DANIEL TRAVIS: I do – I’m ready for the next one. It was great. It gives you the opportunity, when you have those physical demands on you, it sort of opens up everything else emotionally. Once you’re focused on that, it takes away your inhibitions about letting go with the rest of it. We got to dive into our acting craft.
BLANCHARD RYAN: And we slept like a baby at night, I’ll tell you (laughing). It was great. In terms of all the worries and the stress of making a movie… In other films I’ve done, you worry about the next day if you’ve got a big day. Or you’ve got irritations and anxieties from that day and you’re all worked up and you can’t sleep. This was the scariest movie I’ve ever done and the most challenging in so many ways, I was asleep when my head hit the pillow. There was no time for stress. We were too tired (laughing).
Are you surprised by the groundswell of positive word of mouth that’s really making this film get noticed?
BLANCHARD RYAN: It’s beyond our imagination.
DANIEL TRAVIS: It’s been amazing. From the beginning…
And the ending hasn’t really been included in anything published.
BLANCHARD RYAN: People have been very respectful. Once in a while there’s been a snide remark, “Well, we’re not supposed to tell the ending but it’s not such a big deal anyway. Whatever.” People have been really nice. You know, it was just the four of us and now it’s the strangest thing that anyone else has even seen it or heard of it or anything (laughing).
DANIEL TRAVIS: Watching the scope increase has been just amazing. I mean, from the Hamptons to Sundance to now, it’s just been phenomenal.
While filming, did you believe it would get picked up for distribution by a studio?
DANIEL TRAVIS: I think that we both knew that what we were doing was good work and I trusted both Chris and Laura implicitly, but there was no expectation other than to be able to make a good product.
BLANCHARD RYAN: Making a brilliant movie has nothing to do with getting a movie released.
DANIEL TRAVIS: Yeah, there you go.
BLANCHARD RYAN: They have nothing to do with each other. It’s kind of a weird question to answer because it’s like on the one hand, I loved what we did and I was so proud of it. Like Daniel said, we knew we were doing something super, super special. But we also knew that that would probably have absolutely nothing to do with our success. There’s no way to really guarantee that that’s going to translate to anything. It’s apples and oranges.
DANIEL TRAVIS: I just wanted to be proud of what we did, and we accomplished that. After that, the rest of it was sort of gravy.
The whole movie is basically only the two of you on the screen and it doesn’t work unless the audience believes the relationship. That’s pretty daunting.
BLANCHARD RYAN: It’s every fear we could have conquered in terms of sharks, the exposure in the water, the nudity, the carrying of the movie… Everything on every level.
DANIEL TRAVIS: I was far more nervous about the prospect of carrying a film than jumping in with sharks.
BLANCHARD RYAN: Honestly it’s funny, like looking back now, the things that worry me now are so different than the things that worried me before we shot the film. Now I’m all brave, now that I’m out of the water.
What worried you before that doesn’t worry you now?
BLANCHARD RYAN: Well, before we shot the movie I was like, “The nudity? Big deal. That’s not dangerous.” And then in terms of carrying the movie – the two of us – I was like, “Well, no one is ever going to see it probably so who cares?” And the nudity, too. Like, “There’s four people in the room, I don’t care.” Chris and Laura are married; Daniel and I are friends so it’s no big deal. The sharks I was so, so afraid of. And now, you know, now that it’s been sold and it’s coming out, of course now the nudity is like, “Oh my God…” And you know, having to carry the film and are people going to respond to these two unknown people? All that – those fears. And of course the shark fears are all gone because I did that already. So it’s shifted.
PAGE 4: Teamwork Behind the Camera on "Open Water"
