If Jon Turteltaub had his way entirely while directing The Meg, he would have made it quite a bit more violent.
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When asked by ComicBook.com if he would have done anything differently without the restrictions of a PG-13 rating, Turteltaub quickly says, “Everything!” In fact, he would have made a movie which star Jason Statham might have even enjoyed a bit more. “There were parts of bodies that were around with a lot of blood,” Turtletaub said. “You would see an actor later on and find out it was just their head. No, that didn’t fly.”
Still, The Meg packs no shortage of scares and thrills as a giant thought-to-be-extinct shark terrorizes a group of scientists and deep sea divers at sea. It was enough to get Statham a bit worked up on set for some sequences. “You never know what the edit’s gonna be,” Statham said. “We had some tight situations. To tip the bot was a difficult thing. You never know how that’s gonna work out.”
In fact, as many moviegoers might think twice about swimming out into open waters after watching the film’s titular megalodon devour countless bodies, the cast of The Meg do share a few fears themselves.
“Listen, I learned to surf when I came to California,” Statham said. “There’s lots of seaweed and you get a bit of that dangling around the feet. It’s amazing what you can put in your head. Usually, it’s a shark.”
Statham’s The Meg co-star, Li Bingbing, is quick to inform him and others that they need not fear the ocean’s most terrifying creature. “I saw the shark just swim under the water,” Li said. “It’s safe. They won’t go up and bother you. You won’t go up and bite you. No.”
There are plenty of irrational fears to go around. Newly announced Batwoman actress Ruby Rose, however, lives a more practical lifestyle when it comes to being careful. “I feel like it probably is relevant but my mom spent most of my childhood warning me about having a knife or a fork near the toaster,” she said. “Like anything metal near the toaster, and she also made a really big deal out of me blow-drying my hair anywhere near a sink.”
The Meg director Jon Turteltaub had a fear of his own which, unless you ask some conspiracy theorists, won’t ever come for him. “I had a Bigfoot problem growing up,” Turteltaub said. “I was really worried about Sasquatch and it turns out it didn’t effect me at all.”
As for The Office alum Rainn Wilson, who plays an eccentric billionaire in The Meg, it is tight space which get his claustophobia working in high gear. “I get scared in small places,” he said. “Hearing about the rescue of that soccer team, they had to go through these apertures with rushing water, that’s terrifying!”
He also had a really difficult time promoting The Meg: “Also, entertainment reporters!”
The Meg is now open wide in theaters.
