MGM and Prime Video hosted a virtual Thirteen Lives press conference with director Ron Howard, the cast, and producers on June 27, 2022 in support of the online debut of the film’s first trailer. Thirteen Lives is based on the incredible true story of the rescue of 12 young Thai soccer players and their coach after they got lost and became trapped in a system of underground caves. As each day passed, the odds of the 13 people making it out alive drastically decreased.

The whole world came together to rescue the soccer team, with the people of Thailand leading the rescue efforts.

During the press conference, director Ron Howard said the film honors the hard work and dedication of everyone involved in all aspects of the rescue. Howard also teased there will be details included in the movie that many people who followed the rescue as it was happening in 2018 may not know.

Howard described his favorite sort of films as ones that prove remarkable outcomes aren’t just the stuff of fiction. “That when people pull together, incredible things can happen. And this is just a tremendous case study,” explained Howard. “This story is very, very important to Thai culture, and understandably so. [It’s] a story they should be incredibly proud of because of the way the Thai government and Thai leadership actually made this rescue possible.”

Portraying the Thai Cave Rescue’s Heroic Divers

Thirteen Lives isn’t the first film in which Viggo Mortensen’s played a real person and had the actual person on set during shooting. Mortensen stars as diver Rick Stanton and the real Stanton was involved in the production as an on-set technical adviser. Asked about the impact of having Stanton on set, Mortensen described it as crucial in this case.

“I mean, especially for what we had to do underwater. Rick Stanton was there during rehearsals [with] all the actors; Jason [Mallison] came also, you know, one of the real-life rescuers. And they helped us to not only swim like them and move like them but to be safe,” said Mortensen. “And, you know, the way we worked as a team reflected, I think, what they described to us, what the rescue entailed.

We really worked together above water as much as underwater. And underwater, I would say it was maybe even more important because even though you’re shooting a movie, and it’s somewhat a controlled situation, whenever you’re underwater and you’re in caves, it’s dangerous. And so we really, I think all the actors, we listened very carefully to what they were showing us, telling us, and watched what they did very carefully.”

Mortensen added: “And everybody worked hard. Everybody pulled together. […] It reflected the real rescue in that it was a very selfless, team-oriented effort. Shooting the movie as well. So it felt, at times, very real. Sometimes too real. {laughing} There were some very tight spots underwater.”

Playing diver John Volanthen was a real challenge for Colin Farrell who confessed he’s really not much of a swimmer.

“They say don’t work with children or animals…throw water into that mix as well,” laughed Farrell. “Something about SCUBA diving is you accept the process of not drowning but submerging. So it’s a different world beneath the surface of the water. And what Viggo was saying and what Ron touched on as well, I just felt like I was one spoke of many in a story that was so multi-faceted. The burden [and] also the honor were one and the same, and that was that we were telling, you know, this tale of events that took place.”

Farrell continued: “It wasn’t about us coming in as actors playing these British divers who were there to save the day and rescue. It was really about us being led by our Thai brothers and sisters, and those people who we were playing as well, of course, the divers, and how they guided us through the actual events that took place, and how serious it was.

But just for me, I mean, I’ve done various things through my career but to be part of something that ultimately at its core was – and in a time where the world seems to be living under greater and greater division – really about these different people from different nationalities, different cultural backgrounds coming together for a common purpose, and one that was so terrifying was just…it was a great gift. It really was a great gift.”

Joel Edgerton went into the project believing he knew a lot about the story but learned a good deal more once he delved into Thirteen Lives.

“I think the thing that surprised me about Harry [Harris] – and, you know, I have played real people before, but it’s rare that I’ve been that humbled and impressed and therefore a little nervous about taking on a role because he’s such an impressive person and a real national hero in Australia as well – is that Harry, until the first day of the rescue, and even into the second and third day, thought that he was participating potentially in the death of children. And it went against everything that he really believed in except that he knew that if he didn’t give it a try, that the chances were that all the kids would perish anyway.

The fact that Harry was willing to undertake that risk and was successful in doing it, I found just [incredible],” said Edgerton. “I found it incredibly emotional hearing some of Harry’s stories and reading his book. And, you know, as a side note, I became a father during the shoot and then it just became even more [for me about] responsibility and the care of children. And to me, that felt like such a beating heart of Harry and a beating heart of the story.”.

Tom Bateman, who failed to mention he was claustrophobic during his audition, described working on this film as a dream come true.

“When I read the script, I knew about it like everyone. I think I knew about one percent of what I know now. And what really blew me away and touched me was you can’t tell the thousands of people that were involved, the detail to which they went into that, and how generous the divers were with their time. Chris [Jewell] gave me hours and hours and hours of Facetimes to talk me through what he went through, and what we went through was pretty intense. I’ve dived before, but I’d never dived with a roof on my head and with a small person strapped, handcuffed to your hand getting through these tunnels.

It was quite amazing. I’m hugely claustrophobic so I struggled pretty much every day. The last stunt dive was one of my last days – and I loved this experience, Ron, very, very much, but my God, I was happy to get out of that, I thought. But again, as if we needed any more affirmation of it, what these people did, not just the divers but every single person, when we go into those caves in the set, there’s something haunting and truly sort of desperate and dangerous in everything.

The design was incredible. There’s constantly water coming in and we spent the whole shoot wet and cold and underwater. And you think we’re doing this in these conditions…the guys doing it, still even after everything we’ve done, I cannot believe what they did. And to be a small part of telling their story is a real honor. But, my God, I was happy to be finished, yeah,” said Bateman.

Ron Howard was fortunate to have so many of the actual divers and other participants of the rescue involved in the production as advisors. The actors were able to work with Rick Stanton and Jason Mallison, and there was a point when Viggo Mortensen surprised Howard with a request.

“Viggo led the group and basically said, ‘We don’t want anybody else to double us. We are learning this and we’ll do it. We’ll work on the weekends. We’ll leave first unit and go to the dive unit. Whatever it takes.’ And this is what they all did [because] I sort of placated them and said, ‘Well, to the extent that we can, sure,’ but they did it.

It enabled me to make the photography, which was a huge challenge, the cinematography in this, so fluent and so immediate because they were doing every one of those squeezes and every one of those pressurized situations where the water volumes were dumping on them and with the kids and all of it.”

Howard added: “[It’s] another instance of volunteering on a level of professionalism and also to just try to get it right. And that’s why they’re great artists,” said Howard.

Thirteen Lives opens in select theaters on July 29, 2022. A release on Prime Video follows on August 5, 2022.

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