As if being a Hollywood A-lister with a Best Actress Oscar under her belt wasn’t amazing enough, not to mention starring in one of the highest-grossing movies of all time ( Titanic ), Kate Winslet also has the record for the longest underwater breath hold performed by a person in a film.
The 47-year-old British actress pulled off the incredible feat while shooting Avatar: The Way of Water , where she plays a seafaring Na’vi warrior named Ronal. She clocked in at seven minutes and 15 seconds, beating the previous record held by Tom Cruise.
‘Am I Dead, Have I Died?’
In an interview with Total Film , Winslet revealed she recorded the whole thing. “I have the video of me surfacing saying, ‘Am I dead, have I died?’ And then going, ‘What was [my time]?’” she said.
She admitted, though, that it was more of a personal challenge than a requirement of the film. “I didn’t have to hold my breath for over seven minutes. It’s just that the opportunity to set a record presented itself,” she explained. “I wanted to break my own record, which was already six minutes and 14 seconds. And I was like, ‘Come on!’ So I smashed my own record by a minute.”
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Tom Cruise Previously Held The Record
Before the Titanic star performed her impressive feat, Tom Cruise was the record holder, clocking in at six minutes while filming an underwater scene for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation . Winslet previously said she felt very proud of herself for her record-smashing achievement.
Intense Four-Week Training
For her underwater scenes, the actress had to go through intense training under pro divers for four weeks in massive tanks, which she said was an experience she absolutely loved. Her Avatar co-star, Sigourney Weaver, was trained by military divers herself, revealing in a separate interview that she was able to hold her breath for more than six minutes as a result. Zoe Saldana, meanwhile, came in at an impressive five minutes.
The Most Difficult Part
Surprisingly, Winslet told Total Film that holding her breath wasn’t the most difficult part of shooting. Instead, it was “fitting into this world and yet appearing to have always been there.” A new addition to the cast, she said she had to quickly learn from the movement coaches and original heroine Saldana, who “was a huge part of the creation of the voices of the Na’vi people.”
Avatar: The Way of Water opens in theaters on December 16.