Every actor works differently, and nobody knows this better than two-time Academy Award–winning director Ron Howard. Considering his 55-year tenure in Hollywood, one may think that for his latest feature epic, “In the Heart of the Sea,” he dictatorially kept the set shipshape. Howard tells Backstage, however, that he learned long ago that though he may be in the captain’s chair, it’s the actors’ job to parse out the required performance.
“I have a lot of experience and these actors would look to me with respect and [were] eager for me to create a kind of framework for them to work in,” Howard says. “But after a while, they came to trust that I was in fact looking to them and trying to find that path for them so that they could fulfill the possibilities of the character and the scene. That’s fun for me and that’s exciting.”
“In the Heart of the Sea” is taken from the true story that inspired Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick.” Based on Nathaniel Philbrick’s 2000 book of the same name, it follows whaler Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth) when his 1820 expedition under Capt. George Pollard (Benjamin Walker) is thwarted and sunk by a 100-foot white whale, leaving the crew stranded at sea for 90 days.
“[Hemsworth] brought the script to me,” Howard says of his initial involvement. “We had this really great experience on ‘Rush’—we were actually doing the ADR work, and he brought up the project to me. I felt Chris was the perfect guy and exactly the right age to tackle Owen Chase.”
Having Hemsworth attached to Charles Leavitt’s script early on proved beneficial for all on set. Filming on the water off the coast of the Canary Islands—paired with a grueling workout and diet regimen to go from sinewy to starved sailor—meant a trying shoot for this ensemble of young men. “As part of the casting process, I made sure that the people we cast understood what the expectations were,” Howard says. In the end, the 61-year-old director found that much of his cast pushed through these difficulties as a matter of following the leader.
“There was tremendous leadership coming from the top because Chris, Ben Walker, and Cillian Murphy—three guys with a lot of experience whom everybody admired—were deeply committed to getting this right,” he says. “It shows in their performances, it shows in their bodies, and everyone followed that example.”
In addition to the personal difficulties of diet and exercise, the cast—and the crew, for that matter—was subject to the powers of Mother Nature. While they weren’t dealing with a literal monster whale, the team behind “In the Heart of the Sea” was still stranded, spending hours on end miles offshore with the baking sun and erratic weather patterns. Ultimately, Howard says, such extreme filming conditions enhanced the cast’s performances. They got a taste of what these real-life sailors endured.
“I’m sure it was miserable, but most of the actors would volunteer that it was helping them with their performances. I expected more frustration, anger, more erratic behavior; if it was happening, it was outside my line of sight and hearing,” Howard says. And while he was braced to implement “drill instructor leadership,” the seasoned filmmaker remains “really impressed” that they met him for the challenge.
“These actors could never be coddled,” he adds. “At the end of the day, we had to get this work done. Their job is to show up and be ready and try to be great. That expectation is always there. I try to support and I try to clear away as many obstacles as I possibly can, but I acknowledge and they recognize that I can’t clear them all away. That’s part of being a film actor. They have to be ready to deal with the unexpected realities and the pressure of having to be raw and real and emotional.”
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