[video interview] Naomi Watts & Ewan Mcgregor with Buzzine

FILM INTERVIEW: NAOMI WATTS & EWAN MCGREGOR

Devastating Tragedy, One Family's Inner Strength & Overcoming ‘The Impossible’

By: Team Buzzine

Dec 18, 2012

In 2004, a massive undersea Earthquake along the Indian Ocean triggered a series of devastating tsunamis, killing over 230,000 people in fourteen countries, and destroying coastal communities in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. As one of hte deadliest natural disasters in recorded history, the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami remains a terrifying reminder of the fragility of human life.

Despite the harsh realities of the tsunami, Spanish writer/director team Sergio G. Sanchez and Juan Antonio Bayona chose instead to focus on the resilience of the human spirit with The Impossible. Taking the true story of a Spanish family separated by the sky-high waves, The Impossible stars Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts as two British parents fighting to find each other. At the film's Toronto Film Festival 2012 premiere, Buzzine's Emmanuel Itier met with McGregor and Watts to delve into the emotional resonance of this remarkable true story.

Emmanuel Itier: This film not only deals with the horrifying destruction and desolation caused by the 2004 tsunami, but the emotional effects as well. Which aspect of filmmaking was more difficult for you?

Ewan McGregor: Emotionally more so, really. Physically, it wasn't such a massive challenge. My character's quite badly injured, so after the water comes, a lot of the time he's moving around quite slowly. So physically, it wasn't such a massive challenge, but emotionally it was with the children, thinking about what happened there that day with those, you know, the people who lost their lives there; the people who lost their loved ones there. That was with us all the time, and trying to live up to the responsibility of that. And if you're going to make a film about something terrible that happened in real life like this, you have to do it with respect and responsibility, which we did, I think.

EI: The story explores a lot of ideas relating to family, survival, instinct… what was your favorite aspect of working on this film?

EM: It's the first time in my work that I've properly explored what it means to be a parent and to explore that relationship, unique relationship, that we have with our children. I haven't really done that before, and that was one of the things that drew me to it. I've been a dad for 16 years, but I haven't really explored that relationship in my work before. So I think that was the most satisfying and interesting element of it, really.

EI: What sort of research did you do to put yourself in your character’s shoes? Were you able to meet the man your character was based on?

EM: Yeah. You know, the real family are a Spanish family, and they decided to make the film in English. So already, our family were very different. You know, we were British. Physically, I'm very different from Enrique. I'm smaller than him; he's a big guy—tall guy, I mean. But his essence is in the writing. So I concentrated on that.

I also didn't get a chance to meet him before we started filming. I was working on another movie—Summer Fishing in the Yemen—and then it went straight, literally, straight to—I mean, we wrapped that film, I went home, saw my family, and went straight to Thailand. So I didn't have a moment to meet him. He was working in Spain, and I was in Thailand... But eventually, they came out to visit. I became quite nervous to meet him because I was playing him, and I felt like I didn't know him very well. And I worried that he might think I was playing him all wrong.

But when I met him, he's a very gentle soul. He's a very nice man. And I find that there were some similarities in what I was doing. You know, he's in the writing somehow. The writer spent quite a lot of time with the family, so his essence is in the writing, and I'd managed to pick that up.

EI: If audiences take anything away from this movie, what message or concept would you like to stay with them? What resonates for you?

EM: I don't know. I think if you can move people and make people feel, that's what our job is, really. And it certainly does that, this film. It moves you. And therefore, you see how people...

Our job is about exploring what it is to be a human being, what makes human beings tick; what decisions did we make in different situations. This is a very extreme situation, and you get to see people in a unique situation making decisions driven by their fear for the family, and the love of their family. And in moments like this, there's always stories of great heroism, of people that risk their lives to help others. I don't know; I think it's fascinating.

I don't know what I want people to think about it. I never really know the answer to that question.

Emmanuel Itier: With a film titled The Impossible, there are obviously going to be challenges left and right. You also had a fair amount of stunts to tell the story of a family caught in the 2004 tsunami – what were some of the arduous physical challenges you faced while filming?

Naomi Watts: Yeah. It's such a brilliantly chosen title, because it is. It was impossible. It's impossible to imagine. It's impossible to film. Yeah, it was intense. But the story was a big one for so many, and so many right there in all of those countries, but now, hopefully through watching this film, we'll understand it and can get closer to it.

EI: Obviously this a huge story to tell. What aspects of your character, and the terrifying ordeal she goes through, that touched you the most?

NW: Well, that relationship between mother and son was just wonderful; the trust and the love, and the intimacy of it. Maria, having spoken to the real mom Maria, was just so wonderfully articulate in the way she described how she went through each beat of this disaster, and how it sort of affected her, and changed her, and moved her. It was great help for me because you can know so much from the documentaries and the footage available, and what was written about it, but having that intimate relationship with her and hearing her speak was incredibly helpful.

EI: In doing your research about the tsunami and its staggering death toll, did that knowledge and exploration change you at all? I imagine you’d begin to think about your own mortality.

NW: Oh, yeah. I'm someone who thinks about life and death a lot. If there's any running theme in the work I choose to do, perhaps that's it. But it's not that calculated. I go for what speaks to me, is in my gut, and this was that. It's a big story, and I loved that it's a hopeful one. You know? And it does sort of pass on a message of the reasons for us to stay connected.

EI: This film has been shown at a number of festivals amidst other passion projects, independent projects, fueled by that need to tell a particular story. What has that festival experience been like for you?

NW: There's so many great films, great filmmakers, great actors, but they all feel the same in that you're in hotel rooms. And completely, as you said, we're all passionate about what we do and proud of it.

In this case, I'm really happy to be here because I do really have a lot of pride about this film. No matter what, it's a well-made film. Whether audiences will receive it, that's a gamble. No one ever will know until they're there watching it. But it's definitely a well-crafted film, I think.