Tom Bateman has revealed the claustrophobia he suffered while filming Ron Howard’s film Thirteen LivesThe story of 12 Thai boys and their coach being rescued from the Tham Luang caves.
Bateman explained to the BBC that he used meditation to deal with the conditions and got even submerged at one point while filming.
British actor Chris Jewell plays the role of Chris, a British computer consultant and expert cave diver. He joined the rescue mission to northern Thailand in June 2018 after the boys entered the caves following football practice. They were then trapped by floodwater. Their situation was closely monitored by volunteers from thousands of countries around the world, until they were freed by an international team after 18 days.
Bateman, who was the director of the filming in Queensland, Australia under Ron Howard, told the BBC: “Every single day was a challenge for me. I didn’t quite realise how it made you feel… I suffer greatly from claustrophobia and I did meditate a lot.”
Bateman, who was leading a stunt double down a narrow passageway, got submerged for seven minutes. He got trapped between rocks.
“I can remember feeling really hot and thinking, ‘I’m underwater, but I’m sweating. I could see my heart rate increasing. [on a pulse monitor].
“But the beautiful gift of it was overcoming that… it’s all in your head. It was a really safe environment, so getting over that hurdle of ‘I can do this’ is a small victory each time you do it.”
Apart from Bateman, Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell and Joel Edgerton star as the divers who guided them through narrow passages. The actors had to recreate the conditions experienced by real divers.
“The cast definitely all felt fear at various times,”Ron Howard stated this to BBC.
Thirteen Lives opens in cinemas this Friday, July 29th and will launch on Amazon Prime Video starting Friday, August 5.