STEWART GETS IN TOO DEEP

CLAUSTROPHOBIA PLUS A FEAR OF WATER PUSHED ACTOR TO DO BETTER

The new thriller Underwater will make even the biggest water lover feel claustrophobic.

And for star Kristen Stewart, filming the story of a group of underwater researchers who become trapped after an earthquake devastates their subterranean laboratory was about facing one of her biggest fears.

The award-winning actor, who rose to fame in the teen vampire saga Twilight, reveals how she pushed herself to the limits physically and emotionally for the survival tale.

Q: What was it about Underwater that made you want to do it?

A: I have a great fear of water in general, so I did think that it was an appealing prospect to do because it’s a movie about survival instincts and how people react to trauma. And it’s about a group of people who don’t really know each other trying to come up with a solution and then realising that they’ve all gone to an inaccessible place that should not have been touched upon … that we’ve dug up something really violent and unnatural and dangerous. Initially, I thought that sounded like a strange, existential blow ’em up movie about people trying not to die, and then it turns into a cool horror movie. I hadn’t done a big movie in a long time, and I wanted to do something that wasn’t an obsessive five- week intellectual meditation and rather something that felt really physical and was going to be a good time, edge of your seat thriller.

Q: Were you able to dig into the psychology of Norah and her comrades?

A: I wouldn’t have wanted to do it if it was just purely a bunch of people not wanting to die. It’s about a girl who seems a little closed off and who quite literally has closed herself off in the most severe way possible. There’s a remoteness to this person that you really wonder about – what kind of person does it take to go and spend their time on the bottom of the ocean like that, and then you find out halfway through that this tough exterior is indicative of someone who is really sad and precious, and just self-protective. When things really go wrong and she finds herself with a bunch of people who she up until this point would never want to care about, suddenly the feeling of being a human being starts to come back again. All of that was not a subplot so much as the motivation for why this person exists and why we’re telling a story about her and her survival.

Q: Were you looking to face your fears on the film?

A: That’s always a massive draw for me – it’s sort of a prerequisite on a job … terror. Unless I’m feeling afraid of something, I usually find that there’s nothing there for me to get at, no reason to do the film, and so in this case I put one of those suits on for the first time, which took 20 minutes initially. We got it quicker at some point, but the first couple of times we got into the suits, it took 15-20 minutes to get in, and 15-20 minutes to get out. And that in itself is almost a traumatising notion. I couldn’t believe that I said yes to this, and then to think that we were also going to be submerged in water … Once I actually got to that point, because there was a submersible suit that I wore a couple of times, and I think there were people who went in it a lot more, like the stunt crew, and the actors who enjoyed it. I am definitely acknowledging that I’m being dramatic, and I see myself as someone who can handle these things, but I was seriously crying, stuck in the suit, absolutely hating it. So one of the huge draws was doing something that was hard for me, and there are certain things that, as an actor, you don’t want to fake. I don’t want to think that I’m really in danger of losing my life in an underwater oil rig but at the same time, I did want to feel those things. And those are sometimes in evidence in the film. If I was cozy making the movie, it wouldn’t have made sense. I thought it was going to be fun and it turned out to be utter hell, which really served the film.

Q: How did the cast bond in this experience?

A: Honestly, my favourite part of the movie is when Paul (TJ Miller) looks up to the heavens and says, “f--- our lives!” And that was not remotely in the scene or the script, we were in character the whole time, but we felt solidified by the struggles of making the movie. Also, we were in New Orleans and we had a remarkable, committed and incredibly sweet crew to support us. They did more than normal, took care of us. It was really fun before and after work.

Underwater is in cinemas now.