Night Swim Star Wyatt Russell Followed A Crucial Rule While Shooting The Underwater Scenes [Exclusive]
This article contains mild spoilers for "Night Swim."
When you're an actor making a movie entitled "Night Swim," it's a given that you'll be called upon to at least get into the shallow end of the pool. Chances are pretty likely that you'll have to wade into the deep end, too, and although most people would say they're pretty comfortable being in the water, the realities of movie making — multiple takes, long hours, having to deliver a good performance — means that you're not comfortably wading around for a few minutes and then jumping back out. If you're not careful, you could wear yourself out at best and put yourself in deadly jeopardy at worst.
Those concerns were certainly on star Wyatt Russell's mind while making the new Blumhouse horror film. Especially because his character of Ray Waller doesn't just get his feet wet; when Ray moves his family into a quaint suburban home with a disused backyard pool, he forms a special, supernatural connection with the pool, insisting on using it as much as possible.
In addition to scenes where Ray gets sucked underwater by the pool's ghostly forces, there's a scene where, during a neighborhood pool party, he instigates a game of chicken fight as a bit of harmless summer pool party fun. Unfortunately, the evil that possesses the pool takes hold of Ray, causing him to almost drown the boy on his shoulders as he wades deep underwater. While filming this scene, Russell kept a crucial rule in mind that allowed filming to go off without a hitch, a rule that not only applies to shooting underwater scenes but being underwater in general.
The hitch-hiker's guide to underwater scenes: don't panic!
During a recent interview with Russell conducted by /Film's BJ Colangelo, the actor affably admitted that he cannot actually hold his breath for very long, and explained how he and the other actors on the film were given various aids to help them sustain filming in the water for long periods of time, such as a float to hold onto between takes.
When it came to shooting the moment where a possessed Ray tries to drown the boy next door after their chicken fight, Russell detailed how the real strain of the scene was down to modulating his performance and not his physical stamina, thanks to following the crucial rule of not panicking while underwater. As he said:
"It was a really fun scene to do because you had to convey that there was this otherworldly thing controlling me and the way we did it was interesting. It was sort of in two parts, but you had to go from having fun Ray to this crazy weird possessed guy who's going to drown a kid. And that part was like, 'Okay, you got to trust the filmmakers that they're going to be able to make this transition work, otherwise I'm just going to look like a weirdo who's drowning a kid.' And so that was a lot of just leaving it up to them to try and figure out after the fact. 'I'll give you what you think you need.' But yeah, that part was just patience. Just have patience underwater — don't freak out. Panicking is the worst thing you can do. Never panic."
"Never panic" goes double for Russell in that particular scene, of course — it would ruin the spookiness of the moment if his possessed character looked more worried about getting to the surface than completing his evil, murderous task. Fortunately, Russell pulls it off beautifully, making the scene about the drama and not about holding his breath.
The way of (under) water
If you won't take Wyatt Russell's word for it, however, why not listen to James Cameron? The filmmaker has practically made a second career for himself as a professional deep-sea diver and underwater explorer, and that interest has found its way into a number of his feature films, from "Titanic" to the aptly named "Avatar: The Way of Water" from last year.
It was his experience shooting 1989's "The Abyss," however, that proved the "never panic" rule several times over. For a man who's nearly died numerous times while making movies, it was a fateful day on "The Abyss" that saw Cameron come dangerously close to drowning. As he's recounted many times over the years (and most recently at a screening of "The Abyss" in 2023), Cameron found himself with an empty oxygen tank while shooting the film one day, causing him to try and call for assistance to no avail. While attempting to perform an emergency surfacing, a nearby safety diver shoved a regulator in Cameron's mouth. However, it had not been checked properly, and the regulator had a tear in it, causing Cameron to take a deep inhalation of water instead of air. The safety diver, trying to perform the task he was trained for, held Cameron fast so that the director wouldn't surface and ruin his lungs. Cameron didn't panic, however; he knew he couldn't communicate his plight to the diver, so he simply punched the diver in the jaw and hurried to the surface, living to tell the tale.
So whether you learn from Russell in "Night Swim," Cameron in "The Abyss," or just about anyone who's worked underwater, remember to never panic when venturing beneath the surface. Especially if, like in "Night Swim," there are some ghosts down there. Don't take the panic bait!
"Night Swim" is now playing in theaters.