Sigourney Weaver, Kate Winslet Freedive to Film "Avatar 2" Underwater Scenes
Underwater filming has been around since the mid-1900s, but never has Hollywood embraced the challenge of freediving quite like Kate Winslet and Sigourney Weaver filming "Avatar 2."
The award-winning actresses both mastered underwater breath holds longer than six minutes to shoot underwater scenes for the sequel to James Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi blockbuster, which explores underwater areas of the alien planet of Pandora. Mastering freediving allowed the actors to perform the scenes in a water-filled tank instead of creating the illusion with CGI.
In addition to remaining submerged for extended periods of time, performers needed to act naturally while diving, keeping their eyes and mouths open.
Kate Winslet, of "Titanic" fame, trained to hold her breath for over seven minutes, breaking Tom Cruise’s previously set Hollywood record of six minutes while filming "Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation."
“I had to learn how to free-dive to play that role in Avatar, and that was just incredible,” Winslet, 45, tells The Hollywood Reporter. “My longest breath-hold was seven minutes and 14 seconds, like crazy, crazy stuff.”
Sigourney Weaver, used the same techniques to master a six-minute breath-hold while filming.
Weaver says in an interview with the New York Times that she learned to freedive in the Florida Keys and Hawaii, reclining on the seafloor as mantas swooped overhead. Her coach had previously trained elite military divers.
At 70 years old, the stunt work was no small feat for Weaver, who has since turned 71. She says her age only motivated her to perform.
“I had some concerns,” she says. “But that’s what the training was for… I didn’t want anyone to think, ‘Oh, she’s old, she can’t do this.’”
"Avatar 2" is slated to premier in theaters on December 16, 2022.
