Avatar The Way of Water Cast Burning Questions Extended Interview

I'm a little nervous, you know, because I mean, you guys are the first ones that are seeing it. Yeah. It's the first feedback I'm getting. Let's get it done. How long can you hold your breath underwater? I think at one point I got up to five and something, and I couldn't even believe it. My little lungs, they held three minutes and 30 seconds. My breath hold record is six minutes, 30 seconds underwater. Six and a half minutes. Easily 15 seconds. I blacked out trying to get to three minutes 30, was it? But that was early. That was early on. Yeah, but it's like, oh yeah, you got to five minutes 30, and I was going like this. I ended at five minutes and 33 seconds, which I'm very proud of, but I'm also not that proud of because I was this close to getting Tom Cruise. This close, man. It hurts. I know. So as a director, you must need to hold your breath as well. Oh, hell yeah. But I've been a free diver for... Right. Yeah, but Kate and Sigourney both blew past my best time. What is your best time? My best time is like five and a half minutes or 5.45, something like that, and that's after years and years. Kate was seven minutes and 20 seconds. 14. Don't be too ambitious now. Seven minutes, 14 seconds. What is your secret? You know, it's not the kind of thing that you can just try at home. You cannot. It is a process. You have to change the oxygen levels in your body. It took three weeks of consistent training every day to go for that big breath hold, and I can't believe I did it. When I came up, the first thing I say is, am I dead? Have I died? Am I dead? Just breathe. Breathe. What is your favorite Na'vi phrase? Where... Or Ali'bu. What does that mean? I have no idea. It's the only one I could remember. Because I would just... I would have to learn them rote. I would have to write them on boards for me, so I didn't really understand what I was saying. But that was Jake. Jake didn't really know the language in the first one. Na'vi. I had to learn a little bit more in the second, but I was still a bit... I know, I know. I'm still rusty. Always in character. I can't do it, because I forget. Well, it means, I see you. It's my favorite phrase, because it's the only one I can remember. And obviously, I can't even remember it. I think mine is Faisal Dutey, because that's just like a... This f***ing guy. You know? That's just like... That's basically what it translates to. Like, it's just kind of like... I don't know. It's just like an annoyance thing. Probably skanks. That means idiot. Scoun, which means like idiot. Scouts. You scouts. Which I have to say a lot, actually. They give a lot of verbal abuse, yeah. I mean, we said it all the time. He only has it in a couple of times. He had to get rid of those. But as siblings, you know, we are scounces to each other. It's the word that I could never truly please the team with. Scoun. You just did it. That was good. I bloody hope so, because... Whatever you start out failing with as an actor, and then you get obsessed with, then becomes almost like your favorite thing to do. Scoun. In the first one, obviously it was scoun, because it's just, you know, you're calling someone... It means idiot, yeah. Yeah, like a bad word. If Thierry calls me scoun, it means moron. But as I grow older and I became a mom, I'm just like such a freaking sap. So now it's... I see you. Yeah, it's good. The important was... You know, I see you. Because it's all about that. It's about being recognized, about being seen. Like I see into you, and also kind of high, and almost I love you, and it's a really beautiful phrase. How did you prepare to show this parental bond for this movie? You had three kids. I already had three kids. There was nothing to prepare. There was just... I just had to dig for my personal life and my sensations, you know? When you're younger, you don't really think that far ahead about consequences. You're just in the moment, so you accept every challenge, and you're fearless. When you become a parent and you love a life more than you love your own, sometimes it wakes you up in the middle of the night, but the thought, those hypothetical scenarios of how you can lose that is paralyzing. And Jake and Neytiri were dealing with that as well. This family is our fortress. What is the most challenging thing you had to do underwater? Yelling. So when you yell, you can't let bubbles out, because apparently I think bubbles are quite hard to get rid of, but to hold your breath, open your mouth, and yell with nothing, and yet stop your body from bringing the water into your lungs, that was quite difficult. And anger, moving at pace, that's quite hard. But was everything slower in the water? You know, riding on an Ilu and trying to stab someone with a gigantic, great big javelin. That's quite tricky, because you think you're going to ram it into somebody who wasn't even there, and it veers off to the right, and you're like, oh God, sorry, I got it wrong. I have to do that again, because that just looked rubbish. The underwater work is extremely challenging to do, particularly when they turn on the wave machine and they're crashing against you, and you're holding an automatic weapon in your hand while riding an Ilu, trying to keep that weapon from going doom, doom, like that, you know? It's crazy. Or if you get in a knife fight with the likes of Jake Sully, you know, 15 feet underwater, or something, that can be challenging. Beaks the hell out of, you know, working. The most challenging thing I had to do was probably, well, I can't say that, because that would be a spoiler, so, um, hmm. I mean, a lot of the parkour stuff, you know, like, if I, like, did it slightly wrong, I could just, like, somehow, I could skin my knee. So I had to really just dial it in and not mess up, or else I could really hurt myself. Oh, probably when I was, like, a lot of, like, the ship stuff, if I was running along, like, a wet surface, that ---- is actually slippery. Like, really slippery. So the amount of times I actually slipped and, like, slammed my hip on the thing, like, you know, that's really hard. Not only were you slipping on Ways of Water, it probably hurt, and Ways of Water came out here. Oh, my God. The Way of Water connects all things. Who of the returning cast is least like their character in real life? I think Slang is the most different from his character. Slang is actually a completely Yes. lovely person. Yes, which is so funny. Like, I love him so much. We're both also New Yorkers, so, like, getting to talk to Slang about that all day is the best. Slang is the nicest person you'll ever meet unless he's in character. I'm not gonna lie, though. Slang is, like, a nice version of Quaridge, though, because he is, like, kind of, like, cowboy-like, you know? He literally wore a belt buckle yesterday to, like, because we all, like, cast dinner, like, get together. He wore a belt buckle. I'm like, all right, that's Quaridge. Like, it's just so, like, he was like, hey, kiddo, how you doing? Yeah, that's my boy. Yeah. And I'm just like, yeah, what's up, man? So not intimidating at all? Totally not, but... The kindest ever. What do they mean by that? That I'm, like, a weak puppy? No, you are the nicest person on set. Yeah, I got them snowed, don't I? Do you know what? I kind of like it. What's your favorite creature? Space whales. I mean, Dokun, yeah, because they're just so cute, I think. Even though they're big and can look kind of scary, I think they're just kind of cute. I like whales, and they're very much whale-like, What is the most memorable Avatar fan encounter you've had? Back in the old days when I was in London, they had built a tree of souls. You know, we were doing a press kind of thing, and a woman who was dressed as Neytiri got right into my face and said, I don't know whether to kiss you or slap you. And I said, is there a third choice? And she said, no. And she gave me a nice kiss and everything, and I was like, OK, good seeing you, honey. What did that mean to you for that to happen? It meant, let's institute like a three-foot rule or something. That's what it meant to me. No, it was nice. Fans have been great. You know, the mail I get from everywhere about it, people who love the movie, and they understand that I am an actor playing a role, and they appreciate it, and I dig that, you know. It's the people who come up to me and whisper, I really like Korch, and I kind of agree with him. Then those folks, I kind of go, well, then I don't really want to know you. Give me the goosebumps. Why did it take so long for Kate to reunite with you for a movie? Well, apparently, and I just found out this recently, I'm the only director she's worked with twice. So I feel, you know, honored to have that unique position. No, Kate and I have looked for something to do together for ages, but it's never just, you know how it is. I mean, she's got her interests and her passions. You know, initially, it was Margie Simpson, our casting director's idea. No, really? You know, we were looking at other people, not thinking that Kate was so busy and so prolific doing so many of these incredible roles that she does as an actor. And then Margie said, what about, you know, Kate? And a light bulb went off in Jim's head. Well, I remember him speaking to me way back in 2014, I think it was. I was given a star on the Walk of Fame, and he came to that event. And the night before, he called me to just say, oh, hey, I was going to say a few things, anything you want me to avoid? And we kind of chatted and had some fun. And at the end of the call, he said, hey, we have to get you in and we have to get you big and blue. And I said, I'd love that. So we had this very early conversation. I remember thinking, oh, I really hope he does call me back about that one. And then a few years later, 2017, I got that call and was sent the script. She read them. She fell in love with them. Her kids told her, Avatar, you have to go do it. She was very interested in the character. It always starts with character. I just was blown away. I mean, his writing is so extraordinary and always has been. But the richness to these characters and the depth of integrity is what I think you really feel, that sense of family and community. He's very, very clever. And of course, I couldn't say no. And then, as Kate would do, she jumped in. No pun intended. She jumped into the water, learned how to free breath hold for seven minutes, learned the Navi language, the Navi movement. And one of the stories that I love about Kate coming is because we were already up and doing our performance capture. She came in maybe three, four months into it, is our young cast was nervous about Kate coming in for her period of shooting. And when she walked onto the stage and we were doing a rehearsal, she saw Bailey Bass, who plays her daughter. And Bailey sort of went down with gingerly, doing a shake her hand. And Kate says, give your mother a hug. And it was great. And what did you say when he said, hey, it's going to involve filming in water? Oh, well, this was really funny. He said to me, oh, there's a whole water element, but don't worry. You know, we have doubles and you can do as much or as little of that as you want. I said, well, hang on, what? He said, well, you know, she's the female leader of this water tribe and they really live on and under the water. So, you know, we have a breath hold expert. And this was actually kind of a dream for me to learn this. And I just, I said, sign me up for all of it. I want to do all of it. I don't want no doubles, no nothing. I want to do all of it, all of it. And I think he was kind of overwhelmed by that. Like, he's like, you sucker. Going back in for more after the Titanic experience. But I loved it. I loved it. Don't presume to tell me what I will and will not do. You don't know me. What was your reaction when James pitched you coming back as one of the kids? Well, we had a lunch in 2010 and we just kind of, you know, spitballed about maybe creating a girl who was, who had a connection with Grace. We weren't sure what, but a girl who felt much more herself in the forest with the creatures and the flora and the fauna and not as comfortable with people and was that age, which I certainly remember, very self-conscious and shy and feeling like, who am I? And then when I read the scripts, I realized what a challenge I was taking on and also how brave he was to take this risk with me. But it does make sense. I understand it. And it was also interesting to have a kind of old soul playing Kiri. But at the time, I couldn't see it that way. I just thought, I just thought, frankly, all right, how do I do this? I don't want to play a teenager. I don't want to imitate a teenager. I want to become the teenager that I used to be and see where she and Kiri meet. And so luckily, I had a lot of time to kind of prepare that, you know, to go back to my own hideous memories and sort of my good ones and then sort of find that in my body so I could drop this shell and find the person underneath every day. And with Sigourney, you know, when I pitched her, I want you to play a teenage girl. I want you to play a 14, 15 years old. She was like, say what? I said, no, it's going to be great. You're going to love it. You're going to have so much fun. And then she embraced that challenge. And she actually became younger. She became younger, I mean, just around the set, not just in front of the virtual camera. There was just a lightness in her being. I know you think I'm crazy, but I feel her. How did you get into character for Quaritch? It's good if I go without breakfast because then I get kind of mean, you know? I like to work out. I get in front of the mirror and have a good look at myself, preen for a little while. You know, I puff up, like some sort of an animal. And then I make sure that I look right. And when I walk on the set, I basically let it be known this is my set. This is my world. Until Cameron says, actually, it's my world. And I say, well, okay. I'm outranked by you. Now that you have Kate, when are we going to get Leo in the Avatar franchise? That's going to be up to Leo. Anytime Leo wants to play a part, we're going to be there for Leo. We're not cast for movie four and movie five yet, so, you know, we'll see. No, no, it's definitely not Leo's bag at all. No, he's more of a kind of like a dry land kind of a guy.