The scene from ‘The Impossible’ in which Tom Holland blocked himself before Naomi Watts

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of one of the fundamental films of our contemporary cinema, the very JA Bayona reveals the scene from ‘The Impossible’ in which Tom Holland blocked himself before Naomi Watts.

“I remember getting goosebumps when we were shooting the sequence where Naomi Watts and Tom Holland are seeking refuge. after they’ve survived the flood and are up to their necks in water,” recalls the filmmaker. “Little by little the level goes down until we discover Naomi Watts’s injuries and Tom was looking at her chest and was very impressed. It is a sequence that, when we shot it, Tom dared not look at her chest. and on the third take I told him, Tom, you have to look at his chest, that’s what the sequence is about”.

“When I gave action, we got to that point and Tom didn’t follow the sequence, he just kept quiet,” explains Bayona. “At that point Naomi realized that she couldn’t speak, that she was frozen. She knew very well, without cutting the take, to get Tom out of that moment and to continue the take too. That made Naomi Watts come more upstairs and it was a very special moment. One of the greatest moments I’ve experienced with two actors on set. That’s how it stayed forever in the movie, I remember it with a lot of impression“.

Naomi Watts ended up nominated for an Oscar for this work and, years later, Tom Holland became one of the mainstays of Marvel as the new Spider-Man.

“Tom was really the protagonist of the film. The whole story fell on his shoulders and he was a very important character not to find the right person,” explains Bayona about the search for his young promise. “We did a casting of thousands of guys and in the end we were left with four very good ones. The four could have played a great role. And it was Tom at the end because he really had something that, over the years, has proven itself. He has a charisma, a sensitivity and a humanity and nobility that has been seen over the years, by how he has managed to maintain his career and, somehow, it was clear that he was a boy who was destined to become not only a star of cinema but in a great actor”.

Next March 4, at 9:00 p.m., the Aribau Cinema in Barcelona, ​​will host the screening of ‘The Impossible’, presented by JA Bayona himself together with María Belónthe survivor of the 2004 Thailand tsunami, on whom the film is based.

Winner of five Goya Awards (production management, editing, sound, special effects and direction)‘The Impossible’ fully entered the list of the best Spanish films of the 21st century and was crowned on the podium of the highest grossing Spanish films in history.