If you're planning a trip to Brazil, you might think twice about watching Turistas. The horror/thriller, directed by John Stockwell and starring Josh Duhamel, Beau Garrett and Olivia Wilde, takes place in that country and let's just say the film doesn't show the locals at their best.
It’s Okay to Go on Vacation: Olivia Wilde said starring in Turistas didn’t make her afraid of taking vacations. “I think these people we play in the movie represent the tourists in the world – it doesn’t matter if they’re American – from all over, usually from first-world countries who take for granted the treatment they will receive, the safety, the language,” explained Wilde. “People often wonder, ‘Why doesn't everyone speak English?’ And that is a ridiculous kind of barrier that keeps the Third World away from the First World, and people absorbing cultures when they visit it.
I think these characters are representing that kind of person which many of us are, and many of us have been. A lot of people who see the movie might recognize that in themselves and think, ‘Hmm, I guess I’ve never read up on a country’s political climate before I’ve gone to visit it.’ People just think, ‘Let’s go to Thailand, it’ll be fun. We’ll go to Thailand and we’ll go camping.’ They don't think is there something going on with Thailand. ‘I am arriving as an American. Does that send a message?’ Especially in this day and age when being an American means something very, very serious. You go traveling, and you want to be open and be aware so that you can be ready for any sort of interaction, and understand who you represent and who you are.”
Wilde continued, “The world is getting smaller and smaller as we have the resources to go anywhere we want, and it’s just an important thing to think about. So I hope people realize that when they go and see the film, and they don’t just go traipsing off to Madagascar and want to drink beer and scream and wonder why no one’s speaking English. It’s just an important thing and I hope that people get that. So no, I’m not afraid to travel. If anything, it makes me more eager to travel because it’s a great time.”
Beau Garrett concurred with her Turistas co-star. “It’s an incredible time and this film isn’t about scaring people away from traveling, or seeing places like Brazil. Brazil is an incredible country and embraced us. I never felt alien at all in that country. It’s about being aware; it’s about researching. I think we should travel more. I think it should be mandatory that we should travel for a year in our youth. It should be something we do. It’s the best knowledge you can ever be given.”
Creating a Double and Shooting the Gruesome Scene: Garrett explained how the scene involving the removal of her internal organs was staged for the film. “It started before I left for Brazil. I had a body cast. That I had never done before. That whole process is fascinating. It’s a seven hour thing, and you’re on this thing. I fainted and woke up to them panicking and feeding me ice cream. I was like, ‘I’m okay, I’m okay. Where am I? Get it off me!’
They did my head, the whole thing. That’s an art in itself. They made her me. It was amazing, freckles, the whole thing. I'm like, ‘Oh my god, you’re hot!’ Kidding, kidding! But then to do the scenes where I’m on this cold metal, or steel - or whatever it was – the hospital bed, strapped in. I have this torso thing on me and he has this blunt scalpel. This doctor – an amazing Brazilian actor - he’s cutting me open and talking to me. I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is crazy.’ I didn’t leave for 12 hours. I was on this thing, I peed in a bed pan, and I ate food in a torso.
It was super strange. And then to see it was so eerie. I won’t let my parents… My parents won’t see it. They’re going to buy the ticket to support it because if they don’t, I’ll kill ‘em. But they won’t see it because it’s super real. It was a very gruesome surgery scene.”
Working Underwater in Turistas: Director John Stockwell's known for filming in the water and Turistas is no exception. Olivia Wilde said Stockwell accomplished the underwater scenes without the use of water tanks. “We were in the most beautiful underwater caves,” said Wilde. “It was all about pushing yourself farther than you ever imagined going. By the end, we all became pretty good free divers.
We had amazing doubles who were teaching us everything we knew. Mine was Mehgan Heaney-Grier who is the world champion free diver. She is a Sports Illustrated model; she has a show on Discovery. She’s an extraordinary woman who can dive 185 feet in one breath. And rather than wanting to do all the stuff instead of me, she was encouraging. She said, ‘You should try it. You can do this. I’ve seen you swim, I think you can do this.’ I would say, ‘There’s no way in hell. I am claustrophobic and I’m afraid of drowning. And she’d say, ‘You can do it.’ She’s the reason I did, and I’m really happy and grateful - even though we ran into some sticky situations.”
Keeping Things Safe: SCUBA experts were standing by in case something went wrong. Wilde recalls, “It was interesting because they felt so far away, and the nature of the film is that, how are they supposed to tell when you’re actually panicking. The situation I ran into was I literally started to have a panic attack, flailing my arms. They thought I was acting because that’s exactly what my character is supposed to be doing. You can see in the movie when I go for one air pocket, realize it’s not there, turn around – I can hardly watch at that point, it gives me shivers because that’s when I thought it was over. I didn’t think that the safety diver would be close enough, even though he actually was only 50 feet away and could swim really fast. He told me afterwards he had no idea. He said, ‘We were watching the monitor and thought you were just doing a great job.’ And that’s a testament to… Ugh, I don’t know. I’m just happy it happened at the end because it made for good movie watching.”
