Kate Winslet Nailed 7 Minute Breath Hold for Her Role in the New Avatar Films
Titanic star Kate Winslet and the Oscar-winning film's director James Cameron are once again joining forces. And once again, their collaboration will send Winslet plunging into the ocean, this time for a role in Cameron's Avatar 2, the sequel to 2009's record-breaking sci-fi adventure.
The filmmaker, who is currently filming the first and second of the four planned follow-ups, teased that his forthcoming return to the world of Pandora will explore “never before seen parts” which will primarily be set underwater.
He also told Vanity Fair that "[Winslet] plays a character who’s part of the Sea People, the reef people. The one thing she did do is demand that she do all her own water work. I said, 'All right, that’s fine, we’ll have to teach you how to free dive.'"
Evidently, the actress nailed the task, as it was reported, that she was able to act out entire scenes underwater and hold her breath for a staggering seven minutes! Meanwhile, the rest of the cast has learned to hold their breath for several minutes at a time.
"The other actors are up to three- and four-minute breath holds," Cameron revealed. "We’ve already been doing underwater capture. We did a scene last week with six teenagers, well, actually five teenagers and one 7-year-old underwater holding their breath for a couple minutes and acting, actually doing a dialogue scene under water because they speak kind of a sign language."
“They’re all perfectly capable of acting underwater, very calmly while holding their breath,” he added. “We’re not doing any of this on scuba. And we’re getting really good data, beautiful character motion and great facial performance capture. We’ve basically cracked the code.”
Cameron confirmed that the majority of underwater scenes will take place in Avatar 2 and 3. The release dates for the films are set for 18 December 2020,17 December 2021, 20 December 2024, and 19 December 2025.
