“I’m Never Talking About It”: Ed Harris Finally Breaks Silence on The Abyss

For decades, director James Cameron‘s The Abyss has carried a reputation that borders on legend – not just for its groundbreaking underwater effects, but for what its cast endured to make it. Among them, Ed Harris has largely remained quiet. He has been quoted as saying, “I’m never talking about it and never will.” Now, thanks to his unexpected appearance at a cast reunion, Harris’s perspective on the shoot has finally taken clearer shape.

“Water was rushing up my nose”

During the reunion, Harris reiterated a bit of information that he has shared before: that he nearly drowned during the filming of a scene.

He said, “The one thing that I’ve talked about before was when they had me they were going to drag me across the bottom of the tank with no air supply of my own, negatively weighted in the darkness. And the water was rushing up my nose, and I gave in, and I was hanging on the wall because I couldn’t go anywhere and waiting for air, and nobody came. My safety diver had gotten hung up on a cable. And I remember just waiting, and then a guy put a regulator in my mouth upside down, unbeknownst to me. I took a big breath and got a bunch of water in my lungs. I purged it out, did it again, got more water in there. In a split second, I figured, I’m dead. Then I saw a hand come and rip that out. [Underwater cinematographer] Al Giddings put the thing in the right way so I could figure out how to breathe, and then they decided maybe they’d figure a different way to do that.“

James Cameron Was Difficult

The reunion brought Harris back together with The Abyss co-stars Michael Biehn, Kimberly Scott, John Bedford Lloyd, Adam Nelson, and Phillip Darlington, who was also Cameron’s underwater assistant. One thing several of them agree with is that Cameron was difficult to work with on this production.

Harris remembered standing up for co-star George Robert Klek: “Jim was on Klek’s ass all the time, he was really giving him a hard time. And I remember we broke for lunch one day, and I said, ‘Jim, I think it’s his first film, and he’s pretty nervous and stuff, you know? And I think maybe if you gave him a little more support or something like that, it would probably work out a little better.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, but I can’t do that.’“

This was also Scott’s first film. She said, “I actually told Jim too the same thing. I said, ‘Dude, you know, you attract more flies with honey than with vinegar. Come on, man. Don’t talk to people like this, you know?’ He goes, ‘I can’t do that.’ He’s like, ‘Kim, this is your first film. This is your very first film. You don’t know anything.’ I said, ‘I know, but I know that when you treat people well, they perform well for you, you know.’ Then he proceeded to try to haze me a little bit on a take. Then the camera crew kind of laughed at him and stood up for me. So it was all good.“

Damn Good Film

Despite the tough production and close calls with disaster, Harris has a positive outlook on the film that he doesn’t like to talk about.

He said, “I really like the movie other than the ending. I think it’s a really damn good film, you know. I think we all did a really great job.“

You can watch Harris and his The Abyss co-stars reminisce about their time working on the film for over an hour on the James Cameron 101 podcast.

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