Survival thrillers aren’t for the faint-hearted, and we are not even talking about the spectators. The degree of risk and stress actors have to go through to pull all the action is mindnumbing. Such was the case in 2010’s Buried. The Ryan Reynolds-starrer might not have been a blockbuster hit but it was received well by the audience. Although, the real question here is, was it worth the pain?
Sources claimed that Reynolds suffered insomnia and anxiety while shooting in the claustrophobic setting. He also tried to smuggle in sleeping tablets to Barcelona, Spain, the location where the film was being shot. However, his medicines were blocked from entering the country by Spanish immigration authorities. Cut to short, the film shoots turned out to be a nightmare for Reynolds.
Ryan Reynolds’ BTS dilemma in Buried
As per an article by The Standard, the 47-year-old actor was freaked out during and even after the grueling 17-day shoot of the Rodrigo Cortes-led thriller. Sleep-deprived and anxious, Reynolds could not even get his hands on a few sleeping pills because that’s just not how it works in Spain. Speaking in an interview, the Canadian star revealed,
“I’d go home and I’d pace until sun up, like a vampire, and then climb into a coffin to film. I was losing my mind, I hadn’t slept in days, weeks. In Spain, you can’t get over-the-counter sleep aides. Melatonin is a herbal one that I like to use because it’s not really harmful. You can’t get it there, it’s basically like crack.”
Desperate for some sleep, he tried to ship in some tablets from America but never received them. Ryan Reynolds attempted the ship-in a total of six times but all was in vain. Besides the insomnia, the Vancouver native also suffered intense panic attacks. He addressed,
“Claustrophobic is a primal fear that exists within everybody…For me I was enclosed in there and had moments of utter panic that were soothed in various ways.”
A microphone fixed on his chest allowed the crew to track his heartbeat, further assessing his panic attacks. In case, the actor’s heart rate jumped, the crew interrupted the shoot. One might wonder if the panic might have dissolved over time. Interestingly, the last day of the shoot had the greatest risk factor involved for Reynolds.
A tense final day of Buried
The 6’2 actor played the character of a U.S. truck driver, Paul Conroy, based in Iraq, later to be kidnapped and buried alive in a wooden coffin. Trying to survive the extremities, Reynolds tried to escape the coffin in the 94-minute movie. The final day of shooting involved, precisely, the most risky stunt.
The scene portrayed Reynolds in a sand-filled box with only an inch of air left to breathe. Therefore, stepping into the shoot, the actor was perplexed by the sudden presence of paramedics and an ambulance, per CBC. Recalling, Reynolds said at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival,
“I’m at such a fever pitch, the crew keeps ripping the top of the coffin off in the middle of the take because they’re freaked out… Finally I said, ‘If I call cut … get me the hell out of the box but otherwise, let’s just keep going.”
Getting into the action, Reynolds even joked about the risks involved. In a 2010 interview with MTV, director Cortes shared that the actor was a true professional. Reynolds said even if he died while performing the stunt, at least the movie would be done as it was the last scene. Needless to say, Reynolds’ flair and commitment to his roles are praise-worthy.
