Video:Sanctum - Richard Roxburgh and Rhys Wakefield Interviews

Transcript:Sanctum - Richard Roxburgh and Rhys Wakefield Interviews

Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the World Premiere of Universal Pictures' Sanctum.

Richard Roxburgh - 'Frank' in Sanctum

So when you see a script like this do you immediately jump? You know you're going to be put through hell.

Richard Roxburgh: "No, look it was something that I needed to give quite a bit of thought to. What really drew me to it was the father and son relationship in the story, because I thought that that was at least something that was kind of an acting story. It was something that you could find some humanity in. I enjoyed that part of it. Keep trying to navigate that through the tricky waters of 3D and all of the watery madness of shooting this thing was the other difficulty."

And when you're behind a mask like that, we don't get to see you emote like we usually do. So how difficult was that for you?

Richard Roxburgh: "Yeah, look, honestly trying to do exactly that behind one of those full face masks was interesting on so many levels, number one being that you could actually only see your own face reflected. Number two being that you couldn't hear anything at all, and nobody could hear you. It's kind of like acting with your hands tied behind your back and blindfolded."

You probably won't ever have to do that again, so at least you've had that experience.

Richard Roxburgh: "You would have to hope not."

Rhys Wakefield - 'Josh' in Sanctum

Tell me about the craziness of this and having to act in this environment.

Rhys Wakefield: "You know what? So much of the craziness of this film dedicated the performance so we were able to get into these crazy, terrifying environments and just trust who you act naturally. It was intense."

Trust must have been really huge on this because this was very dangerous. How much did that play on your mind while you were filming this?

Rhys Wakefield: "You know what? A lot of the underwater stuff, you could go one of two ways. [You could] be either very meditative and therapeutic or it could have turned into a panic state. I trusted my safety diver wholeheartedly, evidently, and I survived so thankfully they did their job well."

How difficult was it actually going through the training camp they put you all through?

Rhys Wakefield: "The training for this movie was remarkable. Months in advance I was doing a hectic gym regime. I was going to the gym five days a week and then in the lead-up we were doing two hours of swim training a day. I was doing ropes training and rock climbing and scuba diving and re-breathing. I mean it was intense."

Did you keep that up when you were done?

Rhys Wakefield: "I have scuba dived since the film. I would never cave dive. That's insane."

Did it make you understand why people cave dive? Did this give you an appreciation of people who actually do that?

Rhys Wakefield: "It did in some aspects. It really is the last part of the world that you can explore, the last part of earth, so that's kind of enticing. But the idea of going down in a dark hole of water where you can't really see anything, you don't know where you're going to go or where you're going to end up, not so much."

You play Richard Roxburgh's son. How did you develop that dynamic?

Rhys Wakefield: "Through the training. We had such an organic experience. You have to bond when you're learning all these new skills so you're really forced to get to know each other and get comfortable very fast, so that was a big process for our father/son development and relationship."

Are you a fan of 3D?

Rhys Wakefield: "I am. I think that it's probably a natural progression, you know? Film went from silent films to sound, and black and white to color. I think especially for a film like this, for Sanctum, it really enhances the storytelling. It puts the audience in the space so much more, and it makes it such a visceral experience. It's a ride, and that's how I describe it. I think that this film is a real ride and it's worth the extra 10 bucks."

More on Sanctum:

Sanctum Trailer, Photos, Poster and Cast List