Whitney Peak, Phoebe Dynevor, and Djimon Hounsou star as Dakota, Lisa, and Dr. Dale Edwards in Thrash, which is now streaming on Netflix. I had the chance to speak with the actors about the importance of character-driven moments and the film’s physical elements.

When a Category 5 hurricane decimates a coastal town, the storm surge brings devastation, chaos, and something far more frightening: hungry sharks.

“I think my favorite part to film was probably the jumping stuff, like the coming over to save you,” Peak expressed. “[The physical elements were] so emotional the whole way through, and I feel like the physical stuff is really sort of the only time I get out of my head and into my body.”

“A lot of this movie is the physical challenge of it, and that’s what drew me to this character,” Dynevor continued to share. “I haven’t gone through labor myself but going through the stages of labor, figuring out what that is and what that means to be going through that during a hurricane, the conditions getting worse and worse while the contractions get worse and worse, and in a way, it was quite simple for me, for my character, because that was all she was focused on, right, is protecting her baby.”

“Ultimately, this is the reason why we do the job is to be connected to the audience, to have this organic interpretation that the audience can receive and identify with,” Hounsou expressed. “In this case, the one thing that is real is the climate change and the effect it has on our people, and having that as a social message, mixed with this fictional story of these women coming across one another, who did not know anything about each other, who’s trying to survive in an environment in which they have very little control over, resonated to me vividly.”

Watch my full interview below: