The Hurricane Heist director set up hot tubs to keep actors warm

Filmmaker Rob Cohen had hot tubs installed on the set of The Hurricane Heist so his castmembers could warm themselves up during the cold, wet shoot.
The Fast and the Furious director’s latest action movie follows a U.S. Treasury Agent, a meteorologist, and his ex-Marine brother, played by Maggie Grace, Toby Kebbell and Ryan Kwanten respectively, who team up to stop a gang of hackers from stealing $600 million (£426 million) from the treasury during a Category 5 hurricane.
The film was largely shot in Sofia, Bulgaria at night and consisted of the actors being regularly doused in water to accurately portray the extreme weather conditions, so Rob decided to have the luxury spa tubs on hand for use while they were not on camera.
“I had Jacuzzis on the set the whole time because in between takes they were soaking wet, and in Bulgaria, especially at night, it could get very cold,” Rob explained to WENN. “But if they went back to their trailer, all they were going to do was be damp and miserable and so I just came up with this idea.
“They’ll be soaking wet in their clothes, but they were soaking wet anyway, so they’ll be a lot more comfortable in the warm water than they would be standing on the set or in their trailers, so we had Jacuzzi tents for them so they could not only get out of the rain and the wind but they could soak in hot water.”
The xXx director wanted his actors to do as many of their own stunts as possible, and was pleased they were all “really good sports” about it, although Toby once joked that there wasn’t much acting required during the shoot because they just “had to survive” the tough weather conditions being thrown at them.
However, there was one particular scene, in which the stars had 44,000 gallons of water hurled at them, that the filmmaker insisted on having stunt professionals brought in for.
“I wouldn’t let any of the actors do that because that water is so powerful,” he explained. “It hit these guys like a piston, you could see it in the film… It basically sweeps them along like bowling pins.”
The Hurricane Heist is in U.K. cinemas now.