Sanctum's Rhys Wakefield on James Cameron, Extreme Acting, and the Aussie Invasion

Speaking of the crazy skills you had to learn for the role, your character not only had to be a rock climber, he had to be an expert rock climber, and you rappel down enormous caverns and swim with no breathing aids. When you first heard of this project, did you have any idea of how difficult it would be?

No, I did not. I was so naïve to the prospect of how much action stuff I'd be doing. But I really did love the pre-production side and being physical and being forced to learn all of these skills that I may otherwise have never learned. I mean, yeah, looking like a professional is just hilarious. I remember at one point I'm running off a cliff and jumping off face-first as if it's the most regular thing to do in the world, and that's amazing. You just have to overcome any fear. Inside you're terrified, but you have to throw your body around and pretend. That's what acting really is. It's all smoke and mirrors.

That scene, in which you free-climb up a rock wall and then leap across a giant gap and pull yourself up by your fingertips on the other side. Did you do that stunt yourself?

Yeah, I really did that. And there's this moment where you leap off the cliff and you can't feel any rope or safety line holding you for a few seconds, and then it kicks in and you go, 'Okay, it's alright.' Especially going face-first. It's not natural.

The scope of the physical world in Sanctum is daunting, and the sets feel real -- so it's surprising to learn that much of it was shot with CG.

It's full-on. And that hole in the earth is all CG, which is amazing. Flawless. So many interviews have asked me where that was filmed and I'm like, "It was made up. It was computer-generated." But the sets that they built were incredible. I felt so lucky that there were tangible spaces where it was real, and you were in that space, and it was like no acting was required in many ways. It was probably 90 percent shot in sound stages and tanks.

Here's the big question: Didn't your fingers get all prune-y after so much time spent submerged in water?

[Laughs] That was the least of our worries! The soundstage was so cold, because the 3D cameras function best in a cold environment, so we were ice cold throughout the whole shoot. It was pretty amazing.

Amazing, you say?

[Laughs] Yes, I'm just being very polite about how harsh these circumstances were.

You have a scene in the film in which your character is submerged beneath a rock ceiling, finding tiny pockets of air to breathe from. How frightening was it to shoot that scene, having to perform while simultaneously having to find those air pockets just for your own base survival?

It was ridiculous. All of that, with myself underwater and no breathing apparatus and no mask or goggles. You can see about this far, and you've got rocks and cliffs everywhere in this really low lighting. So that was just crazy. It lent itself to become a very panic-stricken moment. You could go one of two ways. It became quite meditative and therapeutic -- and terrifying as well. It was a lot of having trust in the safety divers; the second they call "cut," or the second you're out of air, you put out your hand and you expect that a rig will be in your mouth as quick as possible.

Crazy.

It really is! You're under a canopy of rocks, you can't get out even if you wanted to. So it really gets scary. It was such a daunting shoot. You would see it in your schedule: "Josh, underwater swim." And I'd think, "Oh my God, how am I going to do this?"

So now you're living in L.A., you have your first studio film opening. What's your next career move?

Where I came from, after Home and Away I shot The Black Balloon which starred Toni Collette and Gemma Ward, and I loved doing that. It was such a personal story, a tiny little indie movie just shot in the suburbs of Sydney. That was a beautiful film that meant so much to so many people, and I felt honored just to have been a part of something like that. And then this film was so much fun -- learning these skills, getting fit for the role, training and meeting all these amazing people. So I really don't know. I'm looking just for a good role. An interesting role. A meaty progression in the script, is what I'm after. There are some projects on the horizon, and I'm just waiting to figure everything out.

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