James Cameron shares the heartbreaking story of how he almost died while filming THE ABYSS

After the recent premiere of James CameronThe 4K presentation of The abyss, the director did a question and answer session. During that panel, Cameron casually revealed that he also died during the film’s production. As you know, Cameron likes to shoot some of his films underwater and has his actors train to perform underwater.

This is something he did The abyssalong with his Avatars movie. Describing the process through which his team would supervise the actors to ensure they were safe, Cameron said he almost died during production. He said:

“We had the ‘angels,’ or the safety divers who were right there, and they were each assigned to one or two actors and kept an eye on them the whole time. [But] They weren’t looking at me.

Cameron then went on to describe the heartbreaking event of how he had to fight for survival while filming the film! Although Cameron was an experienced diver, the diving equipment he used did not work properly:

“We were working in 30 feet of water. To be able to move the camera on the bottom, I wore heavy weights around my feet, without fins, and a heavy belt around my waist.

“When the tank goes low, you get a warning that you’re about to run out of air. Well, this thing had a piston servo, so it was a breath…and then nothing. Everyone is turning on the lights and no one is looking at me. I’m trying to get [underwater director of photography] Al… ‘and he’s working with his back to me.

Cameron went on to explain that he managed to get the gear off, but then encountered another obstacle… the safety divers, who he thought were helping him. He explained what he went wrong there:

“The safety diver comes about three meters from the surface and puts a regulator he hasn’t checked in my mouth. He had been banging at the bottom of the tank for three weeks and had a gash in his diaphragm, so I carefully bled it and took a deep breath…of water. And then I purged it again and took another deep breath… of water.

At this point the director said “It was almost time to check out” and to get out of the situation he found himself in he had to punch one of the “angels”. He continued:

“It was almost the check-out point at that point and safety divers are taught to hold you still so they don’t embolize and let your lungs over-expand on the way up. But I knew what I was doing. And he wouldn’t let me go, and I had no way to tell him that the regulator wasn’t working. So I punched him in the face and swam to the surface and thus survived.

And that, my friends, is the story of how James Cameron almost drowned while filming The abyss.

Via: Variety