The Big Picture

Young Woman and the Sea
director Joachim Rønning speaks with Collider’s Steve Weintraub.
The Disney+ movie tells the true story of Trudy Ederle, played by Daisy Ridley, who was the first woman to swim the English Channel.
In this interview, Rønning also discusses his Hollywood directing journey, AI in filmmaking, and updates on the upcoming film
Tron: Ares
.

For a director who’s as in love with the ocean as filming on location, Disney’s Young Woman and the Sea quickly became a passion project for Joachim Rønning (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales). Not only was it the chance to work alongside star Daisy Ridley and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, but Rønning was dedicated to author Glenn Stout’s source material and the legendary true story of Trudy Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel.

In the movie, Rønning tells Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Ridley embodies the fierce spirit of Ederle not only in performance but as an actress. Throughout a grueling yet rewarding production, Ridley honored Ederle by pressing forward through chilling waters and long hours to tell the story of a woman with all the odds stacked against her. “It’s a rare story,” the filmmaker tells us, “We didn’t have to tinker with it much at all.”

In this interview, Rønning dives into the production deep, discussing the many years it took to get this story to the screen and the ambitious process of bringing the page to life on the ocean and in the snow. He also shares exciting updates for Tron: Ares, like working with Steven Lisberger, who Evan Peters plays in the movie, and working with Nine Inch Nails for the score. For all of this and more, check out the full conversation below.

Hollywood Has Been an “Inspiring Journey” Since Pirates of the Caribbean
Image via Disney

COLLIDER: First of all, I really want to start with congrats on your movie. I’m going to recommend it to a lot more people. I even told my sister about it this morning and how she needs to watch it.

JOACHIM RØNNING: I love it. Young Woman and the Sea was a true passion project for everyone involved. So, that’s great.

I have a ton of questions about that, but I like throwing some curveballs at the beginning. What has surprised you about directing in Hollywood over the last number of years? Because obviously, you started in Norway.

RØNNING: Oh, big question. Well, it’s not like I just did films in Norway and then suddenly moved to Hollywood, as you say. I had, like, 10 years of directing commercials in the US, and we did Super Bowl spots. So, I had some experience with intricate sets and big budgets and stuff like that, but obviously, being thrown into Pirates of the Caribbean [Dead Men Tell No Tales] with an unlimited budget, thinking back on it, was just wonderful, I must say. Obviously, the day-to-day and knowing that you had to do this big movie, it was angst-ridden, and there were doubts, and moments with yourself, like, “Oh my god, can I do this?”

But when it was going, I think what was surprising to me was how you are lifted up by your coworkers, basically, on the movie. In Norway, because we don’t have the resources, but we still have to make our film, but for a much less budget, so the result of that is just much less equipment, and a hell of a lot fewer people to help you. While making films in Hollywood, you have people for everything you can. Everything is presented. It’s constantly being carried forward. And obviously, I was also very lucky that I had Jerry Bruckheimer on my first Hollywood movie in my corner. He’s such a filmmakers’ producer, and it was just like, “You have to just step up.”

I think that was the other surprise — not a surprise, but more like the difference from making movies in Europe, maybe, is that here, it’s around the clock. It’s just around the clock. It’s like there’s no break. A script is never done. You keep on writing. You sit at lunch, dinner — everything is work. And you’re shooting for a hundred days. It’s just a crazy marathon of constantly trying to better the project and better the story. And it never ends. It never ends. Even through editing, post-production, reshoots. It just never ends until the movie is released. That’s also a luxury to have because you get so many chances to make the movie better. So, the work ethic is amazing, and that’s been a very inspiring journey for me.

Why Isn’t Disney Using AI?
Image by Jefferson Chacon

How do you view AI and its impact in Hollywood?

RØNNING: It’s interesting you ask that because the movie I’m doing now, Tron [Ares], has that as a theme — AI versus human, what it means to be AI, what it means to be human, what it takes to be human. I like the theme. I’m protective of my own creative process, so in a sense, I’m a little bit nervous about AI being like a shorthand way to creativity. I think that we will lose some of ourselves in that because art, for me, is a very human form of expression, and my art form is cinema.

That said, especially working with Disney and the big studios and all of that stuff, we’re not using AI at all. We are not allowed to. We can’t because even in design processes and all of that stuff, for the two years that I’ve been on Tron, it’s been a no-no. But I know that people use it on other productions and things like that. I think there are a lot of interesting things that you can use it as a tool for, like design things, where you can get some ideas. There are probably also script tools that you can get ideas from. But maybe I’m just a little old-school. Let’s use it as a tool here and there, and let’s have some guardrails for what we can do.

I also want to know if I’m watching a movie that was written by AI. I kind of want to know. Even an article — when I read a news article or anything, I want to know before I see it or read it if it’s made by AI because it changes my perception of it a little bit, and maybe I’d choose not to see it. Maybe it’s less interesting. But it’s such a big question, honestly.

One of the reasons I was asking is because I’ve heard from people what they’re nervous about. Like an art department — I’ve been on sets or been behind the scenes and have seen an art department that has so many people working on it. A lot of people are concerned if there are normally 50 people, it might get cut down to six.

RØNNING: Right now, with the big studio movies, it’s not happening. That’s not how it is. Because if Disney were to allow AI, at least where it is today, the problem is that they cannot own it. If we design something using AI, it means Disney legally can’t own it, and that’s a nonstarter. Obviously, you’re making a big franchise. So, that’s also part of the reason why we’re not using it. I don’t think any of the big studios are using it.

That’s actually a very good point. I hadn’t thought about that. Studios love to own things.

RØNNING: Yeah, definitely. Forever. [Laughs]

Why Joachim Rønning Loves Filming on the Ocean
“It’s that sense of chaos that you managed to tame every now and then.”

Now I’ll probably ask the most serious question of the day, which is, you clearly like working with water in the ocean. Why? I’m not an ocean person, but clearly, you are.

RØNNING: [Laughs] I grew up by the ocean, so it reminds me of home. To me, it’s home. I grew up on boats and sailing and being by the ocean. So for me, not necessarily when I’m shooting on the ocean, but when I’m on the ocean in a boat or by the ocean, or even looking out over the ocean, it just gives me a sense of calm. It’s an inspiring place, and I have that in me. I have a love of the ocean in me.

But then, when you are out there with dozens of boats, and it’s your response to the elements, and you have an actor in the water, it’s 61 degrees, her lips are blue, and propellers are inches away from her feet, then you kind of regret going in. But the feeling of accomplishment, I must say, it’s such a high when you zoom back to land, the sun is setting, and you have spray in your face, and you think about what you did that day, and you’re thinking, “Wow.” It’s that sense of chaos that you managed to tame every now and then. You get these happy accidents. I really believe that the audience can somehow feel that we did it as real as we could out there. So, I think it’s a rewarding part.

I know how I feel when I’m watching something, and I’m like, “That’s all green screen, the lighting here is terrible, this doesn’t match,” versus when it’s on location and filming. There is a massive difference. I think even cinema-goers who don’t really understand the process can feel it, even if they don’t know why.

RØNNING: I think so, too. There have been a lot of movies in the last decade that have just been these CG, blue-screen bonanzas. I know. I’ve made a couple of them. And I think maybe that’s also a reaction to that. On Maleficent [Mistress of Evil], for instance, we shot everything at the Pinewood, even forest stuff. We built it on green screen, and I think that’s why I’m also dreaming about getting out into the elements — because it’s the furthest away from a soundstage that I can be is out on the ocean when we’re filming.

By the way, I think most people understand the pros and cons. The fact is, shooting on a stage makes a lot of sense with a lot of stuff, but at the same time, it’s just not the same.

RØNNING: Yeah, and I’m so grateful that I’m able to do both. Like with Tron, that’s all inside a computer.

Shocking!

RØNNING: [Laughs] So, there’s room for all types of films, and I love to make all kinds of movies, really.

‘Young Woman and the Sea’s Long Journey to Its “Moment in the Sun”

Image via Disney

Jumping into why I’m talking to you, from what I understand, you spent years, you and Daisy [Ridley], trying to get this thing off the ground, or you and Jerry. What was it that caused this film to be so difficult to get made? Is it just because these kinds of films are, in general, hard to get made?

RØNNING: It’s all of the above. It’s not the normal IP, it’s not a sequel, which also makes it very interesting for me. It all started with Jeff Nathanson’s wonderful script that was based on Glenn Stout’s book. I read it, now, eight or nine years ago, so that’s how long we’ve spent trying to make it happen. It was just such a remarkable true story, and I was baffled that I didn’t know about it because it was such a big worldwide event when it happened 100 years ago. In many ways, it changed women’s sports forever. So, I felt almost like an obligation to tell her story and bring Trudy [Ederle] back to life.

I feel any movie that I get made feels like a miracle. With anything, you feel like, “Oh, we’re actually in pre-production on this project? Oh, we’re actually shooting this project?” It always feels like that. Obviously, it’s easier when you have an IP or it’s a franchise and you have a studio that just wants to make it, and then you back into that box. With Young Woman and the Sea, you come with a project, you come with a story, and we went everywhere. Then there was a five-minute window at Disney+, and much thanks to Sam Dickerman, the studio executive here, and also Alan Bergman, the co-chair. There was a window, and they took it, and they said yes, and off we went. It was supposed to be straight-to-streamer, but we, especially myself and Jerry, always make movies for the big screen, so I didn’t really change how I made it. I was just hoping that, at some point, maybe we were gonna get a little theatrical release, and then it tested extremely well, and Disney went along with putting it in the theater. Much thanks to Jerry, of course, Jerry Bruckheimer, who’s just relentless when it comes to things like that. So, we got our little moment in the sun.

Again, you did a very good job with this material. It’s one of those films that will stand the test of time, and people will watch it in years to come because it’s really good.

Trudy Ederle’s Story Didn’t Need Dramatization
“If you have to change a lot of things, maybe the story is not worth telling.”
Image via Disney

One of the things I’m so curious about is when you’re telling someone’s story that’s real, and these real events happened, you’ve got to figure out a way to incorporate, “What do I want to include that really happened? Where am I going to dramatize the events? Where can I take liberties?” When you guys were working on this, where did you feel like you could take liberties with certain events, and where you had to be accurate?

RØNNING: You’re right. We’re squeezing a long story into a two-hour window. I’ve done a couple of biopics in my career. Kon-Tiki was one of them. Again, it helps to focus on certain events in the subject’s life. So, for instance, with Kon-Tiki, it was the balsa wood raft. It didn’t take the whole of Thor Heyerdahl’s life, and the same with Trudy here. We have some childhood stuff, and then we focus on the channel swim. And the channel swim becomes almost half the film, so it makes it easier to be like, “Okay, we’re not telling her whole life story, we’re telling this story.” Then, if you have to change a lot of things, maybe the story is not worth telling. Honestly, we didn’t have to dramatize this story very much. There’s always gonna be certain abbreviations and maybe collapsing some characters and things like that, but it was very much all there, all the drama — her against the world of men and against the ocean and against the tide, so to speak. I think it’s a very rare story. We didn’t have to tinker with it much at all, and that’s very much thanks to Jeff Nathanson, who wrote it.

I’m always fascinated by the editing process because it’s where it all comes together. So, you have a cut that you’re happy with, you end up showing it to friends and family, or you do a test screening. What did you learn from those early screenings that impacted the finished film?

RØNNING: Well, with Young Woman and the Sea, it’s a movie that is in between things, so we were kind of left alone, honestly, on the movie. At the end of the day, we only had one test screening. For me, you sit in the room, and you’re nervous, and then you just close your eyes, and you just listen to the audience basically — the jokes land and the characters kind of get that reaction. Is it scary? Is it emotional? You hear people crying, and you feel like, “Okay, this is good. This is great. They do it right.”

Specifically, with Young Woman and the Sea, there was a moment where she reaches land at the very end of the movie, and in the cut we showed, I very much felt that when she touches land, people wanted to clap in the theater, but then we moved too fast to the next moment in the story. So, that was something that we learned — “We should prolong this moment. As she touches the sand on the other side, people on the beach start clapping. We should wait with that and then have them start clapping.” When we did that, you get that reaction you had. The audience gets time to react the way you want it. It’s like, “Let’s share that moment that everybody is looking for in these kinds of movies.

Related The True Story Behind Daisy Ridley’s ‘Young Woman and the Sea’ Ridley stars as Trudy Ederle – one of history’s most important athletes.

Did you end up with a lot of deleted scenes?

RØNNING: No. My wonderful editor on this movie, Úna [Ní Dhonghaíle], is so masterful. What’s really tricky with films like this, and it might sound mundane, is you have so many montage sequences to get through certain story elements just to move them along. They are very entertaining to watch, but they’re extremely hard to make and to shoot them and to cut them together and to make the balance. And we have, like, three or four of them in this film where you want a time cut between certain events.

Also, coming from a Scandinavian film school, again, we don’t have many resources when we film any movie, especially in Norway. You learn to be very editorial before you shoot, so you try to shoot as little as possible because that’s the most expensive. I think that kind of school has made me very economic when it comes to shooting things that I might not need. Obviously, when you do the big movies, like Tron, I don’t think about that at all. I just keep on shooting. You definitely have scenes that end up on the cutting room floor, but on Young Woman and the Sea, it was very, very little that’s what was shot’s not in the film.

Why Daisy Ridley Was Chosen to Portray Trudy Ederle
Image via Disney

I’m being really serious when I say this, what she did is incredible. Her story is just jaw-dropping, and I really want to know how the fuck she did it because it was 100 years ago. I researched what Daisy did, just getting in the ocean for a little while, and how cold it was, and how blue her lips got. So, how did she swim this 100 years ago and pull this off and do it better than any man had done at that point?

RØNNING: She was swimming for her life, figuratively and literally. She was fighting for something she believed in. So, I hear you, but what I’m thinking is that gives you that extra motivation to do it when it comes to the physicality of it. She was the first woman, and then after that, over the last 100 years, there’s, like, 4,000 or 5,000 people who have actually done the trek. So, she was just different. She was extremely strong and determined. In many ways, Daisy Ridley has some sort of strength in her that made me really want Daisy for this role. She shows this kind of energy, especially in the Star Wars franchise and all of that stuff, that I’m imagining is similar to what Trudy had 100 years ago.

When I was filming with Daisy out there, even in the water, obviously we have doubles swimming, the stunt swimmers, and stuff like that, but even in the water, there’s no chance that I can see her face — she’s facing down in the water. I ended up using Daisy because there was a strength to those strokes that she was doing that nobody else had. I felt that that was Trudy swimming in front of our cameras, and so I ended up using Daisy for everything, basically. And she was the best film partner.

I’m also talking specifically about Trudy and what she did 100 years ago. I’m just blown away by the accomplishment, and I’m so happy that you made the film because it’s a story that absolutely should be told.

RØNNING: I’m just baffled that I didn’t know this story before I read the script. Everybody I talked to and pitched it to before we made the movie, nobody had heard of her. Except for in the swimming circles, nobody else heard of her. It was so amazing to bring her back from history.

Image via Disney+

I’m always fascinated by how a director chooses to film things, where they place the camera, and how they work with their DP. With a film like this, where you have a tighter budget than, say, on Pirates or Tron , how much were you storyboarding everything? How much are you always figuring out in the moment how you want to shoot something? Can you take me a little bit through your process?

RØNNING: On this movie, I storyboarded everything. Absolutely everything. It also comes to when you have a script. It’s rarer than you think to have a script that you can actually shoot on the first day of shooting, that you have a done A-Z script when you make movies in Hollywood. When you have a great script like this, that means that you can actually plan. You do the script. You do the script for a year before you start shooting it. Actually, with this movie, I drew everything, and together with Oscar Faura, the DP, we figured out how we were going to be able to shoot this. He designed with his crew some special pulley systems where we could be underwater and actually see Daisy’s face because that was a challenge. Like, “How can we be with her? How can we be doing this?” We had some camera crane systems with underwater remote heads and things like that, so we could dip in and out of the water and underwater and really have contact with her throughout the film. So, those were the bigger things that we did actually prep a lot in the tank for that to make us ready to go out on the open ocean.

Image via Disney+

But I do plan everything. Even on the big movies, I did draw. I do storyboards, I do my diagrams, and I send them to everybody, and everybody seems to like that. So, everybody knows what they’re going to do. Early in my career, I kind of never looked up from that, and I just put the camera here. I think I’ve learned, also, to be freer, especially with the actors when the actor comes in. Probably in some of my early films, I was kind of just like, “Okay, dude, you’re standing here, the camera’s going to move in here.” Now, I hope, at least, it’s more of a collaboration.

The crazy thing is there’s just no right way. Also, how do you figure out where this scene should be more improvised and where what scene should be more, “No, this is perfect on the page with the storyboards, let’s just do it this way?” It’s just it’s crazy because there’s no scientific way of doing it.

RØNNING: Whenever I read a new script, I read, and I do my notes on my very, very first read-through because that’s when I’m the clearest in what the scene would be because it’s the first time I see it. So, I see a scene very much as what I’m imagining an audience will see, you know? It can be diluted as you walk through the process, and two years later, you’re there and going to film something, and it’s important to remember your instincts. Then it just comes from making films and just continuing to do it. Obviously, the point of view of the scene, like, where do you want to linger? It’s hard to explain fully what goes on, and I think that’s the artistic side of it. I really cherish that process because this is my art form, and that’s what I’m doing when I’m filming. It’s like I feel something, and I try to make it not abstract anymore. You need to pull things out of the sky, and then you have all these amazing collaborators around you who put the sound and the music on it, and then suddenly you start feeling the magic of it all. So, it’s an intuitive process, I think.

I’m currently halfway through rewatching The Insider because I’m talking to Michael Mann tomorrow, and the way he shoots with these ultra close-ups on Russell Crowe’s face or from the side is so different than the way Fincher shoots. It’s crazy because there are so many ways and they’re all good.

RØNNING: It also changes a little bit with the DP and how he or she works. You try to create some general rules. A bad example is like, “I’m not gonna use any red in this movie,” and then maybe it’s out the window halfway through or something because, “Oh, that suit looks great in red.” With Tron, especially, with Jeff Cronenwerth, the DP, for me, the inspiration of these kinds of films is like Terminator 2 and those sort of ‘80s, early ’90s things that we tried to go for where we tried not to do too wide lenses. From a visual point of view, I think I’m closer in Tron than in Young Woman and the Sea. So, it can change.

I totally get what you’re saying.

8:22 Related Daisy Ridley Reveals the Most Terrifying Scene to Film in ‘Young Woman and the Sea’ “There were always moments where you think, am I gonna be okay?”

Which shot or sequence in Young Woman and the Sea was the back-breaker?

RØNNING: What was the most difficult was the landing because we were out at night in the Black Sea in north Bulgaria. It was freezing, and we had 1,000 people in costumes. I remember we scouted it three weeks before we were going to shoot, and it was snowing sideways, and there were cliffs, and I was like, “Oh my god, we have to be so careful here because we’re going to have people up there, extras there. Where do we park, and how do we walk in here with footsteps in the sand?” That was an overwhelming feeling.

Image via Disney+

But then you go there, and then suddenly you have a crew call at 6 p.m., and then you drive in the sun, and it’s not snowing. You’re there, and you just get these amazing crowd scenes with extras who have been there already for 12 hours standing in line, getting dressed, and everybody’s just happy. You get a couple of those nights. So, that was mine. Also, because when I read the script, I really wanted that to feel like the fires on the cliffs were visually a huge emotional highlight in the film. So, you put extra pressure on yourself, and you dig into it.

‘Tron: Ares’ Is Working With the “Godfather of Tron”
Image Via Buena Vista Distribution

One of the things that really fascinated me with Tron: Ares is that Steven Lisberger is listed as one of the writers. For people who don’t realize, he is Tron. What was his involvement in this new movie?

RØNNING: He’s obviously the godfather of this franchise. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t because of him. So, I’ve been just picking his brain throughout the whole process. We’ve been together. Tron is a movie that they’ve been trying to get off the ground for many years, so I know the producers have kept a very close relationship with him, and when I became involved, I joined that. It’s just fascinating. He’s a colorful guy, and what he did in the early ‘80s, the boundaries that he pushed, and nobody really understood what it was. I don’t think he was eligible for an Oscar because they thought that he had used too much computer so it was cheating.

I’m going to tell you the craziest fucking thing. When they went up for best VFX, they lost because they said the computers did all the work. That just tells you how far we’ve come.

RØNNING: We might have the same dilemma with AI. If you have a movie that has a lot of AI VFX in it, or story, or whatever, that it might not be eligible.

By the way, it shouldn’t be.

‘Tron: Ares’ in IMAX Is the “Ultimate Cinematic Experience”
Image via Disney

I love the IMAX format. I think your movie is in IMAX.

RØNNING: Yeah.

Are we going to have a lot of it in the full frame, or is it in IMAX full frame? Do you know what you’re doing yet?

RØNNING: I shot for IMAX. I had two monitors on set. One in IMAX 1:9 and one 2.39:1 because IMAX, I think it’s like 2,000 screens, and then you have 10,000 other screens. So, it’s important to honor both formats, I feel. So, I have both formats. The whole movie is shot to fit both formats. It’s still a discussion going because we do at least half the film in 1:9, but there’s talk that we’re going to do the whole film 1:9. It’s a VFX budget issue. You add 10, 15, 20% to the work, even in the simplest of things. But I did frame everything for 1:9, and then I shot everything in the 1:9 format. So, we’re ready.

I think that the IMAX experience, especially the full screen, when you look at Oppenheimer, or you look at Dune , it just adds so much. I’m wondering if the success of these movies in IMAX has made it so the studio is looking at it and being like, “Yeah, this is a reason to go see Tron in IMAX?”

RØNNING: Especially for a movie like Tron, it’s the ultimate cinematic experience. When you step into the Grid, it lends itself to that format. It’s amazing to look at, and the sound and the Dolby Atmos, and the combination. I also think Tron is known to be at the forefront of technology. I can’t talk that much about that, but we’re on the cutting edge all the way through, which has also been a fascinating part of making this film.

Are you aiming for a 3D release with Tron ? Because that’s the kind of movie that could benefit from 3D.

RØNNING: I don’t know if we are doing that. I think so, but I’m the last to know.

So you didn’t shoot on set with 3D. It would be in post-production?

RØNNING: I think we’re doing 3D because I’m doing VFX for 3D, but we didn’t shoot with a dual-lens or anything like that.

It’s one of the few things that I’d be willing to see in 3D.

17:16 Related Garrett Hedlund Talks About the Staying Power of ‘Tron: Legacy’ and Why He’s Excited for ‘Tron: Ares’ Hedlund also discusses ‘Tulsa King’ Season 2, why he loves Sylvester Stallone, and his upcoming JonBenét Ramsey true crime series.

Where are you in the editing process?

RØNNING: [Laughs] I’m right here. No, a movie like this, it’s like 2,000 VFX shots, so every other day, I sit in the effects meetings. I go through about 50 shots every other day that come in from ILM, which is also an amazing journey. It’s a long journey. At the same time, we have a movie. We have an A–Z movie, and it’s just now tightening it, maybe doing some additional photography to land certain things here and there. Again, the luxury of filmmaking on this level is having the time and the resources to keep tweaking it, keep working, and keep making it better. So, we’re going to be doing that until summer. I’m not even halfway through.

I try explaining this to people, it doesn’t matter what you have to do to make your movie because no one will remember the additional photography or this or that. They’re going to remember, ‘What was it like when I saw it on opening day?” That’s all they care about.

RØNNING: Exactly. And honestly, as a director on these kinds of films, you have to check your ego a little bit at the door because it’s very much a collaboration with the producers, with the studio. I’m not telling my personal story here. I’m telling a big emotional action piece. So, I just want everything to work and to be great. So, it’s very much like, at this point, you open up the floodgates here. There are notes coming in from everywhere. So, I think as a filmmaker on these kinds of projects, you have to be open to that.

What’s Evan Peters’ Relationship to Cillian Murphy’s Character?
Image via 20th Century Studios

I am curious how Evan Peters is related to Cillian Murphy. What can you tease about that, if anything?

RØNNING: I can’t say much. You probably know that he’s a Dillinger.

I was wondering what the relation is, but I’ll leave it alone.

RØNNING: Yeah, I’ve told you too much already.

Nine Inch Nails Is Doing the ‘Tron: Ares’ Soundtrack
“That’s the style that we find very interesting for this film.”

So the Tron: Legacy soundtrack by Daft Punk — I’m not joking when I say this — is one of my all-time favorite soundtracks in movie history. I love that soundtrack. I’ve listened to it 1,000 times. Talk a little bit about how you guys figured out who you wanted for the soundtrack, and you got Trent [Reznor] and Atticus [Ross].

RØNNING: It’s been at the forefront, who’s going to do the soundtrack on this one, because, as you say, the Legacy was so legendary. We went through a lot of options, but I think very early on, it became clear to us, also because of the story and where we wanted to be. This installment is — I don’t want to say anything that can give it away — a little bit more industrial. That’s where my mind has gone, where Legacy is very sleek. I love it. It’s, in many ways, a masterpiece visually. You can hang any scene on the wall. It looks amazing. So, this one, since we have the assets of the Grid world coming into the real world and all of that stuff, for me, it was important to change it up a little bit, to make it a little grittier, a more industrial feel, the contrast between the digital assets and the real world, just from a visual point of view.

So, I felt Nine Inch Nails because this is important. Even though it’s maybe a technicality, it’s Trent and Atticus, yeah, but it’s Nine Inch Nails. So, they are doing this under the Nine Inch Nails banner. That’s the style that we find very interesting for this film. The whole process of getting them on board wasn’t that lengthy. They really wanted to do it. We’re just thrilled to be having them. I love sitting with them in their rock and roll part of Brentwood, working on this movie. It’s just amazing. It’s pinch-my-arm amazing.

Young Woman and the Sea is available to stream on Disney+.

The story of competitive swimmer Gertrude Ederle, who, in 1926, was the first woman to ever swim across the English Channel.Runtime 100 Minutes Writers Jeff Nathanson , Glenn Stout

Watch on Disney+