Kate Winslet Beats Tom Cruise's Underwater Filming Record

Kate Winslet is now the new champ when it comes to holding one's breath underwater, snatching the record from legendary Tom Cruise.

The record-breaking underwater scene happened during her recent filming efforts for Avatar 2, where the 45-years-old actress held her breath for almost 8 minutes!

Previous title holder Tom Cruise held the title for five years since 2015. Cruise held his breath underwater for incredible 6 minutes while filming a scene in the fifth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise, Rogue Nation.

The 58-years-old actor is known for doing his very own daring stunts such as hanging in flying planes and jumping from buildings in his Mission Impossible series. 

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actress talked about how she managed to hold her breath that long for the underwater shoot and accidentally spilled some secrets about the upcoming Avatar sequel.

“I had to learn how to free-dive to play that role in Avatar, and that was just incredible. My longest breath-hold was seven minutes and 14 seconds, like crazy, crazy stuff.” Winslet said.

Stopping herself after realizing she might have let important information slip, she added: “Oh no, actually, I can’t. Yeah, I play a water person. I am a water person,”

Although not much is known yet for the highly-anticipated sequel, minor spills and leaks tell us that Avatar 2 will feature a lot of water scenes.

In a separate interview with The Collider, Winslet shared more details about the epic underwater scene.

"I was walking on the bottom of the tank. That’s a big ceremonial sequence with those huge heavy wings. That was quite scary. The thing is, when you can hold your breath for seven minutes, you become unafraid. Actually, strangely, I was able to rely on my own ability to hold my breath for that long. Somehow I was not afraid, at all."

The Avatar series is directed by James Cameron. Winslet and Cameron previously worked together over two decades ago in the 1997 box office record-breaker Titanic.

Speaking about her chance to work with Cameron again, Winslet said: 'It was so wonderful to work with Jim again.’

Avatar broke numerous records when it was released in 2009 and took the title of the highest-grossing film of all time from Cameron's 1997 Titanic. The science fiction film held the record for a decade until the release of Avengers: Endgame last year.

Fan's wait for the much-anticipated sequel will finally be over soon. In September 2020, Cameron revealed that filming for Avatar 2 is already 100% finished.

Avatar 2 is set to release on cinemas on December 16, 2022, with Avatar 3 scheduled for December 20, 2024, followed by Avatar 4 on December 18, 2026, and finally Avatar 5 on December 22, 2028.