Having created some of the most memorable action films in the last 20 years, including blockbusters like The Fugitive, Under Siege and Collateral Damage, director Andrew Davis is no stranger to big-time action. With his new film The Guardian, about the lives of U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmers, even the veteran helmer felt more than a little trepidation when faced with a grueling 62-day shooting schedule in Katrina-torn Louisiana, where stars Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher were put to the test day in and day out in a massive man-made tank, pounding them with seven-foot waves.
Davis felt the risks were more than worth it, though, as he attempted to break new ground in real-life vs. special effects, while giving audiences a peak into the perilous lives of the Coast Guard swimmers who, as the director puts it, only “go out when the weather is bad” to battle the tempestuous waters of the Barring Sea, risking it all to save human lives. “It’s the best example of what I think our government should be spending money on,” he told Hollywood.com. “People caring for each other and helping each other.”
Hollywood.com: What challenges did you come across shooting this film?
Andrew Davis: The challenge here was to try to create an environment where the water was real in terms of the world these guys work in. So I had to figure out how to make a water movie that didn’t seem like it was done with all special effects.
HW: Was it difficult shooting water scenes?
AD: I studied all the films that had dealt with water before and tried to figure out what they had done, and then we took advantage of what the new technologies would allow us to do that couldn’t have been done before. And then also created an environment—we had created a postage stamp of the Baring Sea in Treeport, Louisiana. We made a tank that was a 100 by 80 by 8 feet deep that could create 7-foot waves. And then by the time you added wind machines and the right kind of lighting—one of the legendary Coast Guard swimmers said to me as we turned it on the first time, “I’m getting goose bumps,” because it was so real. And so we had to go through the process of figuring out how to make a tank, and we used the technology that these water parks use. But instead of having a beach, we had a hard end to the tank so it would wash back and create either diamond waves or rolling waves—we had a lot of control over it. And then we had to figure out how to put our actors in the water without beating them up too much, but they in fact had to be very strong.
HW: How was shooting this different from all the other films you saw with action on the water?
AD: Well nobody has ever made a tank that can create the kind of water we created, so if you look back at some of the films, the water doesn’t match the big waves in the digital shots. Our waves and our tank match the big waves…and the spray and the actual feeling of being in the water—and I had to figure out how to—you can’t do a close-up because you’ll get seasick, so we had to figure out how the camera relates to the water. Sometimes we were in the water with the camera, sometimes we were with cranes shooting it, sometimes we were with helicopters shooting it down on people, so it was complicated and it was a quick learning curve. The thing is, the water becomes a real element to the character in the story because these guys go out when the weather is bad. There are four major water sequences in the movie involving ocean work—that was my biggest concern. I remember seeing Hitchcock films when I was a kid and it never got to me because it was phony—I wasn’t emotionally involved in it. And so we studied all kinds of true rescue footage before we started, and I kept thinking, “My god, how are we going to do this? How are we going to make this thing look so real?’” And, ultimately, I was very, very pleased with the success that we had.
HW: Did Ashton and Kevin do their own stunts?
AD: They were in the water getting banged around. And we had all kinds of people, help ‘em, train ‘em, all this stuff, but they would finish a take come out of the side of the pool and have to let go [vomit] sometimes.
HW: How did you train them for this?
AD: Well, the film is based upon some real Coast Guard legends and we had those guys actually in the movie. We setup a boot camp and we trained like the school does in Elizabeth City. We setup out own camp and our 22 students who were part of the school, did two weeks of boot camp. And Ashton trained for about seven or eight months before that.
HW: How did Ashton train before that?
AD: He worked out, he swam in the ocean, found a swim instructor, grew 15 pounds of muscle and he was capable of becoming one of the actual Coast Guard rescue swimmers by the time we started. He had the kind of fortitude and the strength—inner-strength to sort of hang in there—and that’s what it’s about. It’s not just about muscle it’s about having a kind of core that doesn’t let you give up. We did have some doubles do some things outside of a real cave in Oregon that was very dangerous, and certain things involved with helicopters but for the most part, he was hanging on cables and getting banged around in the water with the real guys.
HW: Any anecdotes with stunts gone wrong with your stars?
AD: I just remember we’d finish a take and they’d have to go over the side and have to go into a bucket, they were so sick from getting beat-up—and exhausted. It was grueling. It was really grueling. And I said, “Okay, you ready to have some water? Take two!” They were real troopers, real troopers. And I think that the fact that we had the real guys around us, you know they were impressed by how committed we were to making the movie honest and authentic and we were committed to depicting these guys as they really are.
HW: How did the stars get involved in the project?
AD: Ashton had been interested in this project for a longtime. And the producers who had developed the script, were interested in him for a longtime. So when I was brought onboard to direct, I met him and felt very quickly that he was the right kid to play this part. I think he has all the characteristics of a real leading man, and he’s smart and he’s creative and was very interested in the project, which I thought was great. And Kevin is someone I’ve wanted to work with for years. And he’s also perfect because I felt like it was working with a young or the next Paul Newman character. He’s at that age where he’s going to deal with his own coming of age…a man turning 50, and how do you deal with your life changing—your body changing? And that’s the character he plays in the movie, a guy that’s been saving lives for years and has to deal with the reality that he can’t do it anymore.
HW: You’ve worked with some of the biggest names, Costner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Douglas, Christopher Reeve, Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Gene Hackman, Steven Segal, Chuck Norris—what is it about these men that you think appeals to movie-going audiences?
AD: Well, you listed a lot of different people, you know, and they have different appeals but what I’ve noticed is, there are very few leading men who don’t have sort of humble roots or real empathy for the average guy. These guys, the common guy relates to them. And I think that throughout Hollywood history, it wasn’t always the pretty boys who had the greatest impact. Humphrey Bogart was sort of a scraggily looking guy and he had tremendous appeal. So, I don’t know, I think it’s a combination of their own instincts about acting and their own level of charisma. And I think I was really lucky to have these two really charismatic, talented hunks of men, you know?
HW: I know that Harrison Ford likes to do his own stunts—where do you draw the line?
AD: Well it’s a combination of their knowledge and what they’re capabilities are and you’re knowledge of what the dangers are and, you know, as these guys get older they’re not going to be doing their own stunts so much. I mean, basically, you just don’t… I’ve been very, very lucky to be able to have the assistant directors and stuntmen and producers who are part of the team who made the environment such that allows me to shoot what I want to shoot without endangering people. And, of course, anything can happen—accidentally things can go wrong but we try to do everything we can to keep it safe. It’s only a movie, you know. You know a lot of times people do their stunts and it’s important but then they also find that after they’ve been in the business for a while, that they can rely on other people to do things for them so they don’t have to jeopardize themselves. I had a great stunt coordinator on this movie named Alex Daniels who worked with me on Holes and he was the guy who played Batman in the early Batman movies that Joel Schumacher made. And he’s just a great guy who is terrific in terms of training people. We had 22 young students for this Coast Guard swimming school, we had four or five Olympic swimmers, we had tri-athletes, we had actors, we had ex-military guys, we had real Coast Guard swimmers and we went through this boot camp run by the actual swimmers and it was in the boot camp that people really got as sense of what was going to be asked of them dramatically in terms of being in the movie.
HW: Of all the big action stars you’ve directed, who, in your opinion, is the toughest?
AD: The toughest to work with or the toughest guy? Who can beat up who, you mean? I haven’t seen him in a long time, but Steven Seagal is pretty tough. He trained for that stuff and none of the other people I’ve actually worked with trained to do that. Steven has very big knuckles. Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal are the only martial artists I’ve ever worked with… I don’t know. The toughest guy? My father, who played Grandpa in Holes.
HW: Who is a better action hero—GI Jane or Ashton?
AD: That’s for the audience to decide. I don’t want to get in the middle of that one. He can probably swim faster than she can kick butt.
