In The Young Woman and the Sea, Daisy Ridley plays Trudy Ederle, the first woman to ever swim the English Channel. This meant that Ridley, who gave the movie a shoutout during a recent Disneyland trip, spent a lot of time in the water. As it turns out though, the actress is in even more of the movie than you might think, which was something of a problem for the production.
Following its theatrical release, the new Disney movie The Young Woman and the Sea arrives on Disney+ today. It’s a powerful film with a strong performance by Daisy Ridley. CinemaBlend attended a press conference for the Disney+ release that included director Joachim Rønning. He explained that while he did have body doubles for Daisy Ridley, she did her own swimming, and he ended up using her in most of the film because the actress's swimming was so unique he couldn’t use anybody else. He explained…
Obviously we have swimming stand-ins, swimming doubles, and I used them as much as I could to line up the camera, so I didn't have to put Daisy in there until the very last moment. But what I realized was that the way Daisy was swimming – nobody else could swim like that. Like, it was such a forceful swim. There was such a force in her stroke. And so I ended up using Daisy, even for wide shots, where there's no way I can see her face. Because she's face down in the water, anyway! Which was another challenge, to follow a character that's face down in the water most of the time.
Daisy Ridley’s powerful swimming probably looked best on camera to give the swimming scenes a bit more energy. But beyond that, if nobody else can swim like Ridley, then it becomes difficult to use body doubles, as it would be more obvious when the actress wasn’t the one on screen, as the style of swimming could change from one shot to the next.
Filming was difficult because you have a character whose face you can’t see during the most intense moments of the story. Of course, that becomes an even bigger issue when the actor floats away from the cameras. Since The Young Woman and the Sea was filmed on open water, the boats and the actor would occasionally find themselves separated. Rønning continued…
We were all in it together, and we were all very, very motivated to be out there on the water. And we planned it as good as we (could). But you come out there, and literally, everything is just like , you know, moving in different directions. And suddenly, Daisy is 200 meters away from us. She has been swept away with the currents, and we have to chase her.
The fact that currents were going to be an issue wasn’t a surprise, and the production tried to prepare for them as best it could. There was a lot that needed to be dealt with, which Joachim Rønning admits was quite stressful, though it was perhaps fitting because it wasn’t that different from what the real Truy Ederle had to deal with. The director explained…
I remember, very early on, speaking with Daisy about that, and warning her that that was going to be the situation. I couldn't have asked for a better film partner. When we were out there, on the ocean, it's really 60, 61 degrees, uh, 15, 16 degrees Celsius in the water – and the elements, and the currents, and the wind, and then it's raining. And then you have my biggest fear of all, the boats and the propellers that are around her constantly. Even though they are safety boats, it's a very stressful environment. But like Jerry is saying, it really informs us just a little bit of how it was for Trudy.
Daisy Ridley is great in The Young Woman and the Sea, and knowing that even when you can’t see her, it’s still her in the water doing much of the swimming makes the performance that much more powerful. You can watch The Young Woman and the Sea with a Disney+ subscription now.
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