“Poor Tom,” Kate Winslet says of breaking Top Gun: Maverick star’s underwater breath-holding record.
Kate Winslet teases Tom Cruise after breaking one of his impressive records. The 47-year-old British actress recently spoke to USA Today about her training while filming her latest film, Avatar: The Way of Water. While starring in James Cameron’s blockbuster, Kate Winslet famously held her breath underwater for 7 minutes and 47 seconds.
The moment officially broke Cruise’s previous record, which he held underwater for 6 minutes while filming Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation in 2015.
Although Winslet said Cruise hasn’t contacted her since breaking his record, she shared a teasing message to him: “Poor Tom.”
“I mean, I don’t know Tom at all and I’ve never met him in person, but I’m sure he’d be sick of hearing about how I broke his record. I love diving though… I’m amazed at how much I can hold my breath underwater and how much I keep getting better,” she said with a laugh.
Kate Winslet also credits her husband Edward Abel Smith with helping her practice holding her breath underwater.
“He’s incredibly fit, strong and capable of doing a lot of things,” Winslet told reporters. “He trains with me because if I need to train without a spotter while filming, we’re safe. There are things you can’t really do on your own. Diving is the same, you need someone to help you. It’s a sport, it’s a skill, and your body adapts to being able to do it. So having Edward there is important.”
Sigourney Weaver, who co-starred with Winslet in the 2009 Avatar sequel, also told USA Today that she was happy for Kate Winslet to hold onto her diving crown for so long.
“We were so happy for Kate that she did it. My husband (theatre director Jim Simpson-NV) and I both did 6 minutes and 30 seconds, which surprised us and our instructor Kirk Krack, who teaches the Navy SEALs. Everyone did a personal best.”
Earlier this month, Winslet revealed that she had recorded the moment after holding her breath for more than 7 minutes. “I have a video of me surfacing and saying, ‘Am I dead? Am I dead? What was my dive time?’” she told Total Film in an interview.
“I immediately wanted to know my dive time. And I couldn’t believe it. I said, ‘I want James Cameron to know this record right away,’” Winslet recalled.
Kate Winslet, who plays the Na’vi Ronal in Avatar: The Way of Water, told reporters that she only tried to hold her breath for 7 minutes and 15 seconds to break Tom Cruise’s record. “I wanted to break my own record of 6 minutes and 14 seconds. And I broke that record by more than a minute,” Kate Winslet confessed.