Dangerous Waters is one of the most underrated thrillers of the year so far, a tense survival action film focused on a damaged young woman who learns to fight for her right to live despite a bevy of predators trying to dominate her, not to mention the natural elements. Odeya Rush plays Rose, a working class woman who goes on a Bermudan vacation with her mother and her mother’s new boyfriend, played by Eric Dane. When pirates ambush the ship, she is forced to use her wits to survive as Dangerous Waters takes viewers from a small yacht, to an abandoned island, to a dangerous pirate ship.
Director John Barr spoke to MovieWeb about the film, which contains Ray Liotta’s final performance. Liotta passed away during the production, but his appearance here is unforgettably haunting, and Barr has captured not just history but a fitting testimony to one of the greats.
Why Dangerous Waters Was a Difficult Production
MW: So between COVID and then the passing of Ray Liotta, it seems as if Dangerous Waters was affected more than the usual production. What did it look like originally, how did it transform, and what was the production like?
John Barr: I’d written a script prior to bringing it to Mark [Johnson, co-writer of Dangerous Waters]. And it had a much bigger scope. It was taking place in South Africa and up the coast of Africa and Madagascar. It was a big, big film, and COVID hit, which basically shut everything down. And I really wanted to make the film because I loved the idea, and I was like, ‘How can we do it? How do we make this so the cast is very condensed, shoot it in a place where we can create a bubble, and get it done?’ And Mark, who’s an amazing writer and a good friend, he read my script and loved the idea, and we adapted it together, and then he wrote it.
John Barr: We had a motto — each day was a miracle on the film, just being able to get through. We shot in 28 days with locations throughout the island. Which is a very, very compressed schedule for something that’s ambitious, but with me being the DP and the producer, also being the UPM, I think we were able to just make it work efficiently. It could very easily have not been that, but fortunately weather held out, and we didn’t have any issues with the sailboat, all the crew was amazing, Too Caribbean, the local production service company that we used, were incredible and yeah, it was amazing. We pulled it off.
John Barr on Directing Ray Liotta’s Final Scene
MW: Ray Liotta is incredible here; though he’s only in one scene, his character kind of haunts the whole film. I know the movie was going to be very different before he passed away. How did that change the production, and could you describe working with him?
John Barr: His character, the captain character, basically carried us through the end of the film. So as far as how it impacted the film, we basically took some down days just to try to assess, and take care of his family. But when we had to face the reality of coming back to filming, we spoke with ILM, we spoke with a bunch of VFX companies in the states to potentially do some face replacement. Again, respectfully, with the family’s permission. We ultimately didn’t go that route because the technology really wasn’t good enough, frankly, we couldn’t 3D scan him, we could only feed the AI monster a few things from the past year that he’s been in. So we decided not to do that; I rewrote the ending and that’s where it landed. I think that it still works.
John Barr: What he achieves in a six or seven minutes span is just art. The arc that he goes through, from innocent to terrifying, it’s so powerful and it’s a testament to how incredible he was as an actor. The way that we played that scene was really interesting, because we talked about it a lot, and we basically played the scene in those various tones multiple times, like innocent throughout the whole take, and then just slowly, gradually got darker and darker to where it ended up. So we could kind of choose when we were editing where we wanted the turn to start to happen. I think he just was unafraid. He would just go darker and darker. It was super impressive to watch.
Odeya Rush and Watching Great Actors Perform
MW: Odeya Rush and Eric Dane are incredible as well. The film lives and dies based on its performances, and it works. Could you talk about why Odeya was the perfect fit for the film, and what it’s like to work with great actors?
John Barr: Yeah, I think Odeya is a very special human. She’s an amazing, amazing woman, and she’s an incredible actress […] Obviously there’s a lot of layers to her character and Alma, her mom, just kind of what they’ve dealt with throughout their lives, you know, the loss of a father and a husband, what that can do to a young woman growing up, like confidence issues, trust issues, a lot of things that just inherently go along with that. But I also think Odeya is her own person. Rose is a real person, and I think she has the ability to overcome any obstacle, and I think it’s on full display throughout the film.
John Barr: Working with actors that are so professional and so good, that’s an experience that you will never forget. I was the gaffer on a film called Capote early on, and Phil Hoffman was in it, and what he did, how he changed who he was, inspired me, and that’s kind of why I’m doing what I’m doing. I just love watching actors perform, and when they do it well, it’s like it gives you chills.
MW: Similar to Hoffman in Capote, I imagined it was like that watching Liotta here, where it just feels almost supernatural.
John Barr: 100%. 100%. And then, you know, his professionalism as well, like in between takes he would turn to me and we would talk for a second, and it’s amazing. It’s remarkable, having that experience. And Odeya in that scene, she’s toe to toe with him. It’s a really good scene.
That’s an understatement; it’s one of the best scenes of the year. From Brainstorm Media, Dangerous Waters is currently available on demand.
Stay connected with us on social media platform for instant update click here to join our Twitter, & Facebook
We are now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@TechiUpdate) and stay updated with the latest Technology headlines.
For all the latest Education News Click Here
