Tom Cruise is known far and wide as an actor who gets very involved in the movies he makes. He does all his own stunts, and even knows how to fly planes, making sure that anytime you see him on screen doing basically anything, it’s really him. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer says that actors being this involved is growing and it really helps the movie.
Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced this weekend’s Young Woman and the Sea starring Daisy Ridley as Trudy Ederle, the first woman to swim the English channel. He compared the movie with Top Gun: Maverick saying that both films strongly convey their emotional core due to how real they are. In the case of Top Gun, that was driven home by the fact that Tom Cruise was really flying. Bruckheiner told THR…
It was more about the individual and her emotional story. When you read [Glenn Stout’s] book, what she went through brings tears to your eyes, and it’s always about conveying emotion. Top Gun was a very emotional movie, even though it had a lot of bravado and bells and whistles with great direction, and Tom flying the planes and being really real.
In a lot of cases, actors aren’t really the ones doing anything that could be conceived as dangerous. Often they’re not allowed to, as the star of a movie being hurt can delay production, which costs money. Even Tom Cruise, who broke an ankle filming a Mission: Impossible movie, knows that.
But Bruckheimer says that other actors are following in Cruise’s footsteps. When you watch the Young Woman and the Sea trailer, Daisy Ridley is the one doing the swimming. Brad Pitt also took the time to learn how to drive F1 for an upcoming film. Bruckheimer continues…
But this is the same thing. Joachim shot it in the Black Sea. Daisy Ridley is in the water and actually swimming. We try to bring reality to everything we do, but we obviously don’t want to put anybody in danger. We’re shooting an F1 movie right now with Brad Pitt, and he’s driving the car. It took him three months to learn how to drive those cars, and he’s as good as any of the drivers that we have out there working with him. And it’s the same thing with Damson [Idris].
Daisy Ridley apparently spent four months training with Olympic swimmers in order to play the role of Trudy Ederle. The production could have saved a lot of time and money if the movie had simply used professional swimmers in most of the shots. But Bruckheimer believes that the emotion of the movie can be lost doing things that way.
There’s certainly some truth to that. We know Tom Cruise is out there doing his own stunts, and that perhaps makes them that little bit more thrilling. Maybe because the actor is the one performing the task, it makes the acting easier for them, and that conveys the emotion better to an audience.
There’s every reason to believe that Jerry Bruckheimer is on to something. Young Woman and the Sea is getting glowing reviews from critics, with Daisy Ridley’s performance getting special recognition. The emotion of the film is quite powerful. If Daisy Ridley being “real” is the reason, then hopefully more actors will follow suit.