![Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi attend the 50th Telluride Film Festival on Sept. 2](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/GettyImages-1655962651.jpg?w=1024)
Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi attend the fiftieth Telluride Movie Pageant on Sept. 2
Vivien Killilea/Getty Photographs for ABA
Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi premiered their newest film, Nyad, on the Telluride Movie Pageant on Friday. The Netflix movie, which stars Annette Bening as long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad and Jodie Foster as her coach, Bonnie Stoll, is the primary narrative movie from the married couple of co-directors, who received an Academy Award for his or her 2018 documentary Free Solo, about rock climber Alex Honnold, and in addition made the docs The Rescue in 2021 and Wild Life in 2023.
Chin and Vasarhelyi spoke with THR about working with actors vs. athletes, grappling with Nyad’s complicated historical past, which included exaggerating some claims earlier in her profession, and rolling out their movie within the midst of Hollywood’s twin strikes. Nyad will even display screen on the Toronto Movie Pageant on Sept. 12, earlier than hitting theaters Oct. 20 and hitting Netflix’s streaming service Nov. 3.
Had been you actively trying to make a story movie?
ELIZABETH CHAI VASARHELYI We had been pondering very critically about discovering a narrative that we had been fascinated with that centered a lady. And once we learn the script, Jimmy and I had this dialog the place I used to be describing what occurred, and he’s like, “No means. No means!” We type of checked out one another and we’re like, “Oh…”
JIMMY CHIN We had talked about going into narrative in some unspecified time in the future, simply as storytellers and artists as an area to develop as filmmakers. However we had been fascinated with doing a narrative we hadn’t seen earlier than.
How did Annette come aboard?
CHIN We type of had all our eggs in a single basket. We had been like, it must be Annette, it must be Annette. We hadn’t even thought-about anyone else.
VASARHELYI It was actually necessary to us that whoever was forged, that the actor be of an applicable age. And it’s a job that requires very deep work. Annette is such a dedicated actor. She calls for a lot of herself. She educated for over a 12 months. And in addition the work that each she and Jodie did, spending time with the actual Diana and the actual Bonnie, was very, very significant.
Once you had been trying on the script and interested by the best way to shoot it, how did you consider the best way to juxtapose the flashbacks versus the real-time motion of the Cuba swims?
VASARHELYI The script is great. Julia [Cox] did a ravishing job and she or he was additionally on set with us. However our movies are very edit heavy in that we spend loads of time breaking the film. We break the film over and time and again, simply making an attempt various things. And it’s type of the enjoyable of it and the magic of it, at the very least for me. So we discovered that [structure] within the edit. it was all the time about how do you permit the swims to construct? How do you permit audiences entry to this very distinctive expertise of marathon swimming?
CHIN The melding of the archival, it actually offers it a unique visceral expertise. We’d shoot after which we edit it in a few of the footage from the precise swims, and it added this grit to it.
What was it prefer to work with actors?
VASARHELYI I labored for Mike Nichols 20 years in the past as his assistant on the Nearer set. I bought to go to the theater with him each night time. I sat in each single rehearsal. And so I all the time thought, everybody rehearses, proper? The fortunate factor about working with Jodie and Annette and Rhys [Ifans] is that they rehearsed, and nobody ever acted with a stand-in. They all the time did one another’s reverses. I used to be personally terrified to start with. 4 hundred individuals are taking a look at you. And it simply took one good resolution to grasp that the abilities translate and the instincts translate. Nonfiction and fiction, it’s very comparable muscle tissues when it comes to storytelling. It’s simply, the assets in fiction are a lot richer. As an alternative of ready for 2 years for Alex Honnold to say “I like you,” Jodie can do it with out even saying something. It’s simply completely different, the entry to emotion.
CHIN Earlier than we began, I used to be pondering, what will be the actual problem of this? And naturally, I believed, is it going to be working with actors? And it seems that that really felt a lot, far more pure than I believed it could. Since you understand while you’re working with expertise on docs, particularly when you’re working with high-end athletes, which I spend loads of time doing, it’s constructing the setting to permit them to carry out at their greatest, the bodily setting, the emotional setting. It’s not like I’m going to inform Alex the best way to climb, but when I set all the things up and all of the cameras are in place and all the things’s shifting easily and he can simply are available in and climb, then he can simply do what he does. A lot of directing is creating that setting with the intention to permit any individual like Jodie or Annette to do what they do greatest.
Within the film, Diana comes throughout as a outstanding athlete however a fairly flawed girl. She’s additionally a producer on this movie. Did she have editorial management over how she was portrayed?
VASARHELYI Diana made a really smart move to simply allow us to do our factor. It was very troublesome for her, however everybody understood the intention, which was to point out a lady in her full complexity. It was actually significant to us to determine this stability between honoring the chutzpah that the actual Diana Naya had, and her intelligence, her fierceness, her drive, whereas additionally permitting folks to get to know her in order that finally you’re doing the swim together with her. It was all the time the intention of being warts and all, however how do you floor it?
Earlier in her profession, Diana exaggerated some claims about her swimming accomplishments, and a few within the swimming group have complaints about how she accomplished her Cuba swim. How did you guys grapple with that?
VASARHELYI We attempt to tackle it within the movie. There are moments the place Bonnie makes enjoyable of her for exaggerating issues. We did our analysis and I spent loads of time with Diana. We did our due diligence. This movie isn’t a few file. It’s a few girl who wakes up at 60 and realizes she’s not achieved. And that girl has flaws. I believe that if we had been coping with a person, folks wouldn’t be choosing on him fairly as a lot. However Diana acknowledges her shortcomings and I respect that.
CHIN As an expert athlete and dealing with loads of high-end world-class athletes, and people who find themselves pushing the boundaries of sports activities, I’ve seen this occur a ton. There’s all the time going to be the skeptics and the purists and the armchair critics. The purists are all the time those that you’ll by no means discover swimming 100 miles or making an attempt to ski Mount Everest. She needed to put on a jellyfish swimsuit. That’s how she solved an issue. And I used to be pondering exterior of the field that allowed her to do it.
How are you dealing with the strike?
VASARHELYI We’ve got the utmost respect for each member of SAG and the WGA. And I actually imagine they’re combating for his or her lives. All creatives are type of combating for his or her lives proper now. And it’s unusual to be releasing a movie and particularly after these actors put a lot work into it. Not having Annette be celebrated, or Diana [who is also SAG-AFTRA member because of her sports commentating]. We actually need to assist the strikes, and our actors can’t be current. It’s bittersweet.