Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi attend the 50th Telluride Film Festival on September 2nd
Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for ABA
Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi premiered their latest film Nyad at the Telluride Film Festival on Friday. The Netflix film, starring Annette Bening as long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad and Jodie Foster as her coach Bonnie Stoll, is the first narrative film from the co-director couple, who won an Oscar for their 2018 documentary “Free Solo,” about climber Alex Honnold, and also directed the documentaries “The Rescue” in 2021 and “Wild Life” in 2023.
Chin and Vasarhelyi spoke to THR about working with actors versus athletes, dealing with Nyad’s complex history, which included exaggerating some claims early in her career, and releasing their film amid Hollywood’s double whammy. Nyad will also be shown at the Toronto Film Festival on September 12th, before hitting theaters on October 20th and arriving on streaming service Netflix on November 3rd.
Did you actively want to make a narrative film??
ELIZABETH CHAI VASARHELYI We thought very seriously about finding a story that interested us and had a woman at the center. And when we read the script, Jimmy and I had this conversation where I described what happened and he said, “No way. No way!” We kind of looked at each other and said, “Oh…”
JIMMY CHIN We had talked about moving into narrative at some point, as storytellers and artists as a space in which we could develop as filmmakers. But we were interested in doing a story that we hadn’t seen before.
How did Annette come on board?
CHIN We had, so to speak, put everything on one card. We thought it had to be Annette, it had to be Annette. We hadn’t even thought about anyone else.
VASARHELYI It was really important to us that no matter who was cast, the actor was the right age. And it’s a role that requires very deep work. Annette is such a dedicated actress. She demands so much of herself. She trained for over a year. And also the work that she and Jodie did, spending time with the real Diana and the real Bonnie, was very, very meaningful.
When you were looking at the script and thinking about how to shoot it, how did you think about how you might compare the flashbacks to the real-time action of the Cuban swim?
VASARHELYI The script is excellent. Julia [Cox] did a great job and was also on set with us. But our films are very editing intensive as we spend a lot of time breaking down the film. We stop the film over and over again and just try different things. And it’s kind of fun and magical, at least for me. So this is what we found [structure] in processing. It was always about how to set up the swimming area. How do you give viewers access to this unique marathon swimming experience?
CHIN The fusion of the archival footage really gives it a different, visceral experience. We filmed and then edited some of the footage from the actual swim and that gave it that grit.
What was it like working with actors?
VASARHELYI I worked for Mike Nichols as his assistant on the closer set 20 years ago. I was allowed to go to the theater with him every evening. I sat in on every single rehearsal. And so I always thought everyone rehearses, right? Lucky to work with Jodie, Annette and Rhys [Ifans] is that they rehearsed and no one has ever played with a stand-in. They always did the opposite of each other. Personally, I was very scared at the beginning. Four hundred people are looking at you. And it only took one good decision to understand that the skills and instincts translate. Nonfiction and fiction are very similar in terms of storytelling. It’s just that the resources in fiction are so much richer. Instead of waiting two years for Alex Honnold to say “I love you,” Jodie can do it without saying anything. It’s just different, the access to emotions.
CHIN Before we started, I thought: What’s the real challenge going to be? And of course, I thought, will it work with actors? And it turns out that it actually felt much, much more natural than I thought. Because when you work on documents with talent, especially when you work with elite athletes, which I spend a lot of time on, you realize that it’s about creating the environment that allows them to perform at their best, the physical environment, that emotional environment. It’s not like I’m going to tell Alex how to climb, but if I get everything ready and all the cameras are set up and everything is running smoothly and he can just come in and climb, then he can just do what he does. Directing is all about creating that environment for someone like Jodie or Annette to do what they do best.
In the film, Diana comes across as a remarkable athlete, but also quite a flawed woman. She is also a producer of this film. Did she have editorial control over how she was portrayed?
VASARHELYI Diana made a very wise decision to just let us do our thing. It was very difficult for her, but everyone understood the intention to show a woman in all her complexity. It was really meaningful for us to find that balance between honoring the chutzpah that the real Diana Naya had and her intelligence, her fierceness, her drive, but at the same time allowing people to get to know her so that you can go along for the ride at the end with her. It was always the intention to be warts and all, but how do you ground that?
Early in her career, Diana exaggerated some claims about her swimming achievements, and some in the swimming community have complaints about how she completed her Cuban swim. How did you cope with that?
VASARHELYI We try to address it in the film. There are moments where Bonnie makes fun of her for exaggerating things. We did research and I spent a lot of time with Diana. We have done our due diligence. This film is not about a record. It’s about a woman who wakes up at 60 and realizes she’s not done yet. And this woman is flawed. I think if we were dealing with a man, people wouldn’t pick on him quite so much. But Diana recognizes her flaws and I respect that.
CHIN As a professional athlete and working with many top world-class athletes and people who push the boundaries of sport, I have experienced this many times. There will always be skeptics, purists and armchair critics. The purists are always the ones you’ll never find if you swim 100 miles or try to climb Mount Everest. She had to wear a jellyfish suit. This is how she solved a problem. And I thought outside the box that made it possible for her.
How are you dealing with the strike?
VASARHELYI We have the utmost respect for every member of the SAG and the WGA. And I really believe that they are fighting for their lives. All creative people are currently fighting for their lives. And it’s strange to release a movie, especially after these actors put so much work into it. Not to let Annette celebrate, or Diana [who is also SAG-AFTRA member because of her sports commentating]. We really want to support the strikes and our actors can’t be there. It’s bittersweet.