Kate Winslet discusses besting Tom Cruise’s record when working on Avatar: The Way of Water by holding her breath for over seven straight minutes.
Kate Winslet opens up about breaking a Tom Cruise record on the set of Avatar: The Way of Water. The sequel to 2009’s Avatar takes place a decade after Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) became a Na’vi. Now, having forged a family of his own, Sully needs to again defend Pandora and his children from human invaders. Early on, Sully is forced to defect to the Metkayina clan, thanks to the capture of Sully’s adoptive son, Spider (Jack Champion). Of course, the transfer to the amphibious Metkayina means that a major portion of the film needed to be produced underwater, including Winslet’s scenes as Ronal, a free diver of the group.
As previously revealed, for one sequence, Winslet held her breath for seven minutes and 14 seconds, beating Tom Cruise’s record of six minutes on the set of Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation. In an interview with THR, Winslet discussed besting Cruise, offering a joking response when she was asked how it felt to beat his record:
Why Was Filming For Avatar: The Way Of Water So Grueling?
Avatar has always been known for its astonishing visual effects, and Avatar: The Way of Water is no different. The original Avatar needed to work with pre-2010 technology while ensuring that the quality of the VFX would hold up. Avatar: The Way of Water, meanwhile, faced an arguably even bigger challenge in developing techniques to produce a film revolving around an underwater landscape, while making itself stand out from other movies taking place in a similar setting.
For the cast, that meant not only filming underwater but also worrying about their motion capture suits and acting without oxygen. It was a serious challenge for the cast and crew alike, especially given that Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 were filmed back-to-back to avoid having the young actors age too much between shoots. Filming needed to be twice as long to accommodate for a second movie, meaning that none of those involved in the production had much of a chance to rest between shoots.
Yet there remains a question of why Avatar: The Way of Water was exceptionally difficult to make. More movies have been filming underwater lately, including Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but director James Cameron’s insistence on making the scenes in Avatar: The Way of Water as realistic as possible certainly required an increased level of dedication from his actors, especially Winslet. This contributed to the extraordinary visuals and truly helps to sell the idea that the characters live underwater and can fight beneath the waves. With Avatar 2 continuing to break box office records, it seems the actors’ commitment paid off.
Source: screenrant
