In November of 2010, I ventured over to Anchorage, Alaska to visit the set of Universal Pictures' Big Miracle, which tells the true story of how three gray whales were trapped in a hole in Point Barrow, Alaska in 1988. Rounding out the extraordinary cast was John Krasinski, Drew Barrymore, Kristen Stewart, Ted Danson, Tim Blake Nelson and Dermot Mulroney, and here are the transcripts from the interviews that were conducted while on set.
Interview with Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski
Q: You guys have been here for a while so give us some tips on how you handle Alaska? And what are your Alaska must-haves in terms of staying cozy?
JK: Must-haves would be these little beauties!
DB: Yeah, the hot packs.
JK: I think they’re called little hotties. You’re going to want to trust that.
DB: It’s hard though. You’ve got the mittens and I’ve got gloves and what I’d love for those little hotties to do is develop little fingers. And then life would be really good. The fingers and the toes are most important. Smart wool, definitely windy proof layers, lots and lots of layers and the feet warmers.
JK: It’s like you’re writing a survival guide.
DB: I have to say it was a total trial and error thing. When I got here I had nothing and I didn’t know what was going to work and what wasn’t. You just start piling on the things you like and get rid of the things that aren’t working.
JK: It’s also so deceiving when you arrive and it wasn’t that cold. The first time I came up it was like 50 degrees and I remember thinking everybody on the production’s insane. They’re like "it gets so cold!" And then coming from LA you’re throwing in light sweaters and then days like this hit and you’re like “does anyone have a caribou carcass?"
Q: When did you guys get here?
DB: In September. He was doing double duty with The Office which is insane, pulling a double shift which is really really hard.
JK: So I officially landed permanently, a month ago in October.
Q: We’ve been asking everyone and they’re all kinda saying the same thing, but I was wondering what drew you individually to the role?
DB: Is that a subtly veiled insult that they’re all kinda saying the same thing?
Q: No no no, they’re all saying the cast is so tight and –
JK: But they didn’t know that when they signed on, so they lied to you. For me the opportunity to play a whale is a once in a lifetime gig and to actually play a human and a whale (laughs). No, I was immediately drawn to the project because of Drew. I knew that Drew was going to be a part of it and I had always wanted to work with her in a very very very major way. And then I think I might have already said yes to it and then they were like “read the script” and really when you read the script…it’s one of those movies where I think it’s this pocket of a very unique and special project. There’s a little bit of romance, a little bit of comedy, and a little bit of drama and it doesn’t really fit into any certain realm that people are used to and in doing this it becomes this really special storytelling and the fact that all of it’s true is incredible. And I remember thinking this is a perfect movie, but I can’t wait to ask how much of this is true and it’s wild, certain things. Like I still to this day can’t believe that Dermot’s character and Vinessa’s character actually did meet on this adventure and did get married after talking to each other on the phone. If I wrote that in the script for myself people would be like that’s not getting made, it’s not good, it’s not real, it can’t be done. So I was just blown away by a bunch of people coming together for whales and realizing there’s just so much more to be said, the bigger picture.
DB: That’s a good, solid, hefty answer. I just want to make films for….I love collective experiences and I think it’s very good to make films that are personal to you and you know what they are. But I think it’s for certain types of people and you sort of know the people that you’re making for. There aren’t a lot of films that you get to make that are very diverse and for a large group of people. We all want to be a part of something that makes us believe that good things happen in the world and that people actually put aside their agendas and came together on something that was really extraordinary, and the fact that there is levity to the really cool important message in this movie makes it not medicine. It’s just a beautiful story and incredible things happen and I think because it’s true, we know that it happened, it sort of gives us that hope that we need in life. But Ken Kwapis, who is just the most…one of the best directors who I’ve ever worked with in my life, was so profoundly smart and insightful about how to approach every single tone in this movie. I knew going into it because of the writing, how good it would be, and I loved the people that Ken was putting together and I knew this was going to special and I couldn’t believe I was lucky enough to get to be a part of it. And then watching it unfold every day, it just continues to exceed my expectations. I need this kind of hope in life. I need movies like this that are just really great storytelling and there’s something just a bit old fashioned in it. It is just extraordinary storytelling and it’s wonderful. It’s a wonderful, wonderful movie.
Q: So your character is the sort of go-getter, save the world kinda thing. What advice would you give to people who want to sign up for a cause?
DB: The same thing that the woman I’m playing, Cindy Lowery did and what I totally believe in is just if it takes staying up 23, 24 hours in a day then do it. If it takes researching until you get to the core of your argument or your passion or your fight, find it then do it. Nothing comes from passion alone. It comes from this incredible diligence and I think you can change things, you can have an effect, you can pull off impossible if you really work at something. And I love that about my character. I love that she is inexhaustible! And then also it’s fun to play someone who’s a bit righteous and stubborn and just almost humorously petty in a way because she has to do what she needs to do, and that’s a really interesting challenge -- to not make someone like that someone you just want to write off, but someone that you want to get behind. And another thing that Ken, our director, is doing which is really just so astute and profound is every side has their convictions and their set of beliefs and I don't think it’s interesting to see an argument where someone’s right and someone’s wrong. It’s interesting to see an argument where both sides have their traditions, their beliefs, a profound sort of connection and the effect it has on the world and what they do and then put those two people in a room together and make them debate and it’s far more intelligent and far more interesting.
Q: What is it like being on the other side of the industry? Being a member of the press versus being –
JK: Oh my God, good question. You guys have it rough, let me tell you. It was actually one of the coolest parts about taking this role was to see the process that the press goes through with a huge story in a media frenzy. It was really really inspiring to see the footage because my character’s sort of an amalgam of a couple people, so it’s not one person that I could go talk to. So to me, my whole angle of doing research was the media itself and how much attention was placed on it and you know there is, like Drew was saying, an extreme power in the knowledge that a certain amount of focus can make a huge difference and that obviously these whales are representatives of much bigger things in this movie, and they were in real life. So to me it was the dichotomy between someone who just wanted to break a really good story for personal gain (which is totally part of this) and learning later that the attention being brought to the story had such an effect, not only on the world as a whole, but on certain people. And like Drew said, I think that most recent thing I can think of is when George Clooney did that Hope For Haiti telethon I was manning the phones, I was so blown away to hear that everybody’s number one comment was “thank you guys for doing this," not because we love seeing celebrities do a bunch of different things, but because we didn’t know exactly what to do and we needed to do something so when there’s focus put on one certain pinpoint idea it allows people to feel like they do have a voice and a say in all this.
Q: Once you both had read the script, what other sorta things - did you surf videos on YouTube or whatever sort of things did you –
DB: That’s too surface for me, I go way deeper than that.
Q: Read other things, read old news articles or did you just kinda stick to what was in the script?
DB: I read a bunch of books. I spent week upon week upon week traveling to different places with Cindy Lowery, the woman that I’m playing. I met with different people in this field, like Paul Watson who’s the whale wars gentleman. I went up to his island and spent Labor Day weekend with him and chasing pods of orcas. I researched and met with the head of Greenpeace and spent time with them. Ken really put me on track with constant research, some of which yes, I pulled off the internet. But just book after book after article and then Ken gave me these books that were just profound: Leviathan by Philip Hoare, which is just an amazing sort of evaluation and dissection of not only Moby Dick, but just every piece of information about the history of whales, whaling. I studied different types of whales from a scientific level and then he also had me read this book called Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, which when I started reading it I wondered why he was having me read this because it didn’t seem on point since it’s about factory farming. And I found myself after months of months of traveling and doing all this research and spending all this time with people and being a book worm, you know, a questioner or whatever. But it was the one thing that set me into me being that guy at a dinner table who’s like “and you know what, that chicken that you’re eating is filled with puss and poison. You don’t want to be eating that and what you should be doing and what the government is doing.” And I was like oh my God, Ken Kwapis is a genius. Forget everything I just spent months on. Thank God I felt like I had that in my arsenal because I like to show up with a lot of homework, but it was the very thing that Ken said “please read this” and I remember him saying it will make you angry. But it was like 2 months before I read it and that turned me in one foul swoop more of the kind of person who I think I wanted to be for this character, and who is that someone who is in your face with a lot of information about things and they’re very passionate about it. And they may ruin dinner parties and hopefully they’re still funny and charming enough that you don’t write them off and you want to hang out with them, but it was the thing that forced me into being someone I’m…you know, I’m very passionate about things but it certainly wasn’t in this particular field that I was so that’s just a few things that I can think of.
JK: Why would I ever answer that question after what you just said.
DB: (laughs) I just wanted to show that I go a lot deeper than YouTube.
Go on to the second page to read an interview with Dermot Mulroney!