Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu & Finn Cole on Becoming Real-life Divers in Last Breath (EXCLUSIVE)
Imagine spending 24 hours a day, seven days a week with YOUR co-workers.
Whether you like your co-workers or not, can you imagine spending 24 hours a day with them for weeks on end? Probably not, but that's what saturation divers -- who live in pressurized chambers for weeks while working deep below the ocean surface -- do every time they take an assignment, as deftly depicted in Last Breath, Focus Features' new deep-sea thriller starring Woody Harrelson (Zombieland, Cheers), Simu Liu (Barbie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), and Finn Cole (F9, Peaky Blinders).
"[One] wild aspect of this job, even like your best friend, when they come and stay with you, [it's like] ‘OK, stay the weekend, you can leave on Sunday, no problem.’ But [saturation divers are] together 24/7 for a month, you know what I mean, and it’s just these three guys. You gotta really have, hopefully, a good relationship with them. And that was true for us,” Harrelson told NBC Insider, while pointing to his two castmates.
RELATED: Last Breath: Everything to Know About Deep-Sea Thriller Starring Woody Harrelson & Simu Liu
Granted, living in confined quarters isn't even close to the wildest part of their jobs. The film dramatizes the true events of a harrowing night deep beneath the storm-riddled North Sea back in 2012, when the support vessel tethering saturation divers Chris Lemons (Cole), Dave Yuasa (Liu), and Duncan Allcock (Harrelson) lost power. Lemons and Yuasa were working on an oil rig manifold at the time, while Allcock stayed behind in a dive bell 300 meters below the ship, supervising the umbilical lifelines delivering heat, breathable gas, light, and communication to his co-workers.
With the power out above, Lemons and Yuasa were forced to try and speed their way back to the bell. Unfortunately for Lemons, his umbilical snapped in the process, leaving him with mere minutes of breathable air in his bailout bottle. The race to power the ship back up and save Lemons comprises the tense final act of the film.
Finn Cole and Simu Liu talk dive training for Last Breath
In order to realistically portray the events of the film, Cole and Liu had to undergo rigorous scuba training at Malta Film Studios, as well as a week-long saturation diving program led by Abigail Borgm, Last Breath's dive supervisor (and the son of a real-world North Sea saturation diver). Saturation diving requires completely different equipment from scuba diving, including a large helmet apparatus and the all-important umbilical.
"Yeah, it was three or four weeks of underwater training," Cole told NBC Insider. "Did that advanced scuba, and then got the hat on and started doing the proper sat diving with all the equipment, so that was the extensive training we did ... And I couldn’t have done it with someone better [pointing to Simu], I think we kind of grew at the same level and did it together from the start."
"Me a little bit faster," joked Liu, to which there was some disagreement among them, before Liu got serious again. "It was really wonderful to be in the water with someone who was as enthusiastic and kind of just ready for any and all challenges as Finn, it really really pushed me to kind of show up with my best self. And I think for both of us, it just wound up being one of the most meaningful experiences of our careers."
RELATED: The Cast & Characters of Last Breath, Explained
The actors also got to spend time with the true heroes of that harrowing night beneath the North Sea, their real-world counterparts, Allcock, Yuasa, and Lemons.
"It was great to get to meet Duncan, and I also got to meet Dave, [Liu's character]," Harrelson said. "These are some fascinating characters who have a real philosophy about them and, yeah, I thought I thought it was a great experience just getting into this world."
How can you watch Last Breath?
Last Breath is in theaters everywhere now. Get your tickets here!
