The team behind Open Water emphasizes drama as much as scares

By Steven Rosen

Beverly Hills -- There was a strange quality, surreal enough to impress Salvador Dali, to the media-day activities for the suspense film "Open Water." Publicists had festooned a cabana by the large, inviting courtyard pool of the boutique Avalon hotel with cute blow-up sharks -- one was hanging down from the rafters like bite-sized mistletoe. Journalists were free to take "Open Water" notebooks with chomped-out chunks missing from the covers, and "Open Water" Frisbees.

The movie is an absolutely terrifying story about a scuba-diving couple abandoned by a careless excursion-boat crew in the shark-filled ocean. But the mood was more jocular than jugular. All that was needed was for Chevy Chase to show up doing his "land shark" bit from the early days of "Saturday Night Live."

"Open Water," which is cathartic in its devotion to unsentimental realism, was made independently by writer/director/cinematographer Chris Kentis and his producer/cinematographer/wife, Laura Lau. The independent film company, Lions Gate Films, bought "Open Water" after its debut at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Shot on video without special effects in the Atlantic and off the Bahamas, both above and below the water, Kentis and Lau put their actors among real sharks and other deep-sea threats.

Then again, "Open Water" isn't a straight oceanic thriller, like "Jaws" or "The Perfect Storm." While in the water, the couple -- unmarried professionals in a long-term relationship -- goes through virtually everything two lovers can, from anger and recrimination to mutual dependency and guilt.

"Open Water," as much a relationship drama as it is a horror movie, could be called "Who's Afraid of Virginia Shark?"

"I do think of this as a relationship movie," said Blanchard Ryan, who plays Susan, meeting with press in the relative shark-free safety of an upstairs hotel room. "Everyone talks about the sharks, but to me it's about a couple that has grown apart because of working too hard. They're planning for their future, and they're working their asses off, yet they are completely disconnected from each other.

"And then they go on this dive, and all of a sudden they have no future," she says. "How angry would you feel about that -- the sorrow and regret -- while also trying to be strong for each other and trying to survive?"

For Ryan, a gregarious blonde who looks like a more approachable Charlize Theron and co-star Daniel Travis, "Open Water" is a chance to shake off their label as little-known New York-based actors and get noticed. Or die trying. They deferred payment and flew on weekends to the Bahamas for the long shoot.

"We had no aspirations for this project other than to have a completed product to show as a reel for the two of us," said Travis, in the room with Ryan.

He was attracted to the idea of scuba diving and making a movie in the water. Ryan, who is so scared of sharks she dislikes even swimming in the ocean, was lured by Kentis and Lau's enthusiasm for the project.

"I knew we were two unknown actors carrying this movie all by ourselves, taking our clothes off, swimming with sharks and missing out on work at home that did pay," she said. "But I loved the part, and I loved Chris and Laura so much, I had the feeling that, if I didn't do it, I'd regret it the rest of my life."

Kentis and Lau, who made the little-seen film, "Grind," in 1997 with Billy Crudup, like to dive when vacationing from their jobs in New York's independent-film community. (The couple, parents of a young daughter, met on the set of a project.)

So the story had a natural appeal when Kentis read about two divers -- a man and woman -- inadvertently left behind in Australia and attacked by sharks. He had been fascinated by the story of the U.S.S. Indianapolis' crew of sailors who tried to survive among sharks at the end of World War II since hearing Robert Shaw's chilling monologue about it in "Jaws," the 1975 classic.

He and Lau also had confidence they could make a film like "Open Water" without losing their actors. They trained with dive expert Stuart Cove, who takes some 20,000 tourists a year into waters where a stable population of gray reef and bull sharks has lived for a decade or so. He seems to know them well enough to avoid attacks.

"Safety was paramount to us," Lau said, talking (with her husband) separately from the actors. "We had the actors open-water certified. So we never felt any of us were in danger. The actors had on anti-shark chain mail (armor worn under their wetsuits). Everything was very, very controlled."

Travis seemed to have no problem accepting that he was safe. As he presents it, he took to the water like a fish. "They were wild sharks but used to being around humans and took direction well with the aid of some tuna," he says. "With that combination of their liking tuna and not liking the taste of humans, we were as safe as could be.

"I actually never felt out of control -- somebody else next to me had a little bit more of an issue," he continued, nodding toward Ryan. "We shot my scenes first, and I was fascinated. I stayed in the water in-between takes ..."

Smiling, Ryan interjects, "there's something wrong" with her co-star.

Travis has gone diving since finishing the film, too, but not Ryan. "I'm slightly less afraid," she said. "I can honestly say we were in a feeding frenzy with 50 sharks with blood, scales all over us, with a necklace of tuna, and they wanted nothing to do with us. That should convince me rationally: My fear is down a teeny little notch."

"Open Water" is meant to be a relationship movie in more ways than one. "It's about taking two people obviously successful in their careers and used to having certain level of control and placing them out there where they have none," Kentis said. "To Mother Nature, we are miniscule creatures, part of something much larger.

"We should be humble about being part of the cycle of life," he said. "We're all going to be dust soon enough. We're really nothing in terms of the grand scheme of things.''

But, if people are so vulnerable in open water -- and Kentis and Lau wanted to make a cautionary movie about that -- why do they like to dive? "It's about as alien an experience as you can get from your daily lives, especially in New York," Kentis said. They also find the ocean alluring.

"Certainly in its vastness and depth," Lau said. "I think this is something hardwired into our psyche that the ocean archetypically represents our subconscious."

And "Open Water" archetypically represents our fears.

(This story originally appeared in Cincinnati CityBeat on Aug. 18, 2004.)