Kate Winslet breaks Tom Cruise’s underwater filming record

When Avatar was released in 2009, it quickly became the highest-grossing movie of all time, breaking the record held by Titanic back in 1997 (and both of them are Canadian-born James Cameron films!). We know that Avatar 2 is 100% complete (and Avatar 3 is almost done), and when it’s released it will already be a record-breaker; turns out cast member Kate Winslet held her breath underwater for a shot in the film for seven minutes and fourteen seconds. We’re getting light-headed just thinking about it.In her recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Winslet dropped the news of her underwater filming record. “I had to learn how to free-dive to play that role in Avatar, and that was just incredible. My longest breath hold was seven minutes and 14 seconds, like crazy, crazy stuff.”Worried that’s she’s given away too much info about the hush-hush top secret project (James Cameron is famous for his secrecy!), she added, “Oh no, actually, I can’t. Yeah, I play a water person. I am a water person.”Producer Jon Landau posted to his Instagram the exact shot of her holding her breath, and it looks ethereally beautiful. We cannot wait to see this sequel!

 

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Wanted to share this photo of Kate Winslet after reading her interview in The Hollywood Reporter: “I had to learn how to free-dive to play that role in Avatar, and that was just incredible. My longest breath hold was seven minutes and 14 seconds, like crazy, crazy stuff.” She stops herself, afraid that she’s given away too much on the top-secret project. “Oh no, actually, I can’t. Yeah, I play a water person. I am a water person,” is all she will offer, instead shifting to praise of Cameron."

A post shared by Jon Landau (@jonplandau) on Oct 26, 2020 at 9:44am PDT

Frankly, we’re surprised she didn’t break this record for her unsinkable role in Titanic with Cameron. Looks like she just can’t stay away from the water roles.According to USA Today, the previous underwater record was held by stuntman (and sometimes major Hollywood actor) Tom Cruise during the 2011 filming of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. Cruise held his breath for 6 ½ minutes back then, which in itself is a huge feat. So the fact that Kate beat it – we’re not saying she’s stronger and has more stamina that Cruise, but . . . okay that’s exactly what we’re saying.[video_embed id='5989732658001']RELATED: Tom Cruise confirms two new 'Mission: Impossible' movies[/video_embed]When news of her record-break reached her, Kate said, "It's so funny because I don't really read reviews or media things. I'm not on Instagram, like I'm just completely disconnected from that part of my life."She continued, “So all of this week and the week before, I've had people coming up to me at work saying, 'Oh my God, like seven minutes and 14 seconds? Like, what?!" And I'm going, 'What? Hang on, wait a minute. How do you know that?'""It was brilliant and I was very proud of myself and I'll probably never be able to do it again," she concluded. "That came at the end of four weeks’ worth of quite intense training and it was in the dive tank, it was in the training tank. But I loved it."Earlier this year we got our first glimpse of Avatar 2 when the studio released on-set photographs, and yup, there’s Kate Winslet in water.

From the set of the sequels: @ZoeSaldana, Sam Worthington, Kate Winslet, and Cliff Curtis taking a break from underwater performance capture for a quick photo!

Fun fact: Much of the performance capture took place in this 900,000 gallon tank, built specifically for the sequels. pic.twitter.com/NSfqoZ6jXJ— Avatar (@officialavatar) May 13, 2020

The original cast of Avatar is back, including Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi and even Sigourney Weaver (didn’t her character bite the dust in the original? This resurrection we gotta see). They are joined by Winslet, Vin Diesel, and Michelle Yeoh. Luckily, Avatar 2 began filming back in 2018 in New Zealand so it wasn’t affected by the COVID-19 global pandemic shut down, but that doesn’t mean Cameron is loose-lipped on details.“I can’t tell you anything about the story,” he said back in September. “I believe in the mystery and the great reveal.”[video_embed id='-1']Before you go: Cat finds that this horse's back is the best spot relax[/video_embed]