The road Young Woman and the Sea has taken to the screen reads not unlike the hero’s journey it seeks to portray.The film about American swimmer Gertrude ‘Trudy’ Ederle, who in 1926 became the first woman to swim across the English Channel, took nearly ten years to complete with various talent attached, numerous studios involved and financial roadblocks to overcome, until in the summer of 2022, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil director Joachim Rønning and Star Wars’ actor Daisy Ridley were finally able to bring Trudy’s story across the finish line. Seeing the finished film, says producer Jerry Bruckheimer, made it all worth the effort. “This is the highest testing movie I’ve ever made, and I’ve made some pretty big hits,” says Bruckheimer. “It really captured an audience in the right way.”
DEADLINE: This film was a long time coming. What was it about this story that spoke to you and made you so passionate about making it?
JERRY BRUCKHEIMER: It’s the emotion of this young girl who goes through all these trials and tribulations to win and achieve her dream. When you get to the end and you see the real parade, you say, “Oh my god, this is real.” This girl was forgotten. That was what really excited me about this. I love stories that educate and entertain, and this one not only educates you, it entertains you. And it’s an emotional piece. So many screenings we’ve had, you see people walk out with red eyes. And there’s so much joy in the movie that makes it all worthwhile.
DEADLINE: Joachim, what was the appeal for you?
JOACHIM RØNNING: First of all, I had never heard the story. The first time I read Jeff Nathanson’s script was the first time I knew about Trudy and her amazing accomplishment. I was so baffled by that, because this was such a worldwide event when it happened a hundred years ago and, in many ways, changed women’s sports forever. That, in itself, was very intriguing, to learn about this incredible woman and almost feeling a responsibility to tell her story and to bring her back from being lost in time.
DEADLINE: Jerry, you and Joachim had worked together in the past. Why was he the right person to direct this?
BRUCKHEIMER: He’s such a great storyteller and that’s what you want for a director. He’s a very visual artist and we like directors who have a real strong visual style. He understands character and works very hard. That’s all you can ask from a director. He made Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales for us, which did enormously well, and it was an excellent Pirates movie. And he was so passionate about it. You’ve got to go to directors that have this passion and want to do it at all cost. And, look, we had to cut all kinds of corners. We didn’t make [Young Woman] for a lot of money. We had to go to Bulgaria to do it. A lot of directors don’t want to leave their families to go away for 10, 12 weeks in a foreign country. But he said, “Let’s figure out a way to get it done.” And he hired a lot of people he hadn’t worked with before, which is difficult. We had a lot of local crew on the movie because we couldn’t afford to bring people over. And that’s the kind of commitment you want from a director.
DEADLINE: You talked about not having a big budget, but when you’re working on a Jerry Bruckheimer movie, there are certain expectations in terms of tone and scope.
BRUCKHEIMER: It’s always about emotion. No matter what. We can do all the bells and whistles, but it’s all about character, story and theme. And then we want really fantastic people behind the scenes to bring that vision forward. Like our production designer, Nora [Takacs Ekberg], was amazing. I mean, she pulled all these amazing sets from virtually nothing. And our composer, [Amelia Warner], she did an amazing job with the score and how she created the emotion out of these scenes and just gave you chills with the music that she wrote. These were people that we’ve not worked with before. So you take chances. When you say, what kind of movie do I like? It’s a movie I want to go see, but it has to have the quality and expertise of any of our 200-million-dollar movies, even though we made this for nothing.
DEADLINE: What’s that challenge like as a director?
RØNNING: Well, first of all, Jerry is such a filmmaker’s producer. He’s always there when you need him. I felt that, making Pirates, which was my first film in Hollywood. Feeling safe on a movie like that, it’s very unusual, but I did because I knew Jerry was in my corner. So, it’s fun making movies with him. Now when it comes to the crew and everybody that worked on Young Woman and the Sea, I felt that I could pick top shelf because of the script that Jeff Nathanson wrote, which is one of the, if not the best script that I’ve ever read. Everybody who read the script really wanted to work on this movie, both behind camera and in front of the camera. So I feel that we really were able to work with the best and were able to cast the movie with these wonderful character actors that made it all come alive.
Daisy Ridley in ‘Young Woman and the Sea’
Disney
DEADLINE: Daisy Ridley is obviously number one on that list. How did she rise to the occasion?
RØNNING: It was very important for me to shoot this movie out on the ocean. I said to everybody involved that I want this to be as real as possible. And I remember telling Daisy and she said, “Yeah, fantastic, let’s do it.” And then later I learned that she actually is afraid of the open water and she had to go through tremendous amount of work physically, but also with herself, mentally. When we got there, and we were out there for weeks and weeks, I could never ask for a better film partner. I’m on the boat in a warm jacket, she’s in 60-61 degrees, her lips blue, inches away from propellers, delivering lines and being emotional and doing something that I couldn’t have done at all. Not many people could do what she did. At the end of the day, it also informed us. We got a glimpse into how it must have been for Trudy a hundred years ago. Not that we’re out there risking our lives for this the same way Trudy did, but it definitely helped us understand the tremendous accomplishment that she achieved.
DEADLINE: How do you take care of your actor in that situation? How does that work in practice?
RØNNING: Well, I tried to save her as much as possible from getting in the water. We had stunt swimmers, doubles in the water lining up our cameras, and then I’m waiting until the very last minute to drop her in there – because she doesn’t have a wet suit on. Basically, the style that Trudy was swimming in, which is also trailblazing, was the first bikini. Obviously when she’s swimming, she’s face down in the water and it’s hard to see her face. But Daisy had such a force to her strokes that I ended up using her even for the widest shots, even when there’s no way that I will see her face, because she swam differently than any other swimmer that we had with us. Somehow I felt like she was channeling Trudy out there. So I ended up using her for every shot.
DEADLINE: What were some of the unforeseen, maybe less fun challenges of making this?
BRUCKHEIMER: Getting it made was, for me, the biggest challenge. This went on for years, through about three studios, to finally get made. It was really a challenge. We have to hand it to Joachim who stuck with us through thick and thin. And, finally, Sam Dickerman at Disney was really passionate about it and he had a budget number that we had to hit, which we did. That was our challenge. Sometimes it’s harder getting the small ones made than the big ones.
DEADLINE: Isn’t it always harder to get the small ones made?
BRUCKHEIMER: It really is. And this is the highest testing movie I’ve ever made – and I’ve made some pretty big hits. But this one, it just really captured an audience in the right way. They just loved the character and the emotional experience they went through. Joachim’s superb direction was a big part of it. And Jeff Nathanson wrote a fantastic screenplay. The whole thing came about because he has two young daughters and he couldn’t find anything for them to watch. So, he went to a used bookstore and found this book, Young Woman and the Sea, and said, “This is amazing.” He sent it over to us, we loved it and he just jumped into it.
DEADLINE: This film hits at a time where the plight of immigrants and women are extremely topical. Do you feel like this film is now more relevant than ever?
BRUCKHEIMER: Absolutely. Here’s what I believe: Unless you know history, you’re doomed to repeat it. And young women have no idea, especially young girls, what roadblocks this athlete went through because she was a woman. She paved the road for all the great athletes of today—Simone Biles and all these other women that are excelling and winning gold medals. This was her struggle, to say, “We’re strong, we’re tough. We can take on the world and do something that you think we never can do.” I think young girls have to understand the struggles that their predecessors experienced, so that they could excel in the sports of their choice.
DEADLINE: In terms of production challenges, what was the hardest thing to overcome?
BRUCKHEIMER: It’s always the weather, especially when you’re shooting outdoors. It’s so unpredictable. We always love to shoot in sunlight and sometimes the gods don’t bless that on us, so we have to struggle and you have to make compromises. And that’s what Joachim did. He had to struggle with Mother Nature.
DEADLINE: What was that struggle like?
RØNNING: Any endeavor that has a lot of ambitious people involved is always going to be challenging. And then you put them on the water, and expose the whole crew – week in and week out – to the elements. As Jerry was saying, yes, weather is one thing, but then you add currents and water temperature and a dozen safety boats. We’re all kind of floating around out there, and suddenly my actor is 200 yards down the stern of the boat and we’re all drifting, and it’s dangerous. And then the sun goes away, and you’re rotating because you want the sun behind the actors. But it’s also so rewarding at the end of the day, when you zoom back to land and the sun is setting and you have the salt water in your face. You’re very grateful for that feeling of accomplishment, that we did something very special today. It’s chaotic and beautiful at the same time.
Young Woman and the Sea is currently streaming on Disney+