The Big Picture

Nyad, starring Annette Bening and Jodie Foster, tells the inspiring story of Diana Nyad’s determined swim from Cuba to Florida. The film captures the intense physical and mental challenges faced by Nyad and her team during the grueling expedition. Nyad’s story challenges societal expectations for women over a certain age and showcases the complexity and ambition of a remarkable individual.

The new Netflix film Nyad, now in limited theatrical release, has been making some big waves. Starring Annette Bening and Jodie Foster, it tells the story of Diana Nyad who claims to have made the unassisted swim from Cuba to Florida in 2013 at the age of 64. As played by Bening, Nyad is a determined force to be reckoned with who won’t be written off by the world. It is the type of inspiring, crowd-pleasing film that could easily garner awards for its cast as well as directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin who previously helmed the acclaimed 2018 documentary Free Solo though have now made their feature narrative debut.

However, there is also some controversy surrounding the film over accusations that Nyad has embellished her accomplishments and may not have made such a swim how she says she did. In the below interview, we spoke with Vasarhelyi, Chin, and the film’s other subject Bonnie Stoll, who is Nyad’s training partner and friend that is played by Foster in the film, about bringing this story to life, the differences between nonfiction versus narrative filmmaking, shooting the swimming sequences, and their response to some of the criticisms.

COLLIDER: Bonnie, I wanted to start with you as this is a story about you as much as it is anyone. In the film Jodie Foster’s portrayal of you creates this very crucial counterbalance for both the story and the massive undertaking that you all set out to attempt. What conversations did you get to have with her, if any, and what was the process like of seeing your experience come to life on screen like this?

BONNIE STOLL: Well, the experience is surreal. The entire process has been surreal. There were 40 of us actually on the entire expedition and, actually, it was Diana’s dream which became all of our dream. It gave us such a sense of purpose to get her to the other shore. Diana doesn’t need pushing, you know, she’s going. If we were going on a 16-hour swim, practice swim, and we got back to the dock at 15 hours and 58 minutes, she’s going out a minute and coming back a minute. Never a second less than what we set out to do.

To you Chai, when it comes to approaching your first feature like this, were there similar things that you had to navigate from when you previously worked on documentaries?

ELIZABETH CHAI VASARHELYI: Well, I think the main difference is Annette Bening and Jodie Foster. In nonfiction, our role is to observe and to listen and be kind of your closest listener possible. Then we make sense of it in post-production. This it was incredibly empowering to have a creative partner who is at the very best at what they do, who is as committed as you are to bringing to life these characters. It was incredibly special. I have to credit Diana and Bonnie where they gave us the space, they trusted us with the story. They also gave the actors the space to create their own Diana and their own Bonnie because that was really important. When you work at that level, Annette and Jody and Rhys, brought just so much depth to these roles.

Image via Netflix

Jimmy, there was a moment where I was thinking of the part you play in Free Solo where it’s watching something and seeing it and being unable to necessarily step in and prevent harm, but still having to be there and observe and that kind of playing out exactly in some of these swimming scenes. Was there part of your own experience that was informing the way that you were shooting these scenes of this entire team surrounding someone trying to undertake almost the impossible?

CHIN: Absolutely, I think that’s a great observation. I think as someone who has experienced these type of endurance and physical challenges before, we really wanted to translate that on screen for audiences to bring them into this kind of moment. To really understand these kinds of expeditions or physical challenges, you have to be able to see both the grandeur of the scope and scale of it. Part of the reason why we do what we do is because we love the feeling of being a tiny speck in something huge, which is I think part of why Diana does it. To be in this huge ocean and to be battling against the elements. So we wanted to capture that, but we also wanted to capture that inner kind of battle. There’s the kind of your physical external battle, but then there’s that internal struggle that you have to have that you’re facing with yourself and whether or not you’re going to keep pushing or if you’re going to give up. And so, you know, we shot really close with her wide angle underneath where we are hoping to bring people into her kind of internal struggle as well.

Bonnie, when it comes to that struggle, it is a grueling experience. There are moments of pain, of fear. When you’re watching the film, is it difficult to revisit those moments or do you have that thought in your head of ‘but we know it leads to this moment of triumph?’

I think I had a lot more fear than Diana herself had. Holding Diana back in the training program when we wanna go, we wanna go, but we’re not getting the weather. She wants to do these long training swims and she finally understood that she’s in the shape, she could do it right now. So let’s just do five hour swims every day for a while until we get the doldrums. Three days in a row of pretty calm water. If you get two, you’re lucky. If you get one, it’s not so great, but she swims through it. I saw her swimming in 6 ft waves and just never complaining. Never.

Image via Netflix

In line of thinking, Chai and then Jimmy as a last question, there’s been this conversation where people have been to some degree critical about the way the story is framed and some historical potential differences of thought. But I was struck by something you had said, Chai, that to make a movie about someone doesn’t mean that they are perfect or that they don’t have flaws. I was wondering if you could speak to that of capturing someone but also all of who they are and not just making something that’s like, ‘oh, they were great, they never had any challenges and everything was smooth sailing.’ What kind was the experience like for you in that regard?

VASARHELYI: I mean, I feel like it’s just a sad reality that, you know, in general, our world is uncomfortable with seeing women with great ambition who are not afraid of that ambition. And Diana Nyad’s story provided us a great opportunity to actually conjure, like show a woman in her full complexity. You may not like her all the time, but you will certainly admire her at some moments. In terms of the controversy, our film is never about a record. It is about a woman who wakes up at 60 and the world is like, ‘we’re done with you.’ And she’s like, ‘no, I’m not done with the world.’ I think that’s a really valuable kind of commentary because especially women are, after a certain age, just looked over like you’re no longer relevant in any way. We saw this opportunity and it was really a great honor to be able to share Diana’s story and also work alongside Annette Bening and Jodie Foster and Rhys Ifans to bring it to life.

STOLL: Yeah, and this movie is about the swim from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida. I don’t think there’s anyone that’s questioning that because there’s 40 of us that tell the exact same story, minute by minute.

Nyad is in select theaters now and is available to stream on Netflix starting November 3. Click here for showtimes near you.