You’d never know by looking at a Jesse V. Johnson picture that he was working with much smaller budgets than the action you see in a multiplex. Into his third decade as a director, the man has done everything from violent martial-arts beat-em-ups (Savage Dog) to buddy-cop capers (Debt Collector) to World War II thrillers (Hell Hath No Fury) to full-on historical epics (Boudica). Johnson is one of the premier names in the direct-to-video landscape, always showing that that label should never be a dirty word. Stretching budgets into something stunning and cinematic is nothing new to him, but his latest, Above and Below, just might be his most ambitious.
Set almost entirely at sea, Above and Below follows a group of friends led by Laura Marano’s Tatiana on a boat excursion while vacationing. Looking to swim with the sharks, the friends rent a boat and a guide and set out to sea. Unbeknownst to them, the pair of guys the captain has allowed to board the boat with them are a couple of drug smugglers. Before they know it, they’re mixed up in something way over their heads and find themselves contending with vicious criminals above the water and bloodthirsty sharks below.
Taking on an ocean shoot would be tough business for any filmmaker. Doing that on a low budget seems insurmountable, but if anyone could do it, it’s Johnson. Large swaths of the action take place underwater, where Tatiana and her friend Kaley (Christina Ochoa) seek refuge from the criminals while fending off sharks. The stakes are fairly self-contained, but the scope feels massive, with Johnson capturing the unforgiving, vast oceanscape gorgeously. With a cast of Johnson ringers as the villains (Louis Mandylor and Jess Liaudin) pulling the weight and the legendary Antonio Banderas as their sadistic boss, you’d think it would be nerve-wracking to keep up. Former Disney star Marano is more than up for the challenge and is easily one of Johnson’s most compelling leads. That’s saying quite a bit when her competition includes action stalwarts like Scott Adkins and Olga Kurylenko, but her shift into the film’s hero is both unexpected and so refreshing. Watching her piece together a plan out of this situation she’s found herself in is as thrilling as the shark attacks.
Ahead of Above and Below’s VOD release, I sat down with Johnson and Marano to discuss the film and stepping out of their comfort zone.
Brandon Streussnig: Jesse, you’re so good at making films look huge on tight budgets. What drew you to a movie that’s largely set underwater?
Jesse V. Johnson: It was very, very much out of my comfort zone, which is the first thing that really appealed to me. From that point, you have to work out how to get your head around it. The big thing that has always been my go-to is to immerse my actors in a situation, not where they’re in actual peril, because obviously that’d be irresponsible, but we create an environment where they can feel what their characters are feeling as easily as possible. They can go to lunch and have a beautiful lunch and it can be nice, but then while they’re working, you surround them with the practical aspects of what’s going on as much as possible.
What I loved about this was the fact that they wanted to film the film on the ocean in Africa, with the inherent danger of swirls and sea storms coming in and high tides, which we had multiple times and had to pick up anchor and had to figure out how to navigate. There’d suddenly be a lot of chatter on the radio, and I’d see the anchors’ chains moving, and all of the crew would be going to their stations, and we realized, okay, we might want to stop filming at this point. I’d keep going for as long as we could. We had actual sharks visiting. Of course, that happened on the very day that Laura and Louis had to go in the water. So there was a little bit of a misunderstanding there, where I thought when they said there were no sharks, they meant there were no sharks.
Laura Marano: Jesse goes to them, “I thought you said there weren’t any sharks.” And they’re like, “Yeah, there aren’t. These are hammerheads.” And we’re like, “But hammerheads are sharks.”
JVJ: The unfortunate thing was, not many people realized that the only way I could get Louis Mandylor onto this movie was by crossing my heart, hope to die, and telling him there were no sharks in the ocean. He would not be going anywhere near a real shark because he grew up in Australia surfing and had an unfortunate event in his youth that really scarred him, so he didn’t want anything to do with sharks. He didn’t really want to go in the water.
Because of Laura leading from the front and doing the PADI course, and my suggestion that everyone form some sort of a bond, he did go in. It was Laura who was really, really getting everyone together. I’d like to take credit for that, but I wasn’t in the water, they were out at sea. I gather from the PADI instructors that it was Laura who was the first to 35 feet, she was the one who showed the boys how to regulate their ears and help them out. I saw the little company of actors come together as a company of characters in the movie at that point. We were very lucky. We had two weeks to rehearse, which you don’t have in a movie anymore.
BS: Laura, this is a big departure from your Disney movies and singing background. What was it like jumping into something like this?
LM: I wanted to do this because I’ve never done something like this before, so that to me was so enticing. It was scary, but it was enticing and appealing. I love the ocean, so I was actually really excited about the prospect of spending time in the water. However, I’ve never been scuba diving before, so I was very nervous about my ability and comfort level, and whether I would get claustrophobic. Thankfully, I didn’t, and I really enjoyed it. I actually really struggled with my ears in the water, so I think I tried every tactic in the book to equalize, and I would impart that wisdom, because I really needed to do that as well.
My personality has always been just like, “let’s do it, let’s just go forth and conquer.” So with this, I really had that same mentality. Everything happened so fast. I ended up doing it and deciding I was going to do it, and then having to go to the Canary Islands. My flight was incredibly delayed and canceled, so I ended up getting to the Canary Islands later than I was supposed to, and it was late at night. The very next morning, we’re doing our PADI diving. So everything for me was so intense and one thing after another, and I think my defense mechanism in some ways is just doing it, just like, “okay, let’s all do this together. We got this.” It was a really collaborative group of people, and everyone was like, “Let’s make the best film we possibly can.”
BS: Jesse, this features several actors you’ve worked with before, including Jess and Louis. How did you build out the cast beyond them?
JVJ: The one bit of research that I did that really held true was that a creature feature — a shark movie, werewolf, monster, horror — it survives, lives or dies, on the investment the audience has in the characters. Characters are created by performance, by actors who are good, and so I knew I had to have a really, really strong cast on this. The college kids, I didn’t have anyone in that group that I could pull from my resources, so I saw a lot of actors.
The bad guys, I’d originally written as 19-year-olds as well — also college kids — but I knew that I needed guys that had levels of experience, that I could trust and was familiar with, and that would dig deep and really be there, but also inspire the other actors. Louis, Jess, and Tim Murphy — I love working with those guys, and they’re so, so rich in experience and will bring interesting things. They’re never just there to work. They’re there to do the absolute best they possibly can and to surprise people. They’d be there off-camera for the other actors, creating a sense of professionalism, dedication, and theater that I love and knew was absolutely necessary for this. So I was really, really pleased that they agreed to come down and spend some time on the ocean with us.
BS: Laura, what was it like working with this cast? I mean, Antonio is such a legend.
LM: Those guys who had worked with Jesse before, you can tell how much they love, love him, and that was always really lovely to see as an actor since it was my first time working with him. Seeing repeat actors who were absolutely singing his praises made me feel good about Jesse, and that, in turn, made me feel even better. We had a really international cast, we had people from all over, so that was really fun getting to know everyone’s story and know where everyone comes from. A lot of people came from one country and now live in another. Louis is from Australia and now lives in Bulgaria. My favorite part of filming is usually the camaraderie that you get with your cast and crew, and this one was no different. Christina and I became very, very close, which I think was great, because Tatiana and Kaley really needed that relationship and bond. It was really easy for Christina and me to get that, and now we are truly really, really close friends because of it.
Then, Antonio! He was a big reason why I also wanted to do the film, knowing that Antonio was a part of it, and he did not disappoint. He’s so different from the character that he plays. He could not be more different. He’s the loveliest man ever. He’s just so talented, and he came so prepared, and I think he was a really welcome, amazing energy that we needed on set, because we were all just so exhausted by the time he got there.
BS: Jesse, your action films often center strong women, from Hell Hath No Fury to Boudica. Here, Laura’s character gradually becomes the hero. What drew you to that transformation?
JVJ: I can tell you that that’s the most wonderful compliment you can give me, because it’s exactly what I strive for. For me, a strong female character is very, very important. I was brought up by a single mother. The Boudica story you mentioned was one she used to tell me. I think women have the capacity for strength far beyond men’s, because we have the physical aspect, and it becomes a physical movie. I like those kinds of movies, too. I grew up watching them with my grandfather. But there’s a sheer primal strength in a woman that I find interesting and inspiring. I saw it in Laura when we had our initial meeting with her, when we were talking, and I was on Zoom with her from Bulgaria, and there was the strength of this person who looked one way but has been doing high-end television. Were you seven years old when you started, Laura?
LM: I started actually when I was five, but I got on my first TV show when I was six, so close.
JVJ: So her cumulative experience at the very highest end of the entertainment industry is more than most guys and people you’ll run into. It’s more than I have. So what you see is not what you’re getting. What you’re actually getting is an extraordinarily smart, intelligent, creative person who understands the business inherently from a business standpoint, but also from a morale standpoint, understanding what it takes to get the other actors working, the crew working. The crew loves her because even on the hardest days, Laura would come up and go, “Come on, we can do it. We can do it.” She’s just been underwater for 40 minutes, and they’ve been sitting out eating craft service, and they’re like, “If she can, then we can.” It’s great to have a lead actor like that who really keeps everyone going.
I saw that in her during that initial meeting, and I knew she was the right person for this, because even though it wasn’t in the original script, I knew there was a transformation that had to happen for Tatiana. She started one way and grew with the movie, with the fire that she had to go through, the anvil, the forge, and would emerge another way at the end. Laura understood it, articulated it, and we created the script around that understanding, and I think that was important to me. So I really appreciate you noticing that, Brandon.
You’ve got to be subtle in the way you do it. Not every film can be this transition that’s acting 101. It has to be so the audience doesn’t see it happening, it sort of takes them by surprise. Hopefully, while she’s got the blood and the MP5 and she’s giving that speech to Antonio, it’s grown to that point organically, and it doesn’t just drop into your lap, and you believe that had you been there, yeah, you would’ve been able to do that, you could have done that.
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