KEVIN COSTNER DIVES INTO WATER WORLD OF COAST GUARD

(VIDEO) Kevin Costner dove into playing a rescue swimmer in the Coast Guard in the film The Guardian.

Kevin Costner experienced a different kind of water world portraying a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in the film The Guardian. The role required him to get in great physical shape in order to withstand unpredictable rising waves wearing heavy gear on his back.

During the ocean rescue scenes helicopters would be hovering above Costner and co-star Ashton Kutcher which became a scary proposition should something go wrong in the dead of night.

“It could quickly rise up to six to eight feet waves and a lot of times people would be sixty or seventy yards away from you and with all the equipment I had on, I’m not trying to be over dramatic but you weren’t in a court room. You were out there and you were out there for 10, 12 hours so you’d get tired too.”

Costner felt it was his responsibility to get it right for the Coast Guard, these real life heroes they portrayed and found they clarified their profession even to their wives.

“I know there’s a moment where the cameras don’t roll when you’re in the middle of night and there’s a helicopter above you. I would tell Ashton there’s a moment where we might have to use everything we have to get out of this spot and it will never be on film. That was one of the reasons to work hard and try to train because there’s a moment in time where you might need all your resources. If the helicopter fell on us, think about it. And if you add the night time thing, a lot of our scenes were at night there’s a lot that can go wrong.”

The Guardian opens Friday.

“Well there’s always a responsibility when you dip into someone’s professional life whether it’s playing the pitcher for the Detroit Tigers. That’s their job and they want to be portrayed in a real way. They want to feel like that is me. One of the interesting residual things that came from this movie is one of the guys came up to me and said for the first time I’m able to tell my wife what my job is. I think all of us in our life want to believe that somebody will come for us and somebody will come for somebody we love in the worst of conditions and it’s just an awesome promise.”