Actress Kate Winslet reunited with Titanic director James Cameron for the sequel of the 2009 blockbuster Avatar. The film not only became the highest-grossing film of 2022 but also the third-highest-grossing movie of all time. Along with the box office, Winslet also broke one of the records in the history of Hollywood. Considering most of the film was shot underwater, the cast of the film had to learn free diving skills.
And with the help of the training she received ahead of filming, the Titanic star was able to break Tom Cruise’s record by holding her breath underwater for seven minutes and 14 seconds. And as it became one of the most talked about topics about Avatar 2, the actress shared that the Mission Impossible star must be tired of hearing the same story repeatedly.
Kate Winslet on Breaking Tom Cruise’s Record
Tom Cruise made the record for the longest breath-hold on the screen for his 2015 film Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. He held the record for seven years before the Oscar winner Kate Winslet broke it by one minute and 14 seconds while filming James Cameron’s 2022 film Avatar: The Way of Water.
The topic has been highly discussed since the film’s release, and the actress believes that the Jack Reacher star must be “getting very fed up of hearing this story.” During an interview with USA Today, she opened up about training for the movie and how she ended up breaking the record.
She also shared that she has never met the Hollywood star in real life and has also not heard from the actor since breaking his record as well. However, considering the whole situation, she also said some words to the actor. “Poor Tom,” Winslet said.
Winslet stars as the Na’vi character Ronal in the Avatar sequel and will be reprising her character in the next movie in the franchise as well. She has also shared that she wanted to break the record that she held during an earlier session, which was six minutes 14 seconds. And she was able to overtake it by one minute.
The Avatar 2 Cast Had to do Breath Holding Training
Performing such extreme stunts, whether it’s hanging off of a plane or holding breath for a specific time, is not an easy task, even for action stars like Tom Cruise. He has shared that the whole team was worried that he would not be able to pull off the underwater stunt. However, he did the stunt gracefully. Cruise prepared for his action sequence under a breath-holding training program designed for the military.
The Avatar 2 cast also went through an intense training program to be able to film the underwater scenes for the movie. James Cameron has shared that he got the “world’s best breath-hold specialists” to work with the cast and help them prepare for their roles. They learned free diving skills and had breath-holding training. Their hard work and efforts paid off, as the sequel featured some of the most stunning underwater scenes.
Avatar: The Way of Water is available on Disney+.
Source: USA Today
