The autumn of Austin Abrams marches on with Whalefall, his second one-man genre exercise in the span of a month.
The belle of the fall’s emotional survival tale joins Resident Evil in theaters as the latter continues to build on its $324 million worldwide box office gross. In Whalefall, co-written and directed by Brian Duffield, Abrams plays college student Jay Gardiner, who reluctantly returns home to California’s Central Coast a year after his estranged father, Mitt (Josh Brolin), responds to his terminal mesothelioma diagnosis by taking his own life at sea.
In a decision partly influenced by his mother (Elisabeth Shue) and two sisters (Jane Levy and Emily Rudd) having to visit an empty grave, Jay sets out to find his father’s remains on the ocean floor near Monastery Beach. The underlying hope is that the gesture will help him resolve their lingering differences stemming from his overly strict seafaring upbringing.
But the plan goes belly-up almost immediately when a sperm whale pursuing a squid also swallows Jay, ensnaring him in its multichambered stomach. Like Resident Evil, Whalefall gives its protagonist just an hour to accomplish his goal, which in this case means escaping the whale’s innards before his oxygen tank runs dry.
When The Hollywood Reporter last caught up with Abrams for Resident Evil, he refused to declare which film ended up being the more backbreaking ordeal. He certainly didn’t complain about splitting his head open during an elevator leap in Resident Evil‘s third act or act fazed by nearly being crushed to death by a 150-pound blood bag in act two.
But now that I’ve seen Whalefall, it seems that the only thing worse than actually being inside a whale’s stomach is pretending to be inside one. Yet Abrams still won’t kvetch about being crammed into a tiny whale-stomach set with a camera crew, while a half-dozen crew members surrounding the practical gut, wielding a gimbal, tossed him around like a wet rag doll.
Duffield — who is also collaborating with Resident Evil filmmaker Zach Cregger on the upcoming Siren Head — believes his film takes the prize for putting their shared leading man through the wringer, given that his extremities weren’t restricted in Resident Evil.
Abrams, meanwhile, continues to straddle the fence in gentlemanly fashion. “[The ability to move my limbs] was the nice part about Resident Evil. But they both have their perks and [pitfalls],” he tells THR in support of Whalefall’s Oct. 16 theatrical release.
To prepare for a scuba diver’s worst nightmare, Abrams earned the necessary certifications. He also visited a sperm whale sanctuary on a Caribbean island. Although the trip didn’t guarantee any face time with the wild animals, Abrams lucked out when they emerged for him, something they hadn’t done in the previous nine days.
“It was beautiful. It was peaceful. It was the opposite of what you think it would be. You immediately know and feel how gentle and loving they are,” Abrams recalls.
He also walked around his neighborhood in full scuba attire just to get used to the extra weight. While his neighbors weren’t alarmed enough by the unusual sight to call security, Abrams wasn’t as lucky during filming at Radford Studios in Studio City.
“There’s a point where Jay gets visibly more distressed and blown-up looking,” Abrams shares. “I remember walking around the lot during that time and having security called on me just because I looked so fucked up.”
Abrams, who generally avoids sharing too much about himself on a personal level, does reveal that his family is a little irked by how often his characters die in movies, a pattern that began with his first film, 2011’s Ticking Clock. A couple of years later, in his major studio debut, Abrams worked alongside Ryan Gosling in Gangster Squad until his shoeshine boy character caught a bullet during a mob ambush near a newsstand. (Brolin also stars in the 2013 crime pic, but didn’t share the screen with his future Weapons and Whalefall co-star.)
Unintentionally, Abrams took a page out of Gosling’s playbook while preparing for his consecutive shoots on Whalefall and Resident Evil in 2025. Ahead of filming Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones in 2007, Gosling arrived to set with a beard and 60 extra pounds. Only 26 at the time, Gosling felt he needed to sell the appearance of a grieving father to two teenagers and a 4-year-old. Jackson was so thrown by Gosling’s unexpected character decisions that he recast him with Mark Wahlberg.
Post-Whalefall, with little time to prepare for Resident Evil‘s shoot in Prague, Abrams also adopted the “it’s easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission” approach to his own unannounced weight gain. He wanted his medical courier, Bryan, to look ill-equipped to handle a zombie outbreak, and seeking approval beforehand might’ve led financiers and producers, who typically want the most physically appealing lead actor possible, to discourage the idea. (Even Keanu Reeves’ beard nearly cost John Wick its financing.) Luckily, Cregger loved Abrams’ surprise choice.
“I wanted Bryan to be a dude you look at and think he won’t be able to get out of this,” Abrams says. “I just had a strong impulse that I needed to do it. If you say you want to look a little bit different, it’s hard for people to imagine it. So it just felt like something that needed to be done, and I just went with it.”
Below, during a conversation with THR, Abrams also discusses the careful handling of a particular letter in Whalefall.
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I previously asked you which movie made you suffer more, and you chose to be Switzerland about it. But now that I’ve seen Whalefall, there’s no question it was more unbearable than Resident Evil. Are you willing to cop to it now?
(Laughs.) No, man. You said it, not me.
Your Whalefall director, Brian Duffield, wasn’t proud of it, but he immediately took credit for his movie being the more punishing of the two.
He did?
He said, “The fact that Austin can move his arms and legs freely in Resident Evil gives Whalefall the edge.”
That was the nice part about Resident Evil. But they both have their perks and [pitfalls].
I’m curious about your family’s response to these two new movies. Has it been hard for them to watch their baby boy in such precarious situations?
I don’t know. I imagine to some degree it could be, but I also feel like everyone takes it okay. I feel like they’d prefer if I died less in some of them, but other than that, I think they do alright.
Yeah, that has been a pattern in your work. The Line was especially brutal.
Yeah, man. It’s been that way from the beginning. I don’t know why.
It’s funny you say that because I’m about to reference the first major one.
Go ahead!
Well, the first thing that struck me about Whalefall was how different you looked as Jay, especially since you shot it right before Resident Evil. Then I read that you gained weight for Bryan in Resident Evil. Given how little time you had in between, did you microwave tubs of Häagen-Dazs once you got to Prague and gorge yourself?
(Laughs.) Oh man. Yeah, you just do whatever you can. I wanted Bryan to be a dude you look at and think he won’t be able to get out of this. I didn’t want him to look like someone who runs laps in his free time or something like that. So it was a close period of time, but there wasn’t really any science to it. You just do whatever you can to get where you need to go. The Häagen-Dazs method? I don’t know. Just pure ice cream is preferable.
It was a bold move not to tell Zach Cregger you were packing on some pounds. There’s a famous story involving your shoe-shine customer, Ryan Gosling. [In Gangster Squad, Gosling’s character urged Abrams’ young shoeshiner to go home, but he didn’t listen and fell victim to mob-related gunfire.]
(Laughs.) Shoe-shine customer, that’s funny.
He showed up on a Peter Jackson set 60 pounds heavier from drinking melted Häagen-Dazs, only he didn’t tell Jackson he was doing it. So that’s the reason why Mark Wahlberg is now the one who starred in The Lovely Bones.
Yeah, but I just had a strong impulse that I needed to do it. So I just went from there. If you say you want to look a little bit different, it’s hard for people to imagine it. So it just felt like something that needed to be done, and I just went with it.
Most importantly, Zach loved the choice.
I hope so.
He said so.
(Laughs.) Yeah.
By all accounts, you were a great sport when filming inside each whale stomach, but was there a day where you needed to be let out early because it was just too much?
I don’t know if we had that situation. The nature of the movie meant welcoming whatever difficulty came with it. When something is welcomed, it makes it less difficult. You don’t want to get out of any difficulty. You want to keep it there [for the sake of the scene].
I read that you walked around your neighborhood in scuba gear to get used to the weight. Did your neighbors give you any weird looks or call the police about some guy loitering in scuba apparatus?
I can’t remember if there were any funny looks or not. This is a little different from what you’re talking about, but there’s a point where Jay gets visibly more distressed and blown-up looking. I remember walking around the lot during that time and having security called on me just because I looked so fucked up.
Before filming, you traveled to a Caribbean island to get in the water with some real sperm whales, and they appeared for you, something they don’t always do for people. Were you trembling with fear? Or was it more peaceful than it sounds?
Man, it was beautiful. It was peaceful. It was the opposite of what you think it would be. You immediately know and feel how gentle and loving they are. Also, if they’re not interested in you, they’ll just dive back down. They can very easily avoid you if they want to, at least in this circumstance. But it was just an immensely moving experience, and I’m super grateful. You don’t know if any whales are going to be around, and you also don’t know if they’re going to have any interest in hanging out for a little bit. So I got really, really lucky with that.
You and Josh Brolin knew each other from Weapons, but given how intense Jay and Mitt’s scenes are, did you avoid socializing before the scene work? [Brolin was also in Gangster Squad, but he and Abrams didn’t share the screen.]
Thankfully, there was already a level of love and trust from knowing one another beforehand. When it comes to the work and their relationship, there’s a certain point where it’s not necessarily helpful to be palling around together. Sometimes it’s important and useful to strip that stuff away, and sometimes it’s not. It’s whatever feels the most useful, and hopefully it is. But yeah, there was certainly less [socializing] than there’d normally be. It’s always different when you’re working and doing whatever you need to do to lend a feeling to the scene. So that’s my answer or non-answer to that.
There was an early cut of the movie where Mitt’s letter to Jay was at least partially visible, but then the studio urged Brian to remove any glimpse. Are you ever going to reveal what Jay’s letter said?
Unh-unh.
Good. Keep that secret for the rest of your life.
Yeah. Maybe I’ll tell people personally.
That’s cool, but don’t tell people like me. We don’t deserve it.
(Laughs.)
It’s richer this way.
I really feel that way. If you put your own interpretation on it, that’s potentially going to be more meaningful and interesting than whatever was written. You’re also projecting whatever you wish a family member had said to you if they’d written you a letter before they died. That’s valuable. So there’s value in the not knowing.
Can we speed-round some Resident follow-ups in our waning moments?
Oh boy. Whatcha got for me?
The internet believes the Sundress Woman was actually the farmer’s wife. That would explain why she was relatively close to the farm in the first place. Do you believe that to be true?
That’s shown in there.
You must be referring to the photo of the farmer and his wife. I looked up the actor (Andrea Miltnerová) who plays the Sundress Woman, and compared her with the woman in that photo. While I’m 99.9 percent certain it’s the same person, I hesitate to call that confirmation.
All I’m saying is that it’s in there.
I read a draft of the script, and in the second phone call with Michelle (then known as Ashley) in the car, Bryan eventually tells her straight up that he wants to have a kid with her, only she couldn’t hear him because of bad cell service. Did you ever shoot that version?
Unh-unh. No.
The Paul Walter Hauser character, Paul, used to be a woman named Pauline, and she went with Bryan to the rat sewer before getting consumed by them. Bryan then mowed down her rat-infested body. Do you know why Zach dropped any version of that?
I don’t know what you read.
It must have been a very early draft.
Yeah, you found an early one.
The dog also bit Bryan first and caused his infection, not the little girl.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. There’s certain parts of these that I’m remembering, but the one with Pauline and the rats, I don’t remember that.
The syringe originally broke inside the lab, but Zach happened to shoot another version with it outside in case he changed his mind in post. Did he let you find out about that switch when you watched it for the first time?
We talked about that. That was something we’d been talking about.
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Whalefall is now paying in movie theaters nationwide.