- 9 minutes ago
Austin Abrams lives through the horror of being eaten alive by a sperm whale in the new survival thriller ‘Whalefall’ co-starring Josh Brolin. The pair were in London for the UK Gala screening of their new film, alongside director and co-writer, Brian Duffield and the original novel’s author Daniel Kraus.
Speaking from the red carpet, we hear Josh’s best whale impression, Austin’s easiest day on this gruelling shoot, as well as the team’s favourite whale facts.
Josh also teases what to expect from the upcoming Dune: Part Three.
‘Whalefall’ is out in UK & Irish cinemas on Friday 16th October Report by Burtonj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Speaking from the red carpet, we hear Josh’s best whale impression, Austin’s easiest day on this gruelling shoot, as well as the team’s favourite whale facts.
Josh also teases what to expect from the upcoming Dune: Part Three.
‘Whalefall’ is out in UK & Irish cinemas on Friday 16th October Report by Burtonj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Oh my god, that's a nice question.
00:07He can be so intimidating and so scary.
00:10Not all the time, but I do it.
00:12And then so goofy and silly.
00:21What is the, I'm saying sphincter a lot, but get used to it.
00:25Austin, hello.
00:26What's up, brother?
00:26Jamie.
00:26Good to meet you, man.
00:28You've got some great eyes, man.
00:30I'm stopping you.
00:30No, you do.
00:31For real.
00:32Hey, I've got one and a half questions for you, because I know time is quite tight for you.
00:35One and a half.
00:35My half questions for you is, tell me the best fact about whales that you learned throughout all of this
00:39process.
00:41I would say it's less of like a fact, but I would say that they're just, at least in terms
00:51of like this whale, the kind of whale that's in this movie is like sperm whale,
00:55that they're just like amazing, really amazing creatures and like really intelligent.
01:02And yeah, they're, they're, yeah, they're really just like, I don't know, they're just amazing and they're, they're not just
01:10animals.
01:10I feel that way at least.
01:12Yeah.
01:13I know you've obviously spoken a lot about being inside the whale and shooting those intense scenes, but I want
01:17to know about yours and Josh's scenes.
01:19Like when father and son are quite fraught, tense environments, would you work a lot pre-scene and then unwind
01:26post-scene?
01:27What was it like when the cameras weren't running for you two?
01:31You know, it's, it's a thing where their relationship is so tense that I think we kind of just stayed
01:43in that kind of tense kind of thing.
01:45Um, and that's not always necessarily right for it, but, um, it just felt like for this, that it, it,
01:52it, um, it felt like to kind of like break that tension, um, would be to like dissolve, uh, dissolve
02:02something that we'd created, um, or that we, that was happening between, that we were both feeling between the both
02:07of us.
02:08Um, yeah.
02:09So I feel like the, the, the, we just kind of kept it.
02:12And also, I know you must've had many tough days on set.
02:15What was the easiest day?
02:17Yeah, dude, nice.
02:18Was there such a thing?
02:18Oh my God.
02:19That's a nice question.
02:20Um, I would say the kind of loveliest day was maybe just diving and, um, looking at some fish, you
02:30know?
02:30Yeah.
02:31That's a day we're like, I gotta aim for this.
02:33No, I know.
02:33But then you've got all the bad days coming, I guess.
02:35Yeah, yeah.
02:36Congratulations.
02:37Honestly, brilliant.
02:37Thanks, man.
02:39Cheers.
02:39I have one and a half questions for you, Josh.
02:41One and a half.
02:42Can't wait for the half one.
02:43Um, the half is...
02:44Oh wait, can we scoot you over?
02:45Yes.
02:46Nice to meet you.
02:47Nice to meet you.
02:48My half is, what is the best fact about Wales that you've learned throughout this whole process
02:52in making this film?
02:53I think the communication.
02:55I think, I remember being in Hawaii with a girlfriend and I remember going swimming and ducking, dunking
03:01my head underwater and hearing the eww, eww, you know?
03:05And it just blew my mind.
03:06There was something so beautiful and magical about it.
03:09And the fact that the communication can happen over such a vast distance is incredible to me.
03:15I don't know, man.
03:16It's all magical.
03:17The whole whale thing became, I think that was an excuse in doing this movie.
03:21They were like, do you want to do this movie?
03:22And I'm like, well, what's the character?
03:24But then you go, I get to be involved in the sea.
03:26I get to be on boats.
03:27I get to work with Austin again.
03:28I get to delve into Steinbeck again, Cannery Row.
03:33I get to, so I think I won on this one.
03:37And your voiceovers in this film?
03:38That's a half, man.
03:39That was the half.
03:40What's the other half?
03:42Well, your voiceover in this film is wonderful.
03:44You really feel it in the cinema.
03:46I guess narration at times.
03:48You have a wonderful voice in general.
03:49Have you ever had strange requests for usage of your voice?
03:54I guess like people asking you voicemails and stuff.
03:57Yes.
03:58Yeah, I've never thought about that quite like that.
04:01But yeah, people will call me and ask me to call their grandmother or their kid or something like that.
04:07I usually do it.
04:09Well, that was the half question.
04:10There you go.
04:10I usually do it.
04:11My turn. Thank you so much.
04:13I mean, we've got...
04:14Not all the time, but I do it.
04:16We've got, you know, open water, small enclosed spaces, you know, being eaten by a whale.
04:22It's a nightmare and a phobia kind of filled film.
04:25Is there something that you are like, absolutely no chance I would ever get involved in a film like this?
04:30A phobia that you're like, I'm staying whale clear.
04:33No, because every fear that I have, I'm dumb enough to walk toward it.
04:38And a lot of these movies, not that it's because of the phobia of whales, but a lot of these
04:43movies, whether I'm doing Everest or whether I'm doing a lot of the movies that I do are chosen because
04:48of the fear factor.
04:50It scares me.
04:51I want to confront it.
04:52I want to see what's going to happen.
04:54I want to see if I can show up.
04:57And most of the time I do.
04:58Not all of the time, but most of the time I do.
05:01Dive straight in.
05:02And then I've got to ask that Dune 3 is coming out soon and people are very, very excited.
05:07A lot of critics have talked about how it's like opening sequences like Saving Private Ryan.
05:11What do you make of these like first reactions and kind of what do you think fans?
05:15I love Dune and I love everything that Dune does.
05:18And I love everything that Dune has always done back to when he was making films in Montreal.
05:23And, you know, so I'm biased.
05:26I'm going to only say great things about him.
05:28I'm excited that people are excited about the coming of this movie.
05:31I'm excited that people are excited about him doing Bond.
05:34I think everything that he touches is golden.
05:36I think there's a few directors out there and there's a dearth of them.
05:40There's not a lot of directors out there that work at that capacity.
05:46And he's one of the few and one of my great friends and I love him.
05:57I've got a very quick question.
05:59First of all, from starts to now, through this whole process,
06:03what's your favorite fact about Wales that you learned?
06:05He was just tremendously...
06:07My favorite fact about Wales, I mean, the one that's most relevant to the movie is that they don't really
06:12chew with their mouths.
06:13They chew with their first stomach.
06:15That's why we milk that quite a bit in our movie.
06:20I think the thing I love most about whales and the more I've learned about them, you know,
06:25I think they're pretty close to decoding the whale language, the sperm whale language.
06:31You know, I know they've gotten vowels figured out.
06:32And I remember talking with someone about, like, what we would talk to whales about if we could talk to
06:38them.
06:38And I think the only thing we have in common with them is family.
06:41I think that's what the movie is about.
06:43And I think this idea of, like, the only thing we have in common with this amazing alien species is
06:50that we love our families and we nurture our families.
06:54And there's something so beautiful about that whole idea.
06:56And just what the title Whale Fall means is just what Daniel did with relating that to parenthood and just
07:05relationships.
07:05Well, thank you so much for that.
07:06It could not be more moving or beautiful.
07:08Yeah.
07:08That is beautiful.
07:09I heard you talk about Austin.
07:10Someone asked you about Josh.
07:12Yeah.
07:12When you think of the script and, like, okay, we're going to hear from the father and then you get
07:16Josh Brolin as essentially a voice of a narration, that's a gift, isn't it?
07:20Because that is a deep, rough voice he's got.
07:23It's just so instantly American and Americana.
07:28Like, and, but what's so great about Josh as an actor and as a voice is, like, on, you look
07:38at his whole body of work.
07:38Like we were saying earlier, like, if you look at, like, the best movies ever made, like, Josh is going
07:42to be on that list multiple times.
07:45And, you know, he can be so intimidating and so scary in one movie and then so goofy and silly
07:50in another movie.
07:51And for someone as iconic as Josh, how chameleon-esque he can be.
07:56And that was really what we needed for that mid character was that it's someone that you can understand why
08:01everyone in the family adores this man.
08:03You can understand why Austin's character is struggling and fearful of him.
08:08And you can also understand in that third act when that resolution kind of happens between them that it's the
08:15same man.
08:15He just has many different facets.
08:17And I think Josh is just extraordinary.
08:20Yeah, he's an unbelievable actor.
08:22Have you ever been in as close proximity with an actor as you have with Austin in this?
08:27Because that camera is right up in his face sometimes, isn't it?
08:30No.
08:31And I never will be again.
08:32I mean, it's the, the, the things we put this poor guy through are absurd.
08:36And I felt bad every day.
08:38And it was scary because, like, you know, when he's performing about screaming and being hurt, like, we can't tell
08:45if he's being hurt or if he is acting.
08:48Um, which is a testament to his, uh, acting.
08:51But it was also terrifying.
08:52Like, you're waiting to call cut and make sure he doesn't keep screaming.
08:55Um, but, uh, I mean, he's just the most, uh, extraordinary actor.
09:00And I'm just so beyond lucky that he's in this movie.
09:03Like, I, I just don't know if it would work with anybody else.
09:05Like, I think it was a book Daniel wrote for Josh and Austin to star in.
09:10Yeah.
09:10Um, have you enjoyed hearing people's theories on how Jay will get out of the whale?
09:15Have you heard, like, some outlandish, uh, kind of theories of this?
09:19Um, I haven't too much.
09:21I mean, like, it's, uh, it's not dissimilar from how the book ends.
09:26And so, you know, there's a, you can find out the answer of if he lives or dies pretty easily,
09:30I think.
09:31But, um, uh, yeah, I try to not Google myself for my movie.
09:35I think it's bad for my mental health.
09:36That's correct.
09:37Uh, hey, best escape room film.
09:39We, uh, I would love for there to be an escape room of, of this movie.
09:43I think it would be a lot of fun.
09:44And very disgusting.
09:46Oh, man.
09:47There's so many facts.
09:48And, um, I would like to choose one that isn't depressing.
09:51Um, because there are some depressing facts about whales.
09:55Uh, let's see.
09:58Like, in a real sort of practical way about, you know, in regards to coming up with the story of
10:05the film,
10:06uh, was just the, you know, the process of figuring out where, where a human being could go and could
10:14not go inside of a whale.
10:16Uh, and with the biologists that I spoke to, it was always, uh, a very careful, like, conscientious discussion of,
10:27can you get through the sphincter at the end of stomach one and to get into stomach two?
10:33And we decided, yes, you can.
10:34Um, and then what is stomach two like?
10:37Well, it's filled with acid.
10:38It's terrible.
10:38Uh, can you get through the sphincter at the end of stomach two and to stomach three?
10:43And it turns out, you know, you can't because that's, it's just too small.
10:46Uh, and then what is the, I'm saying sphincter a lot, but get used to it.
10:51Uh, can you get through the sphincter back into the throat?
10:55Uh, and all of these passageways have, um, certain challenges, um, and some were yeses and some were noes.
11:03Speaking of sthincters, it's very tense, this film.
11:06Yeah.
11:06Of course.
11:06I wonder if you like that segway.
11:08It was good, yeah.
11:08Uh, when you obviously, uh, you know, write the book, you are trying to create attention for your words.
11:14Um, how did you approach, uh, along with your co-writer, how did you approach translating it to the screen?
11:20I mean, was it a strange way to collaborate with someone and try and create your work and put it
11:27in a new medium?
11:28No, I don't think it was, it was strange at all.
11:30Um, it, it was kind of, uh, here's the thing about the plot of whale fall is that I exhausted
11:38what, in the book, I exhausted what you can do inside of a whale.
11:41Like, I worked with the scientists and biologists and we, we figured out every single, every single thing a human
11:49being could do inside of whale.
11:51And so, when you adapt that to a screenplay, it, it secures the plot in a way because it's not
11:58like we can add a bank heist or something or a car chase, right?
12:02Like, there's nothing else that can be added.
12:06So, that element of the story was sort of, you couldn't mess with it because that was it.
12:13The challenge was really the, the process of all of the flashbacks, of which in the book there are, there
12:21might be 50.
12:22And in the, in the movie, there might be five.
12:26And so, how, how can you figure out when to deploy Brolin's character?
12:31And that's the language we used, Brian and I was like, how do we deploy Mitt?
12:35Uh, when should we deploy Mitt?
12:37And at what point can we deploy him that, it makes sense currently to what Jay is going through, but
12:43adds a piece of information that he can use in the next scene.
12:47Um, I'd like to know about the origin.
12:50What sparked this idea for a story for you?
12:53My, my theory is that, uh, you're thinking of a Geppetto prequel story, perhaps, you know, how did he get
12:57in the whale first?
12:58What was the, the origin of the idea for you?
13:01Um, the origin came from a viral video and there's, there's several out there of, uh, too many to be
13:09comfortable.
13:09Um, of kayakers, uh, and so forth, ending up in the mouths of humpback whales.
13:18Um, so it's like humpback whales and all other whales have, have throats like this.
13:26So you're not really ever in danger of being swallowed, but, um, being mouthed inside of whales is also not,
13:31um, not good.
13:33Um, so I'd heard about that.
13:35Um, and immediately within like seconds of hearing about this video, which I hadn't seen yet.
13:41Uh, I had this immediate thought of, uh, could someone really be swallowed by any, some type of whale and
13:50could you survive it?
13:51Um, and the next morning I, I started contacting a whale scientist, which was easier than it sounds, and just
13:59asking them, uh, this question.
14:01And all of them said, yes, if it were a sperm whale, specifically a, a very large sperm whale.
14:09And if the diver was kind of slender, it was theoretically possible.
14:12Um, and since I had no interest in doing a story like this abstractly, because there is, there is Pinocchio
14:23and there's Jonah, we have these other versions.
14:25Uh, but I was very excited about the prospect of doing it, um, realistically and, and confining myself to the
14:34science.
14:34Um, and very slowly I began to learn about what was possible inside the whale.