The Meg is in cinemas from today
popcorn film,” Statham says enthusiastically.
“It gives you what people go to the cinema for: entertainment, suspense, action and even a few laughs — all of the things audiences want from a big movie-going experience.”
The shoot also gave Statham (51) the chance to get back in the water after his former life as a champion diver.
He competed as part of Britain’s national diving team in the 1990 Commonwealth Games and at one point was placed 12th in the world.
It was while training at London’s Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London that he caught the attention of film crews and photographers, and began his transition to the Hollywood tough guy he is today.
So, when the rest of the cast — which includes Ruby Rose, Rainn Wilson and Li Bingbing — had to go to swimming school to make the film, Statham was exempt.
Stuntman Josh Randall describes the action hero as “a legitimate athlete in his own right”, adding: “He didn’t need much coaching. But he still needed to prepare, so we sourced some special gear for him and set up a little gym in his home. “He had all the bases covered; he knew what he was doing, in and out of the water.”
Stunt co-ordinator Allan Poppleton, who has worked with Statham on five other films, agrees.
“Because of Jason’s diving background, his understanding of the physicalities of a stunt is amazing,” he says. “It meant we could design the action to suit his proficiency level, which is obviously high and the production gained from that.”
But it’s not just diving from boards that Statham is so good at, he is also no stranger to a scuba suit.
“I have always had a fascination with the underwater world and have been scuba diving for almost 20 years,” he reveals.
“The oceans are so vast and, rationally, I think most people have a fear of what’s down there and automatically assume the worst, especially about sharks.
“Sharks are one thing that take no prisoners.
“A great white would put the fear of God into any swimmer, so you can only imagine what something three or four times that size would do to you. You wouldn’t want that chasing you down.”
While some of the film, which is based on the best-selling novel MEG by Steve Alten, was shot on the open water, the production also built two huge tanks in New Zealand to capture a lot of the action.
An enormous exterior tank, holding approximately 2.5 million litres, served as the water surface tank, while a separate dive tank — 18 metres in diameter, five metres deep and holding approximately 1.26 million litres — was built indoors.
These made it possible for Statham to perform some of his most exciting stunts himself, including one in which he dives from a boat and ends up being chased by the huge shark.
“A portion of that was filmed in the ocean, because they needed me being towed with the boat in the background, and you can’t really fake that,” he says.
“It was important that we were able to shoot that in an authentic way. But the part where I get yanked out of the water at high speed had to be done with rigging.
“It would have been too dangerous to do that off the back of the real boat, so we did that element in the tank.
“I get a big kick out of being thrashed about and doing those sorts of things. There’s a sense of achievement in it for me.”