Statham tests the waters as a hero
Former diver says he feels right at home in the deep playing against a megashark
When it comes to Jason Statham’s new movie, there’s only one question on the minds of reporters gathered in front of him. Does he punch a shark in the face? Sadly, it seems the answer is no. “There are no fisticuffs with a megalodon,” quipped the megastar known for dishing out many a vicious beating in blockbuster action franchises like The Transporter and Fast & Furious.
Statham, 49, has been in New Zealand for the past few months filming Meg, a sci-fi film about a monster shark that’s based on Steve Alten’s 1997 book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror.
Directed by Cool Runnings’ Jon Turteltaub, the film follows Statham’s Jonas Taylor, an expert diver recruited to save scientists under attack by a giant prehistoric shark.
His co-stars include Ruby Rose, Rainn Wilson, Li Bingbing and Cliff Curtis, and the film has been shot at various locations around Auckland. It’s scheduled for release in 2018.
Statham, who represented Britain at the Auckland Commonwealth Games in 1990, told reporters during a recent set visit his experience as a competitive diver came in handy for the mainly water-based shoot.
“A lot of the stuff I’ve learned in my earlier years makes me feel confident in the water or under the water,” he said. “How we fight the shark . . . you have to be confident under the water.”
Meg’s sea scenes were filmed in the Hauraki Gulf, while underwater scenes were shot at a purpose-built water tank in Kumeu. Indoor sets were built in West Auckland.
Statham’s known for playing gruff gangsters, action heroes and dodgy villains in a series of action roles in films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and The Mechanic.
But Meg is a change of pace for him. For once, he’s playing a hero.
“I haven’t done a movie without brandishing a gun or jumping in a car or hitting someone around the head for a long, long time. It requires a physicality for sure for this role, because he [Taylor] has to put himself in harm’s way for the greater good of everybody else. “It’s a really great, heroic role.” Bingbing, who plays marine biologist Suyin, told media she’d struggled adapting to New Zealand’s “crazy weather”. “It’s rainy, sunny, rainy, sunny, and so windy,” she said.
“The weather here is so interesting [and] we have a lot of scenes in the water and on the water.
“I’m scared going in the water, especially in this kind of weather. It’s so cold.”
Bingbing, 43, said filming Meg’s shark scenes had been thrilling.
“Most of the time you have to imagine how big it is. It’s about 21 to 27 metres. One day we were shooting on the boat, we had half the shark . . . We could see the face, it’s so amazing, so beautiful. A lot of teeth.
“It makes you feel like the real thing.”
Meg hits cinemas on March 2, 2018.