OMEN
06-02-2006, 09:38 AM
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Making a splash ... Jacinda Barrett
IT'S understandable Jacinda Barrett is losing her Australian accent. After all, she left Australia one month after finishing high school at 17 to pursue modelling, a career which was sidetracked when she was cast in the American reality series The Real World.
Nevertheless, the former Brisbane girl admits losing her accent is "sad", even if the Australian upbringing did make her a little more comfortable in the new film Poseidon.
The $US175 million adaptation of Paul Gallico's 1969 novel The Poseidon Adventure (and the 1972 film starring Shelley Winters, Gene Hackman and Ernest Borgnine) is obviously all about water. Water in the form of a rogue wave that engulfs luxury liner the Poseidon.
"Growing up in Australia, water is such a part of your life," Barrett says. "You learn to swim almost before you can walk. You have the swimming lessons from such a young age; people don't do that in the US. So for the water part, I was so comfortable already."
Even so, the water which floods the overturned ship is overwhelming. A number of upside-down sets needed to be constructed, many of which were flooded, and director Wolfgang Petersen returned to the 22ft-deep watertank he used while filming The Perfect Storm, filling it with 1.3 million gallons of water.
It wasn't the easiest of shoots, with crew falling down, cutting themselves, suffering minor electrocution and sickness from hanging around in tepid water. Star Josh Lucas even copped a couple of stitches.
Barrett admits working in water was intense.
"You deal with a whole bunch of stuff that you couldn't foresee," she says. "All your senses are shut down underwater, which is fine if you're just frolicking in the pool. But if you're doing a scene where you're swimming to one point under a tunnel, and there's only one access, one way you can get out - it can be a little scary because you're totally blind."
Barrett also felt a little vulnerable knowing she had to rely on safety experts on set to bail her out of any compromising situations.
"It's just that idea that you've got your safety in someone else's hands," she says. "You have to let all your fears go and just dive in." The effort was well worth it. Poseidon's big-budget special effects, for the most part, are impressive. But the scenes in which the actors are clearly swimming underwater through treacherous passages are crucial.
Barrett plays single mum Maggie James, the object of the potential affections of card shark Dylan (Josh Lucas), before tragedy befalls the ship. Barrett and Lucas are joined by Kurt Russell, The Phantom Of The Opera's Emmy Rossum and Richard Dreyfuss.
Barrett is one of the better things in the film, particularly in an intense scene with her trapped son Conor (Jimmy Bennett) as the waters rise.
"In that scene, I just connected to the fact that no matter what, I have to make him feel like he's gonna be OK because if he panics, he'll drown in there," she says. "That overrides everything else. Because your mother instinct kicks in and you've got to protect your child. Nothing else matters. You risk your life for your child."
But it is a disaster movie. And the Australian star of The Human Stain, Ladder 49 and Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason had to surrender to the genre. Barrett made up most of the dialogue with her screen son because the stressful situations demanded it. One moment, in which Conor was pulled underwater, was actually an accident. "They left it in because it worked," Barrett says.
"But there are so many things that I'd never done in a movie like this that you're dealing with. You're shooting with always more than three cameras, which changes everything. If I move so much for camera A, I screw up camera B's shot. You couldn't move because of the safety issues, of how far your harness would let you go or what CGI thing was actually going to be put in there.
"So, you are very much a small piece of the puzzle as the actor, unlike a character-driven drama. I enjoyed that, seeing my place in the picture differently and surrendering to the bigger picture of the movie. I learned a tremendous amount about filmmaking."
Daily Telegraph
Making a splash ... Jacinda Barrett
IT'S understandable Jacinda Barrett is losing her Australian accent. After all, she left Australia one month after finishing high school at 17 to pursue modelling, a career which was sidetracked when she was cast in the American reality series The Real World.
Nevertheless, the former Brisbane girl admits losing her accent is "sad", even if the Australian upbringing did make her a little more comfortable in the new film Poseidon.
The $US175 million adaptation of Paul Gallico's 1969 novel The Poseidon Adventure (and the 1972 film starring Shelley Winters, Gene Hackman and Ernest Borgnine) is obviously all about water. Water in the form of a rogue wave that engulfs luxury liner the Poseidon.
"Growing up in Australia, water is such a part of your life," Barrett says. "You learn to swim almost before you can walk. You have the swimming lessons from such a young age; people don't do that in the US. So for the water part, I was so comfortable already."
Even so, the water which floods the overturned ship is overwhelming. A number of upside-down sets needed to be constructed, many of which were flooded, and director Wolfgang Petersen returned to the 22ft-deep watertank he used while filming The Perfect Storm, filling it with 1.3 million gallons of water.
It wasn't the easiest of shoots, with crew falling down, cutting themselves, suffering minor electrocution and sickness from hanging around in tepid water. Star Josh Lucas even copped a couple of stitches.
Barrett admits working in water was intense.
"You deal with a whole bunch of stuff that you couldn't foresee," she says. "All your senses are shut down underwater, which is fine if you're just frolicking in the pool. But if you're doing a scene where you're swimming to one point under a tunnel, and there's only one access, one way you can get out - it can be a little scary because you're totally blind."
Barrett also felt a little vulnerable knowing she had to rely on safety experts on set to bail her out of any compromising situations.
"It's just that idea that you've got your safety in someone else's hands," she says. "You have to let all your fears go and just dive in." The effort was well worth it. Poseidon's big-budget special effects, for the most part, are impressive. But the scenes in which the actors are clearly swimming underwater through treacherous passages are crucial.
Barrett plays single mum Maggie James, the object of the potential affections of card shark Dylan (Josh Lucas), before tragedy befalls the ship. Barrett and Lucas are joined by Kurt Russell, The Phantom Of The Opera's Emmy Rossum and Richard Dreyfuss.
Barrett is one of the better things in the film, particularly in an intense scene with her trapped son Conor (Jimmy Bennett) as the waters rise.
"In that scene, I just connected to the fact that no matter what, I have to make him feel like he's gonna be OK because if he panics, he'll drown in there," she says. "That overrides everything else. Because your mother instinct kicks in and you've got to protect your child. Nothing else matters. You risk your life for your child."
But it is a disaster movie. And the Australian star of The Human Stain, Ladder 49 and Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason had to surrender to the genre. Barrett made up most of the dialogue with her screen son because the stressful situations demanded it. One moment, in which Conor was pulled underwater, was actually an accident. "They left it in because it worked," Barrett says.
"But there are so many things that I'd never done in a movie like this that you're dealing with. You're shooting with always more than three cameras, which changes everything. If I move so much for camera A, I screw up camera B's shot. You couldn't move because of the safety issues, of how far your harness would let you go or what CGI thing was actually going to be put in there.
"So, you are very much a small piece of the puzzle as the actor, unlike a character-driven drama. I enjoyed that, seeing my place in the picture differently and surrendering to the bigger picture of the movie. I learned a tremendous amount about filmmaking."
Daily Telegraph