Diana Nyad’s real life trainer says Jodie Foster nailed the role: ‘I thought it was me’
Bonnie Stoll is not a woman who’s easy to fool – but Jodie Foster pulled it off.
The Oscar winning actress plays the former racquetball champion in Nyad, the story of endurance-swimmer Diana Nyad who aged 60 decided to re-attempt the punishing 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida which eluded her in her youth.
(L-R) Foster and Annette Bening. Pic: Kimberley French/Netflix
Stoll, who was both Nyad’s best friend and professional trainer, tells Sky News: “The first time I saw [the film], I definitely thought it was me…
“It’s surreal and unbelievable and a real tribute to this actor. I mean, she did it. It surprises me almost every time I see the movie and I see it quite a bit. I think it’s me up there.”
Foster, 60, is reported to have completely immersed herself in Stoll’s way of life: training, nutrition, supplements, workouts, everything.
Quickly noting Stoll’s “salt of the earth quality,” she described her as “the kind of person you’d want to be in a storm with”. Which is lucky, because the movie has several storms to get through.
Annette Bening too – who plays Nyad in the film – trained for over a year to get into peak physical condition for the role, which of course demanded prolonged stretches of swimming.
World class actors, meeting a world class athletes and making a movie together. It’s a recipe that Netflix will be hoping might be a hit with the critics.
The movie re-creates some of the most challenging moments of the real-life crossing, which was completed without the use of a shark-cage, despite the risk of predator infested waters.
Bening trained for the role for over a year. Pic: Kimberley French/Netflix
But it was not sharks that turned out to be the biggest problem.
Stoll explained the biggest threat to their success came from deadly box jellyfish.
“We did not expect them. We had no idea they were already in the Gulf. But it was not a pleasant surprise… It was kind of a nightmare.”
She explains how Dr Angel Yanagihara, a bio-medical researcher considered to be one of the world’s pre-eminent experts in box jellyfish, helped them overcome the potentially fatal sticking point by helping design a mask.
However, that came at a cost.
“Diana was getting prosthetic for her face, the mask, so the box couldn’t get in. And then we heard about a box getting into someone’s mouth and they swallowed it. And that was not a good result.
“The swimming in that mask was a nightmare, for me especially. I can’t even look at it. It’s claustrophobic.”
Bening and Foster pictured on set alongside their real-life characters. Pic: Kimberley French/Netflix
The film’s director, Chai Vasarhelyi says they replicated everything Diana wore down to the last detail: “It was that authentic. The same suit that Diana wore, the same goggles, everything”.
And while they had two silicone face masks made for Bening to wear, Vasarhelyi admitted: “It was so painful we cut out the mouthpiece”.
It’s a move Stoll approved of, echoing: “Good, good”.
Vasarhelyi worked with her husband, professional climber, skier, filmmaker and photographer Jimmy Chin on the film, and the couple have two young children together.
She explained: “It was a really good way of keeping the family together all in one spot and who knew that you can grow in your forties? That you can grow after 12 years of marriage?”
The couple’s past films together include The Rescue (the rescue of 12 boys and their coach from a flooded cave in Northern Thailand) and Free Solo (an Oscar-winning portrait of rock climber Alex Honnold).
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Vasarhelyi summed up their unique area of interest as, “stories about humans who push the possibility”.
And proving that working with your partner isn’t necessarily the recipe for disaster that many might assume, she joked: “We were such old news, you know, me and him. But suddenly, like, we just got stronger. We got better. We saw what each other does even more clearly. And the kids had a great time.”
She added: “It ultimately caused some real deep changes afterwards about how we went, the way we work together.”
It seems the Nyad magic – that propelled the film’s real-life protagonist to wake up one day aged 60 and decide she wasn’t done – has rubbed off on its director.
And that is just the sparkle Netflix will be hoping makes its way into voters’ hearts come awards season.
Nyad is streaming now on Netflix.
Angelina Jolie says although she appreciates being an artist, she would prefer for her legacy to be “a good mother” and to be known for her “belief in equality and human rights”.
The Oscar-winning actress stars as Maria Callas in the new Pablo Larrain film about the opera singer’s life.
Pic: StudioCanal
She has called Maria “the hardest” and “most challenging” role she has had in her career and put months of preparation into immersing herself into the world of opera.
Jolie, who recently reached a divorce settlement with actor Brad Pitt, told Sky News: “To be very candid, it was the therapy I didn’t realise I needed. I had no idea how much I was holding in and not letting out.
“So, the challenge wasn’t the technical [side of opera], it was an emotional experience to find my voice, to be in my body, to express. You have to give every single part of yourself.”
The biopic combines the voice of the Maleficent actress with recordings of Maria Callas.
Jolie believes it “would be a crime to not have [Callas’] voice through this because, in many ways, she is very present in this film”.
Who was Maria Callas?
Born in New York in 1923, Maria Callas was the daughter of Greek immigrants who moved back to Athens at the age of 13 with her mother and sister.
After enrolling at the Athens Conservatory, she made her professional debut at 17 and went on to become one of the most famous faces of opera, travelling around the world and performing at Covent Garden in London, The Met in New York and La Scala in Milan.
Callas’s final operatic performance took place at Covent Garden in 1965 when she was 41 but she continued to work conducting master classes at Juilliard School, doing concert tours and starring in the 1969 film Medea.
Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, Maria focuses on the artist’s final years in the 1970s when she moved to Paris and disappeared from public view.
She died on 16 September 1977 at the age of 53.
Pic: StudioCanal
Jolie on changing motivations as an actor
Maria follows the life of an artist fully consumed by the art she creates and even remarks that “happiness never developed a beautiful melody”.
Reflecting on her own life in the spotlight, Jolie said she noticed her own career motivations change over the years.
“There’s this kind of study of being human that we do when we create, and we communicate with an audience because our work is not in isolation – it’s a connection.
“I think when I was younger, I had different questions about being human and different feelings and now as I’ve gotten older, I understand some things and now I have different questions.
“It’s a matter of life, right? And so maybe that’s interesting that this now is a character really contemplating death and really contemplating the toll of certain things in life that I, of course, couldn’t have understood in my 20s”.
Jolie at the New York Film Festival in September with three of her children (L-R) Pax, Zahara and Maddox. Pic: AP
A family affair
Two of Jolie’s children, Maddox and Pax, took on production assistant roles during the filming of Maria and witnessed their mother perform opera for the first time in public.
She says the film allowed them to create new experiences together and for her children to see her approach to playing a difficult role.
“Everyone in my home, we all give each other space to be who we are and we’re all different.
“I’m the mom, but I’m also an artist and a person and so my family has been very kind and gives me their understanding. They make fun of me, and they support me and just as you’d hope it would be.”
She adds: “When you play somebody who is dealing with so much pain, it’s very important to come home to some kindness.”
Maria is in cinemas now.
Tom Holland’s dad has confirmed his son’s engagement to Zendaya – revealing how the 28-year-old meticulously planned the proposal.
Zendaya, also 28, sparked engagement rumours when she attended last Sunday’s Golden Globes wearing a sparkling diamond on her ring finger.
Neither star has publicly addressed the rumours but Tom’s comedian father, Dominic Holland, has now confirmed the pair are set to wed.
He wrote in a post on his Patreon account: “Tom, as you know by now was very incredibly well prepared. He had purchased a ring.
“He had spoken with her father and gained permission to propose to his daughter.”
“Tom had everything planned out… When, where, how, what to say, what to wear,” he added.
Zendaya arrived at the Golden Globes with a noticeable piece of new jewellery. Pic: Invision/AP
Dominic also noted that while most men worry about being able to afford an engagement ring, he suspects his actor son was “more concerned with the stone, its size and clarity, its housing, which jeweller”.
Tom and Zendaya met on the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016, when they played the titular hero and his love interest MJ, respectively. Their romance was confirmed in 2021.
In his post, Tom’s father admitted fears over whether being in the spotlight could put a strain on the couple’s relationship.
He wrote: “I do fret that their combined stardom will amplify their spotlight and the commensurate demands on them and yet they continually confound me by handling everything with aplomb.”
“And even though show business is a messy place for relationships and particularly so for famous couples as they crash and burn in public and are too numerous to mention […] yet somehow right at the same time, I am completely confident they will make a successful union.”
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Zendaya rose to fame after landing a role in Disney sitcom Shake It Up, and became a household name after starring in Euphoria.
Holland – who has starred in three Spider-Man films opposite his now-fiancée – made his stage debut in Billy Elliot the Musical in 2008.
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