Mandy Moore and Claire Holt Stuck 47 Meters Down

By: Lynn Barker

In the scary thriller 47 Meters Down, two sisters on vacation cage-diving with sharks are trapped far underwater when something goes wrong. Will sharks eat them? Will they run out of air? Stars Mandy Moore, who was a big teen star and singer a few years ago and now on the TV show “This is Us” and Claire Holt who has starred on TV in “The Vampire Diaries” and “The Originals”, play the sisters and reveal that they had never even been diving before or been near a shark.

Read what the girls say about water adventure, the effect of social media on the emotions of young actors and more!

Q: You’re out of the water but is the fear ever over?

• Claire: I’ve been traumatized for sure. I don’t think I’ll ever be the same again. Mandy is so brave and is totally down to go shark diving. It took her about eight hours to convince me to go with her.  We’ll do it one day.

Q: Is doing that crazy?

• Mandy: No. I think it’s just fun. As long as somebody could convince me that there is plenty of oxygen and the shark couldn’t actually make its way into the cage, I’ll be fine.

Q: When you shot this you were in a tank, right?

• Mandy: Yes, we were in a tank.

Q: What drew both of you to do this movie?  It must have been a real physical experience.

• Mandy: But I think just that was what was so enticing for both of us. For me, I’m not usually thought of for this particular genre so that was pretty exciting as well. But, I loved the script. I found it so compelling from start to finish and the sort of twist at the end that they didn’t see coming and I knew that it would be a challenge and entirely rewarding.
• Claire: It really was truly. It was such a difficult experience going through production. It was exhausting and it was daunting at times but I think both Mandy and I felt such a sense of accomplishment when we finished it. We really feel like we did justice to the story from every department; the filmmakers and everyone just worked so hard to bring this together and I think we came out with something I’m pretty proud of.

Q: Spending all that time in the water, how did you keep up the energy? Did you do a lot of training beforehand?

• Mandy:  A lot of sugar and caffeine. You go into it knowing it’s going to be somewhat physically taxing but I don’t think Claire or I had any idea how taxing it would be until we finished the first day and the first week. I’m not usually a napper, but I could not keep my eyes open at lunch. I would just pass out in my trailer. I’d eat and then take a nap.
• Claire: Which we later learned you’re not actually supposed to do. When you come up from diving you’re not supposed to go to sleep. It’s quite dangerous apparently but we did it anyway and lived to tell the tale.
• Mandy: You don’t realize how much you’re extending yourself when you’re underwater like that. Even the smallest movements. There were days where I would come away thinking, “Oh, that wasn’t too physically taxing,” and yet I was still bone tired.

Q: Have you always been a fan of this genre? “Jaws?” “Sharknado?”

• Mandy: (she laughs.) “Sharknado!” What I loved so much about this, as much of an emphasis as everyone’s putting on sharks, what was much more terrifying to me and Claire was this prospect of drowning, of running out of air at the bottom of the ocean, and this race against the clock. Just that ultimate test of survival scares me way more than sharks. That’s my deepest fear.

Q: Did you have some kind of diving course?

• Claire: We had a crash course. I think we had a few hours one afternoon in a swimming pool and then we were thrown right into the ocean off the coast of Ventura and we did two deep water dives and it was terrifying for us at first because neither of us had been diving before. It was a beautiful but almost overwhelming experience.
• Mandy: I was like “Is there going to be two months of this?” What was easier for us was that we were wearing not the regular mask and regulator that the camera-crew used. We were lucky enough to have the full facemask, obviously so we could talk underwater and you could see our facial expressions. Had I been in a regular mask and regulator, it would have been too much. Too scary.

Q: What’s the most adventurous thing you’ve done?

• Claire: I’ve travelled a lot. I think as an Aussie we love to go walkabout as they say.
• Mandy: Probably skydiving. I’ve done it three times.

Q: So you’re a thrill seeker?

• Mandy: I don’t know. That’s pretty much where it begins and ends, to be honest. I like to think of myself as being spontaneous than I probably am, especially as I’ve gotten older. Bungee-jumping, no. That scares me. Windsurfing and all that kind of stuff sounds fun to me. But I haven’t been that adventurous as of late.

Q: What did you get out of skydiving?

• Mandy: The rush of adrenaline is like nothing you’ve ever experienced. As soon as you land, every time I’ve done it, I immediately want to go back up and do it again.

Q: How eagerly do you share your adventures on social media or do you like to keep those experiences to yourself?

• Mandy: I think it’s a little of both. I’m keenly aware in this day and age it is part of our job to do that. And sometimes it’s fun to share that with people, but I’m hesitant. I think about how much and how often I want to (share my personal experiences).
• Claire: Yeah you have to balance how much you want to share. What bothers me the most is at concerts when people are recording it through their phone and not experiencing it. I think sometimes that’s a worry. But it’s nice to connect with your fans and it gives you a platform to do that. I think as long as you are cognizant of the fact that it’s not your real life, just a way to share your experiences with people then you’re in good stead.

Q: Mandy, you’ve been in the public eye for a long time, since you were a teenager. How do you keep yourself centered or stable?

• Mandy:  I think the most important part is finding that balance with your life. From a young age, I was always keenly aware I was really lucky to be in this position. I didn’t take it for granted. I really tried to take advantage of the opportunities that came my way. You just find good people.

Q: Did you ever think about disappearing from Hollywood?

• Mandy: Sure. I certainly thought of that during certain moments of my life and career, but you just keep sticking it out and hope that it will all come around again.

Q: You were coming up at a time before social media was prominent. If you were starting out today with the movie A Walk to Remember and your music, do you think you’d be any different?

• Mandy: I’m not sure how kids do it these days. I feel like I have a bit of a wall, a bit of a veil. You keep your distance because I didn’t grow up around (social media). I don’t think I would have fared very well. I probably just would have been very quiet.
• Claire: I don’t know how (really young actors) manage it, really. It’s human nature to see the one negative comment in a sea of a thousand kind ones. If you don’t have the ability to let it go or detach from it or you don’t have the self-confidence to say “Well, that says more about you than me”, then it is tough.  I’ve found myself a victim of being hurt by comments before so I’m happy that social media came along a little after we first started because it must be overwhelming.
• Mandy: It’s so confusing.

Q: Have you ever been pressured into doing something you know is dangerous or risky?

• Mandy: No, but I’ve convinced Claire to do the shark cage with me.
• Claire: It’s not hard to get me to do something (laughs). But I think we’ve all had experiences in our lives where we’ve succumbed to peer pressure like (in the film) with Kate trying to encourage Lisa to enjoy her life and be daring and step out of her box and Lisa obviously wants that for herself so I think the intensions of the characters were pure but we just happened to make a pretty terrible decision.

Q: This movie could have gone direct to DVD but it’s opening in theaters. There is something unique about it don’t you think?

• Mandy: Yeah, because I thought that the concept is so unique and the fact that 95 percent of this movie takes place underwater. That’s what really drew us to (this project) as well. That’s a really compelling conceit or premise. We were guinea pigs. No one had really shot a movie like this before. No one knew how it was going to turn out. It was a gamble for all of us so to see that it paid off and that it will see the light of day, and it’s coming to fruition in a way that we hoped for but none of us expected. You never really have a guarantee, especially with a project like this. It’s not a giant studio movie where it’s a superhero picture, of course it’s going to come out. So, we’re really grateful.
• Claire: We hoped it would but we never really expected it.

Q: Are you through with the beach after all this?

• Mandy: I don’t know. Eight hours a day for like seven weeks.
• Claire: I’ll go to the beach again but I’m not sure if I’ll go diving again.

See 47 Meters Down in theaters Friday, June 16^th!

 

 

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