Kate Winslet has admitted she thought she’d died when she resurfaced after spending seven minutes underwater during filming for Avatar 2.
In a new interview the actress, 45, who plays Ronal in the James Cameron directed blockbuster, confessed she ‘couldn’t think about anything’ while being submerged in the tank.
Kate said it was ‘wonderful’ being underwater for such a long period of time even though she knew how dangerous it could be after learning to free dive specifically for her role in the film.
Committed: Kate Winslet, 45, has admitted she thought she’d died when she resurfaced after spending seven minutes underwater during filming for Avatar 2
In an interview with Observer Magazine, Kate said: ‘God, it’s just wonderful. Your mind completely drifts off.
‘You can’t think about anything, you can’t make lists in your head, you’re just looking at the bubbles underneath you… My first words [when I resurfaced] were, ”Am I dead?” Yes, I thought I’d died.’
Kate added that she learned free diving for the role with the help of her husband Ned Rocknroll, though he struggled with spending as much time under the water.
What do you do? In a new interview the actress confessed she ‘couldn’t think about anything’ while being submerged in the tank after learning to free-dive for the role
She continued: ‘You have to have someone there. Ned trained with me and he got quite good at the breath holding as well. But he did… black out.’
Although Kate is clearly no stranger to immersing herself in roles, the Oscar winner added that she’s not a fan of being called a ‘method actor.’
In October, Avatar producer Jon Landau shared a snap of Kate displaying her impressive free-diving skills, during filming for the sequel in New Zealand in 2018.
In the caption for the image posted, Jon quoted Kate, writing: ‘Wanted to share this photo of Kate Winslet after reading her interview in The Hollywood Reporter…
‘[She said: ”I had to learn how to free-dive to play that role in Avatar, and that was just incredible. My longest breath hold was seven minutes and 14 seconds, like crazy, crazy stuff”…
Wow! In October, Avatar producer Jon Landau shared a snap of Kate displaying her impressive free-diving skills, during filming for the sequel in New Zealand in 2018
‘She stops herself, afraid that she’s given away too much on the top-secret project. ”Oh no, actually, I can’t. Yeah, I play a water person. I am a water person,” is all she will offer, instead shifting to praise of Cameron’.’
Kate later admitted she was unaware she’d beaten Tom Cruise’s record for underwater filming, after he spent six minutes submerged for Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation.
In an interview with ET in November she said: ‘It’s so funny because I don’t really read reviews or media things. I’m not on Instagram, like I’m just completely disconnected from that part of my life,’ Kate said.
‘So all of this week and the week before, I’ve had people coming up to me at work saying, “Oh my God, like seven minutes and 14 seconds? Like, what?!” And I’m going, “What? Hang on, wait a minute. How do you know that?”‘
Exciting: In November Kate said she was unaware she’d beaten Tom Cruise’s record for being submerged in a tank underwater after a month of ‘quite intense’ training
Despite her surprise, she was proud of the accomplishment from her time in a tank, though she doubted she could repeat the feat.
‘It was brilliant and I was very proud of myself and I’ll probably never be able to do it again,’ she continued. ‘That came at the end of four weeks worth of quite intense training and it was in the dive tank, it was in the training tank. But I loved it.’
In August, Kate gave a glimpse into what the director is demanding of his stars for the movie that’s being shot using motion caption technology.
On their reunion, she said: ‘It was so wonderful to work with Jim again. Time has changed him.
‘Jim has become a father a few more times over. He is a calmer person. Chilled. You can just feel him enjoying it more this time.’
Blockbuster: Avatar was Cameron’s first feature-length fictional movie since ‘s Titanic. Avatar 2 is set to premiere in December 2022 and will be followed by Avatar 3 in December 2024
Her starring role in 1997’s Titanic catapulted her, at age 21, to international stardom as it did for her co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, then 22.
In June, Cameron and his crew returned to New Zealand to resume production after it had been halted in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic and were allowed back on economic grounds.
The much anticipated sequel to the 2009 epic science fiction film Avatar has been in the works for a decade.
Producer Jon, after completing the mandated 14-day quarantine, told the country’s 1News: ‘This one production alone is going to hire 400 New Zealanders to work on it. We’re going to spend, in the next five months alone, over $70 million here.’
Cameron is working on Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 simultaneously with the first of the sequels scheduled to premiere in December 2022.
Tense: The much-anticipated sequel to the 2009 epic science fiction film Avatar has been in the works for a decade, with release dates pushed back eight times