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Colin Farrell Details Panic Attacks He Had Filming Ron Howard’s New Movie
Colin Farrell details how filming his own underwater scenes for Ron Howard's new film, Thirteen Lives, caused him to have panic attacks. Farrell is an actor known for a wide variety of films like The Batman, In Bruges, and The Lobster. Thirteen Lives will mark the first film where Farrell and Howard have worked together; he plays John Volanthen, a volunteer rescue diver.
Thirteen Lives dramatizes the real 2018 events of a Thai soccer team that became trapped in the Tham Luang cave during a rainstorm, and the harrowing rescue mission that followed. Part of this rescue effort includes some of the world's most experienced divers coming together, along with Thai forces and around 10,000 volunteers. Thirteen Lives is based on the story by William Nicholson and Don Macpherson, with Nicholson also penning the script. Viggo Mortensen stars alongside Farrell, with the two leading an ensemble cast.
In a recent interview, Farrell discusses with THR how his decision to film the underwater scenes of Thirteen Lives himself did cause him to panic in certain instances. Farrell notes that part of his decision to not use a stunt man is because Mortensen decided to film his own stunts. Farrell then jokes that he, "couldn’t have Viggo take all the glory." A full quote from Farrell can be read below:
Spelunking, even to a professional, is a very dangerous activity due to the many ways in which things can go wrong, like running out of oxygen, caves collapsing, and getting lost in an environment that is not explored very often. Farrell and Mortensen taking on the challenge to perform their own underwater scenes for Thirteen Lives not only displays their dedication to creating authenticity in their performances, but also shows that they had to overcome a mental barrier of anxiety when filming underwater scenes that are inherently terrifying. In the same interview, Howard notes that Thirteen Lives presented a challenge due to the nature of the tight spaces that they were filming in, and that Farrell's and Mortensen's courage helped push himself forward as a director. It also helped with being able to shoot longer shots for the film as opposed to having to cut several times in order to place a stunt person into the scene.
Although actors performing their own stunts are sometimes criticized for taking an unnecessary risk when professional stunt actors are available, Farrell and Mortensen taking on this particular challenge for Thirteen Lives seems to have made the editing process for Howard much easier in the end. Besides this, even though sets, as with any workplace, should create safe spaces for actors and employees, Farrell's very real experience with the anxiety of spelunking may have given him a unique perspective and element of research to inform his performance with. For viewers interested in seeing how Farrell's and Mortensen's hard work paid off in overcoming filming claustrophobic underwater scenes, they can see Thirteen Lives in theaters now.
