Colin Farrell Had Panic Attacks Underwater Filming ‘Thirteen Lives’ Biopic on Thailand Cave Rescue (Exclusive)

etonline.com:

Colin Farrell went deep for his latest role in the Ron Howard-directed Thailand cave rescue biopic, . ET's Will Marfuggi spoke to the Irish-born actor at the premiere of the film Thursday night, where he got real about the panic attacks he experienced while filming the movie's intense underwater scenes.«Terrifying in a word.

Terrifying,» Farrell said when asked what it was like to film underwater. «It really was — it was scary. I'm not a great swimmer anyway, not that we were swimming, not that we were treading water, we had to stay on the surface, but they built a really impressive network of caves, it was about four or five different caves that were based on the topography of the caves, the Tham Luang caves in Thailand, and they filled them full of water, and we'd go down and there was no up.»While Farrell said they weren't actually swimming, going down into this network of caves built for the film and not being able to look up and see the surface «wreaked» havoc on his mind.«I mean, there's a lot to be said for being able to look up in water and see the surface, so when you can't and there's actually a ceiling over your head, and there's no air at all, it just wreaks havoc on my mind,» he continued.The biopic tells the story of the rescue mission assembled in Thailand, to save a group of 12 young boys and their soccer coach, after they got trapped in a system of underground caves that began flooding.With the help of two of the men who were part of the real-life five-man rescue team, Farrell said he got through it, but not without a few underwater panic attacks along the way.«We had amazing assistants,» Farrell maintained.