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shaking, rocking, and it was pretty amazing.”
Regardless of whether they were in the
water, the cast were all together, having a
great time. “There’s such a camaraderie with
the team,” Oka says. “We’re all working
together on something for the same goal,
and the great thing is we’re all out in New
Zealand, not all of us are from New Zealand,
so we’re all exploring together and every
night we’d go out and have a nice night cap.
It was like a fun summer camp type film.”
Oka credits the relaxed mood on set
to Turteltaub and Statham ensuring that
the film didn’t become a slog, despite the
physical challenges, but Statham is quick to
lay the credit at Turteltaub’s door: “Jon is a
real comedian,” he says. “He is an absolute
pleasure to be around because he never takes
things too seriously. He has the entire weight
of a big movie resting on his shoulders, but
he’s always about having a good time on set.
We had such a laugh making this movie, and
a lot of that was due to Jon.”
But it wasn’t just Turteltaub’s humour
that impressed the cast. “I was impressed
by the way he tells a story with a moving
camera,” Wilson says of the director, “which
maintains the relentless action and suspense.
He has that kind of Spielbergian quality.”
High praise indeed.
For Turteltaub, it makes sense to create a
relaxed atmosphere on set: “I wouldn’t go so
far as to say that you get the most done, but
I think you get the best out of people when
they’re happy. It’s also selfish, because I don’t
want to be somewhere boring and serious
all day.” He pauses, giving the subject some
thought: “Certainly the end product is more
important than any one day on set. I’m not
saying I’d sacrifice a movie so we can have
a bunch of giggles, but unless you’re having
giggles I don’t think people feel as safe and
happy to come and create. When you’re in a
light, non-judgemental environment, you’re
more apt to let loose and take more risks.”
If Turteltaub had been making a po-faced
Oscar-bait movie then perhaps things would
have been more serious on set. But he wasn’t,
he was making a movie about a ‘really effing
big shark’, and humour was a crucial part
of the mix. “[The Meg] definitely makes fun
of itself,” says Oka, “it doesn’t take itself
too seriously and I think that’s what’s great
about what Jon brought because he knows
how to bring that over-the-top thrill ride
with the action, but he also knows how todo it with humour and fun. He’s so self-
deprecating and all the actors had a lot of
fun improvising and making jokes. But I
think it’s that humour that also highlights
that sense of thrill and terror as well. So,
by juxtaposing it, it’s like putting salt on
watermelon, it enhances that heart-pounding
rollercoaster ride you take.”
Turteltaub had never made a monster
movie before, which is why he was attracted
to this film, which is a loose adaptation of
Steve Alten’s series of books. “I think it’s
a good thing when a reporter says ‘you’ve
never done this kind of movie before’, that
means I still have a career,” he jokes.
He’d always been a big fan of monster
movies, though, and leapt at the chance to
make one: “Monster movies are phenomenal,
because first of all it’s fun to be scared.
Second of all there’s a scientific element to
it that is intriguing. Most monster movies
are our fault. Humans. But the reason they
often work is because you’re presenting
your heroes with an impossible task.
It’s very easy for a good guy to defeat a
very average bad guy. It’s much harder to
defeat a tremendously large scary monster.
And that means you need to use all your
resources – mostly your very evolutionarily
developed brain. Or your heart!” he adds,
before quoting King Kong: “For it was beauty
killed the beast!” But something tells us
Jason Statham is unlikely to be defeating the
megalodon with his good looks.One Of the challenges facing the actors
was that they were acting, not opposite a
huge shark, but opposite green screen. The
production crew went to various lengths to
give the actors an idea of what they were up
against, including presenting them with a
life-size drawing of the megalodon stretching
across a number of shipping containers. “The
design team also created an animatronic
shark – or about half a shark – including
its head, tail, teeth and eyeball,” Ruby
Rose says. “It was pretty gruesome – and
that head was huge.”
Having worked in visual effects himself
before turning to acting, Masi Oka enjoys the
challenge of acting opposite CGI creatures
that don’t yet exist. Seeing special effects
movies like Star Wars was what ignited his
passion for movies in the first place: “[T]he
idea of using your imagination and going to
outer space, that was cool. To be creative,
that was what genre movies allowed us to do,
to make those monsters and make those new
worlds, so that was the first step out of many
that made me who I was.”
But before Turteltaub could give his cast
any idea of what they would be facing in the
final version of the film, he and his design