Sigourney Weaver trained with a Navy SEAL instructor to hold her breath for more than 6 minutes for 'Avatar: The Way of Water'
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Sigourney Weaver said she learned to hold her breath for more than 6 minutes for "Avatar: The Way of Water."
She said she trained with a Navy SEAL instructor for over a year, and also did parkour while filming.
Conditioning involved working up to longer times and "anyone can do it," Weaver said.
Actress Sigourney Weaver spent more than a year training with a Navy SEAL instructor for her role in "Avatar: the Way of Water," and learned to hold her breath for more than 6 minutes at a time, she told the podcast "Smartless."
Weaver discussed her work on the sequel to the 2009 hit sci-fi film on the December 5 episode of the celebrity interview podcast with hosts Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes.
"[Director James Cameron] doesn't do anything by half, so he really wanted us to be comfortable in the water and be able to do scenes underwater," she said. "We all had to do breath holds, which you train to get up to."
To achieve aquatic proficiency, the cast worked with professional freediver Kirk Krack, who also trains Navy SEALs, record-breaking athletes, and film actors and stunt doubles.
Weaver was finally able to hold her breath for a total of 6 ½ minutes at a time, she told the podcast.
But "anyone can do it," she said — her husband trained with her and also accomplished the feat, she said.
And colleague Kate Winslet broke a record for breath-holding while training for the film, staying underwater for a full 7 minutes and 15 seconds, after which she thought "Am I dead? Have I died?" according to an interview with Total Film Magazine. Winslet's time surpassed the previous record by Tom Cruise, who held his breath for six minutes while shooting "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" in 2015, Insider previously reported. Cruise also trained with Krack for the feat, according to his website.
Weaver said the "Avatar: The Way of Water" cast was filming at the same time as their training, which also included parkour, a sport that combines running, jumping, climbing, and gymnastics to efficiently navigate obstacles.
She said that since her character in the film is a teenager, her training involved keeping up with much-younger colleagues.
"I had to do everything the kids did,' Weaver said.
"Avatar: The Way of Water" opens in theaters December 16.
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