KURT RUSSELL CHALLENGES THE WAVES

Newly divorced former firefighter Kurt Russell takes his daughter to ring in the New Year on a luxury cruise liner doomed for disaster in Poseidon. Based on the 1972 original The Poseidon Adventure Russell says his character Robert Ramsey has to make a life and death decision when a rogue wave crashes into the ship.

The role was psychologically challenging for Russell who had to swim underwater without being able to see three feet in front of him without a mask on in the murky waters. He says he began to wonder if he had enough breath to last for the scene.

“When a boat that you’re completely unfamiliar with that’s absolutely enormous capsizes and stays turned over, your choices are two, you can stay in this one room where everybody is and hope that you’re rescued before something really goes wrong on the ship and it goes down, or you have that feeling inside you that perhaps I should take matters into my own hands and try to save my life here.”

Even though there are safety measures taken accidents can still happen and they did on the set of Poseidon. During an underwater sequence Russell’s metal flashlight clipped co-star Josh Lucas in the eye who was swimming behind him. rn

“Trying to behave the character in certain situations while you’re just concerned about holding your breath and getting to the place you’ve got to get to on the set. What we found in the difficulty is not having a mask. When you have a mask on you can see where you’re going and about how long it’s gonna take you and you sort of feel pretty comfortable with that. When you take the mask off you’re visibility is cut so greatly that psychologically you no longer know how far you have to go to get to your destination. Now you begin to wonder if you have enough breath.”