American actress Blake Lively steps out of her comfort zone to film the survival thriller The Shallows
BLAKE LIVELY has a very simple, straight-forward litmus test for deciding whether to do a film. If she’s scared by the challenge ahead or feels that it’s something that she can’t do, then it’s “yes, please, I’m in”.
Previously, she starred in movies The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee, The Town, Green Lantern, Savages and The Age Of Adaline.
On television, the Los Angeles-born artiste is famous for her role of a New York socialite in teen drama Gossip Girl.
Set to be released are Marc Forster’s psychological thriller All I See Is You, in which Lively plays a blind woman, and Woody Allen’s comedy Cafe Society, set in the 1930s.
It’s obvious that for the 28-year-old, diversity is a vital criterion when it comes to selecting her projects.
The Shallows, in which she plays a young medical student trapped on a rock by a great white shark 183m from a beautiful but isolated beach, fits the bill perfectly.
It was, she says, both exciting and terrifying — just like the film itself.
“I’ve always been attracted to the idea of doing an isolation film because it’s such an acting challenge,” the actress says in an interview.
“This film, in particular, is not only incredibly demanding emotionally but also physically.
“The idea of challenging myself, both inwardly and outwardly, and having to hold the screen for 99 per cent of the time, for better or for worse, was really exciting and terrifying. I know if I’m scared to do a movie, then I have to do it.”
From the moment she first read Anthony Jaswinski’s “page-turning” screenplay, she was hooked.
“It was incredible how quickly the story moved because immediately you put yourself in that scenario and you think ‘what would I do if I was isolated and I was being hunted by a great white shark?’,” she says.
“But the idea of being only 183m from the shore made it that much more exciting and nerve-wracking because hope is right there. It’s so, so close and that is so much more exciting to me than having her in the middle of the ocean.
“It gives you such a strong will to survive when you see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There’s just no way to get there and the only thing stopping you to get to safety is a great white shark.”
STEPPING INTO NANCY ADAMS’ SHOES
Nancy Adams, whom Lively portrays, is a medical student who is disenchanted with her life and career.
Surfing was a shared passion and she seeks out an idyllic, remote beach that her mother had visited before as a way of connecting with her late parent and coming to terms with her loss.
“She is having this amazing time in paradise, and is being a little reckless with her life because she is so lost and doesn’t really know what she is fighting for.
“She doesn’t really appreciate the life she has right now because she is so weighted by her loss. Then, the great white shark shows up to remind her,” she says with a laugh.
When the giant predator claims the lives of two other surfers and wounds Nancy, she manages to find a precarious refuge by scrambling on to a rock 183m from the shore.
But the shark is circling, the day is fading and with her injuries needing treatment, her strength is waning.
Nancy, in a battle of wits with the animal hunting her, must find a way to reach safety before time runs out.
“Being a medical student is actually very helpful when she is attacked by a great white shark because she knows what to do to keep herself alive as long as possible,” says Lively.
“It’s really fun to watch that as an audience member — to see someone use their knowledge which they have spent so many years learning.
“It makes you want to go to medical school in case you are ever in that scenario because it would be very helpful.
“That’s always very neat in these types of movies because you discover the back story as you watch them survive. You see them grasping for any life experience they have had or any bit of knowledge they have ever learnt to apply it to a situation that they never thought they would have to apply it to.”
METICULOUS FILMMAKING
Making The Shallows in Australia, for director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan, Non-Stop) certainly lived up to Lively’s expectations and more.
“Collet-Serra is very passionate, extremely detail-orientated and very visual,” she says.
“He storyboards the whole movie before making it. You have a lot of confidence because you know that he knows exactly what he is going to make.
“On a movie like this, that is really important because the story and timing rhythm is critical. You can’t just have meandering moments.
“This is a movie where your heart should be beating faster and faster every moment, so it’s nice to have someone who knew what he was doing each day.”
Lively had spent long days filming in the sea and in a giant water tank, a daunting, exhausting test of physical endurance.
“We filmed in a beautiful place called Howe Island for two weeks,” she explains. “No one has ever shot there before and it will be incredible to bring it to the screen because it just looks like heaven on earth.”
The production crew had put a rock out 183m from the shore. When they were filming scenes from a helicopter, no crew member was allowed to be anywhere near Lively.
“If they were, they’d be captured in the shot with me, so I was out there in the middle of the ocean by myself.
“There were a few divers under the rocks but I really felt alone. I got a real sense of what that would actually be like.”
The crew spent the rest of the movie in a giant tank — “which is basically like a giant swimming pool” — at Movie World, a popular movie-related theme park in Gold Coast, Australia.
“There were roller-coasters all around us and I was in a tank with 1.2m waves. I had to use my imagination to fill in the blanks, of great white sharks and ships and buoys... you name it.”
UNITED EFFORT
It was, she says with a smile, a “nutty shoot” during which she would spend up to 12 hours a day, sometimes six days a week, in the water.
“I really prepped and trained for surfing and swimming. I was just getting my body into peak physical condition so that I could get through this movie.”
Lively is keen to praise the crew too, who shared the experience with her, adding that The Shallows really was a physical feat.
She says filming was not only an emotional challenge but it really was an athletic event as well — not just for her but also for every crew member.
Half of the production crew members spent the whole day in the tank as well.
Besides the water-safety crew, there was also hairdresser Rod Ortega who paddled in the water trying to do hair touch-ups on Lively, and make-up artist Tami Lane who poured fake blood on Lively and fixed her prosthetic cut.
She explains: “Some days it was hot and some days, there were electric storms and rain. Every single crew member put their blood, sweat and tears into the movie.
“We only had so much day light each day so sometimes we didn’t have a break for lunch. Someone would swim out and bring food, and while they were moving the camera, we would eat out there so most days were all day in the tank.”
Lively says it’s really unifying to be with a group of people who were all going through the harsh experience together.
“The crew didn’t have to pretend they were getting attacked by a great white shark but they were spending those days away from their family, and pouring themselves into it physically and emotionally as well,” she says.
“We were all exhausted at the end of each day but it was fun at the same time. It was like a very aggressive pool party,” she adds, laughing.
PERSONIFYING NANCY
Lively had researched the role extensively: Watching and reading interviews with survivors of shark attacks, meeting marine experts and for her character’s background, talking to medical students and doctors.
Talking to Paul de Gelder, author, former Navy diver and shark attack survivor, helped Lively.
“He is an incredible man who was attacked by a bull shark. He was a Navy Seal as well so he was equipped to handle a life-or-death situation like that,” she says.
“Hearing about his experience and also his respect for sharks was probably the most rewarding and critical piece of knowledge that l learnt.
“People can really see sharks as the villains but they are trying to survive as well, so it was good to talk to him about that.”
On top of that, Lively also discussed with some medical student doctors about Nancy’ injury as “I wanted to know what it would feel like, how you would fix it, how a tourniquet works - all the little details”.
PHYSICALLY SET
Lively says that she was a fine swimmer before filming The Shallows, but she definitely had improved after.
“I was so much faster and stronger by the end of filming the movie, and it was so much easier. I noticed my stamina was up by the end and I had muscles in places I never had before. I always felt safe in the water but I was much more confident the better I got at it.”
Lively took swimming lessons prior to her film All I See Is You so she was prepared somewhat.
“Still, it was really more about paddling on a surf board, and I had some great surf instructors to help and teach me,” she says.
She had prior surfing experience with her brother-in-law, Bart Johnson, whom she says is a great teacher.
“While preparing for The Shallows, I had surfed with Rob Muchado (Australian surfing champion) who is one of the best surfers of all time,” she recalls.
“We surfed tandem on a boar so I didn’t really do anything except get dragged along.”
To prepare physically, Lively worked with fitness trainer Don Saladino in New York, so that in Australia, she knew what to do when she is on her own.
She says: “Actually, I would run workout sessions with whoever would join me because I really needed the motivation.”
LEGENDARY PREDATOR
While brilliant computer-graphics will create the huge shark that audiences will see on screen, Lively had to rely on her imagination to summon up the great white hunting her.
Thankfully, there were a couple of physical props to help her on some days.
“A crew member would hold a fin that was true to size and would swim around me in a circle. That was sometimes helpful and sometimes comical,” says Lively.
“Sometimes he would get dizzy and disorientated, and hit the wall. Your immediate reaction is ‘is he OK?’,” she says.
“Then he came up fine and everyone was laughing. It’s hard to stay terrified when everyone is laughing hysterically.”
Besides the fin, there was a huge plastic shark nicknamed Sid, which Lively says was not scary at all.
ELECTRIC AND INSPIRING
Lively also had gone diving with a great white shark conservationist, Michael Rutzen. That experience changed her life and perspective on sharks in a big way.
“We see them as predators and villains but look at how many people are killed by sharks per year and how many sharks are killed by people per year. The comparison is outstanding,” she says.
“Watching a thrilling movie like this is fun but it’s also really important to get to know, respect and protect these creatures because they are really majestic and beautiful.
The Shallows promises to be a heart stopping thriller that will leave audiences on the edge of their seats wondering if, and how, Nancy can survive.
“We love movies like this because we immediately put ourselves in that scenario. When there are two apex predators going against each other — human versus shark or human versus nature — it’s very rare that any of us would be in that situation,” she says.
“Yet, we all think ‘if I was in that situation, what would I do? Would I survive?’”
Lively marvels at how incredible it is that human beings are resourceful. “They pull things out of their hat that they didn’t even know they knew to stay alive. You put yourself in that scenario and you sort of hope that you would do the same as what Nancy does,” she says.
“Even if you are ill-equipped and you think you wouldn’t survive, you don’t just give up. Human beings don’t do that.
“They fight even if they are not fighters and that’s what’s really cool and exciting, and encouraging.” -- Sony Pictures