, oddly fitting.
02:30 Don't get me wrong.
02:31 The people that made them did an amazing job.
02:33 Amazing.
02:34 They did it in a blink of an eye.
02:35 It looked so cool.
02:36 And they looked amazing.
02:37 And as an anime fan, I was like, "Oh, I'm in a mech suit. This is awesome."
02:41 But then the reality of it just crushing you.
02:44 It's like, "Oh, okay."
02:45 It hurts.
02:46 Your character was an anime fan, too.
02:48 That's funny.
02:49 So did--
02:51 Ha!
02:52 You forgot?
02:53 I just watched it this morning.
02:55 Were you holding your breath underwater?
02:57 How do you prep for that kind of thing?
02:59 I'm just in the shower, just letting it hit me in the face.
03:02 I wondered. I'm serious.
03:04 There was really no amount of water torture that I could have tried to subject myself to
03:11 to get ready for this.
03:13 It was awful.
03:15 It really hurt and was super claustrophobic and excruciating.
03:21 And luckily, I was with a really rad group of people doing it.
03:25 But I would say you talk to anyone who got through this experience,
03:28 no one would do it again.
03:30 And I think that actually says a lot about the movie.
03:32 It's good.
03:33 For that, it is good.
03:35 You're usually encouraged to highlight the good aspects of an experience.
03:40 This was gruesome.
03:42 But it's a horror movie, so it works.
03:44 Did your experience in this help prepare you for any big upcoming action flicks?
03:50 Maybe Matrix or something like that?
03:52 She doesn't know what you're talking about.
03:56 Did this help prepare you for any--
03:59 She has no idea. I'm her publicity spiel.
04:02 Oh, is that right?
04:03 I think that this film prepared me for life.
04:06 You know?
04:07 Because eventually, water is going to cover the Earth's surface.
04:13 Is that right?
04:14 And then I will be ready.
04:16 God.
04:17 Are you going to be ready to be flying around on wires anytime soon?
04:20 Are you just dodging this?
04:22 Dodging what?
04:24 I don't know what you're talking about.
04:25 She doesn't know.
04:26 She doesn't know.
04:27 God, it's painful.
04:28 That's fair. I had to try.
04:29 I had to try.
04:30 Thank you.
04:31 I respected it.
04:32 The particular look of the character,
04:36 is that something that inspired your performance, that helped that process?
04:42 It was a nice excuse to shave my head, to be honest.
04:45 Additionally, she is--
04:48 She's working on an underwater oil rig as a mechanical engineer.
04:52 She's not, like, fussy.
04:55 She's a practical girl.
04:56 She's fairly spartan.
04:58 In the beginning of the movie, she's putting on a suit that takes 15 minutes to get in and out of.
05:03 She is a mysterious character initially.
05:07 The movie starts off with a huge explosion.
05:10 The trauma starts in the first five minutes of the movie, essentially.
05:14 The whole time, you're wondering about this person.
05:17 I think having a shaved head and being so base in terms of how she takes care of herself
05:24 and how she presents herself is like, "Who is this girl? What's wrong?"
05:27 The whole time I was reading the first 20 pages of the script,
05:31 I was just going, "What's wrong, Nora? There's something underlying."
05:36 You know what I mean?
05:37 I think the shaved head was, A, just a dope excuse to do it as a person,
05:43 and then, B, that it did actually really help her as a character.
05:47 How important was it in this intimate environment to be working with such baller talent?
05:52 That's why I wanted to do it, to be honest.
05:57 I just thought it was a cool character piece.
05:59 Cool character piece, but also the actors that we'd be working with.
06:02 I was like, "Oh, this is a dynamite cast."
06:06 Including you two.
06:07 - Bye! - It's absolutely bonkers.
06:09 Override it. As long as it opens, we'll be fine.
06:12 Where did he go?
06:19 Guys, what's going on?
06:20 Keep the door closed. Keep that door closed!
06:22 Keep that door closed!
06:24 (((NO-SYSTEMS)))