Why Avatar 2 Underwater Scenes Were Hardest Things Star Ever Did
Avatar: The Way of Water star Sam Worthington says that the film’s underwater scenes were his biggest challenge to date. TheAvatar sequel comes over a decade after the original film initially hit theaters in 2009. James Cameron returns to the director’s chair for the film. Returning actors include Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver (albeit as a different character), and Stephen Lang. Avatar 2 will also add new actors to its cast including Kate Winslet, Michelle Yeoh, and Oona Chaplin.
As the title suggests, water is a critical element in The Way of Water. The water in Cameron’s Avatar sequel is computer-generated, a fact that has already been praised by VFX artists based on the film’s trailer. Even though the water in the final film was made with CGI, the actors still had to film scenes underwater in order to replicate the proper motion capture movement for their characters. These underwater sequences saw The Way of Water’s main actors performing incredible physical feats. Winslet notably held her breath for seven-and-a-half minutes for one Avatar 2 scene, breaking Tom Cruise’s on-film breath-holding record from Mission Impossible.
Related: Whoa, Why Is Sigourney Weaver Playing Jake & Neytiri's Kid In Avatar 2?!
Though Winslet was ultimately the most impressive breath-holder on set, Worthington too says the underwater scenes were excruciating in a recent interview with Empire (via Deeper Blue). According to Worthington, the “restraints” and “constrictions” of both freediving and working with the motion capture technology add additional difficulty to the underwater scenes. While Worthington attempted to maintain his stellar performance under said constraints, he also was grappling with “the fear of dying” while
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