Whalefall is opening in U.S. theaters, and director Brian Duffield has explained how the production approached its unusual central problem: keeping a young diver alive, and a film moving, inside a sperm whale. Austin Abrams plays Jay, with Josh Brolin appearing as his father.
In Disney’s production account, Duffield describes physically confined sets rather than oversized interiors pretending to be cramped. Abrams says the stomach sequences were filmed in order, helping him track the character’s changing condition. Duffield and co-writer Daniel Kraus, who wrote the source novel, also consulted whale anatomist Dr. Joy Reidenberg. Wētā Workshop contributed to developing the physical environment.
An interview with TheWrap adds an unexpected reference point: Oliver Stone’s JFK. Duffield connects that influence to editor Pietro Scalia, who worked on both films, and to the freedom of combining different material when the dramatic purpose is clear.
Sound created its own problems during early screenings, when production noise made some dialogue difficult to understand. Duffield says the finished sound work was crucial to the experience. Together, those accounts put the emphasis on performance, physical space and post-production instead of reducing the film to its high-concept premise.