Why naked meditation makes sense for ‘Adrift’ star Shailene Woodley
Actress recalls stripping off, seasickness and hunger while making film based on real-life adventure of a woman who survived 41 days stranded at sea in 1983
Actress Shailene Woodley found out on the first day of shooting the ocean adventure Adrift that seasickness was going to be an unwelcome part of her immediate film future.
As a storm rose on the Pacific Ocean, Woodley, 26, felt it coming on strong aboard the film’s 55-foot (17-metre) sailing-boat set.
If you’re stripped down to your core – mentally, physically, psychologically – it makes sense you would chose to meditate naked. Just to sort of surrender everything to Mother Nature
“It’s so graphic. But I couldn’t quite get my body to throw up,” she says.
“When you’re seasick and finally able to throw up, you kind of get your footing again.
“I wasn’t able to do that. It was just an all-day nausea and quite miserable.
“I just prayed the rest of the shoot wouldn’t be like that, knowing we had months on the sea to go.”
Woodley was buoyed by the fact that she, co-star Sam Claflin and the small crew, who also suffered though first-day seasickness (“It’s the best icebreaker!” Claflin, 31, says), found the sea legs to shoot for five weeks on the open ocean.
Adrift (released in cinemas around the world from Thursday) is the real-life adventure story of Tami Oldham (Woodley), who survived 41 days stranded at sea in 1983.
Newly engaged, Oldham and Richard Sharp (Claflin) were sailing on the romantic trip of a lifetime from Tahiti to San Diego when they were struck by a devastating hurricane.