Sandra Bullock and George Clooney’s 2013 sci-fi thriller Gravity was a survival drama set in the unfathomable abyss of outer space. Changing the landscape of modern films dealing with the extraterrestrial, Alfonso Cuarón’s space epic took a huge technological leap into the unknown.
While Sandra Bullock and George Clooney ventured into a physical and psychological challenge, Alfonso Cuarón and his team were absolutely blank about how to make the film. Apparently, using imagination and vision, the actors and the film crew delivered a mesmerizing spectacle.
Alfonso Cuarón’s Leap Into The Unknown With Gravity
Although Alfonso Cuarón’s journey from Earth to outer space with his 2013 sci-fi thriller Gravity, has been laden with Academy Awards, the director initially had no idea how to shoot the film. Facing the challenge along with his team, Cuarón discussed with The Guardian, how his 2013 movie eventually turned into a masterpiece.
“Every day, we thought: ‘This is not going to work,’. It was a process of trial and error and little, little hints of hope, and also a lot of mistakes.”
Leaping into the unknown, Alfonso Cuarón‘s huge technological step, supported by collective effort turned Gravity into something that no one previously dreamt of doing. Using his vision and imagination, the director turned the simple story into a fascinating one. He then discussed his thoughts surrounding his Oscar-winning project.
“The thing is, I’m not a technological person. When I finished the screenplay, I thought: ‘We can do this in about a year.’ [It took four-and-a-half years.] It’s a simple story of a woman in space alone. For me, it was a small, intimate film – yes, with some visual effects, but that was it.”
Without even planning to make a space movie, Alfonso Cuarón simply reinvented his childhood dream of being an astronaut with Gravity. Casting Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in Gravity, the director took the first leap. Although they didn’t know if the movie would perform well, Bullock and Clooney delivered their very best performance.
Sandra Bullock and George Clooney’s Struggling Scenes
The Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock and her co-star George Clooney were certainly the best choice for the space epic as the duo deliberately took the physical and psychological challenge. Although they “had no idea if it would be successful” the actors simply followed Alfonso Cuarón’s vision.
During the interview with The Guardian, Sandra Bullock revealed how even the actors went blindly into the movie, following the director. Without any confirmation about the potential success of the film, the cast and crew simply ventured into the journey.
“You’d explain that it was an avant-garde, existential film on loss and survival in space and everyone would be like: ‘OK …’ It didn’t sound like a film people would be drawn to.”
The actress later discussed how they started to figure out the film with each day’s progress. Initially jumping into the movie without any idea, Bullock and Clooney had a painful shooting experience. Often asked to use their imagination, the duo had a hard time figuring out what to do. Shot in a giant lightbox, the actors had to pretend to be in the Apollo capsule.
“At least they had the moon to look at when they landed on it! We couldn’t see what we were supposedly looking at. We saw blackness, we saw white light boxes, we saw machinery, maybe pieces of pod or Soyuz. We had to imagine it all.”
Despite being filled with challenges at every step, the cast and crew collectively turned the project into an outstanding movie. Eventually, Gravity wasn’t simply a journey of overcoming adversity, but also a way of turning visions into a reality, filled with praises and accolades.
Watch Gravity on Amazon Video.
Source: The Guardian
