It was a challenge Nyad first attempted in 1978 at the age of 28 and twice more in 2011, before finally achieving the amazing feat in 2013 at the age of 64.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Nyad chronicles the swimmer\u2019s gruelling training, the mental challenges, and the physical setbacks \u2013 including a brush with a potentially deadly box jellyfish \u2013 that she endured to achieve her goal, as well as her enduring friendship with coach Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster).<\/p>\n Despite her absurd feat, some doubts have been cast over the authenticity of Nyad\u2019s claims, partly due to a sudden surge in her speed around 31 hours into the swim.<\/span><\/p>\n However, she and her team have always insisted that it was achieved in \u201csqueaky-clean, ethical fashion\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n And, indeed, The Marathon Swimmers Federation <\/span>have also backed Nyad and said<\/span><\/a> that there is no evidence of cheating during the Cuba swim.<\/span><\/p>\n So, ahead of release, RadioTimes.com<\/a> spoke exclusively to Stoll and one of the film\u2019s directors, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, about adapting the story for the screen.<\/p> In the past, Vasarhelyi and her co-director and husband Jimmy Chin have focused chiefly on documentary filmmaking \u2013 with Free Solo and The Rescue among their more well-known works.<\/p>\n But she explained that when they got the script for this film \u2013 adapted by Julia Cox from Nyad\u2019s own book Find a Way<\/a> \u2013 they both instantly felt it was time to move into narrative dramatic features.<\/p>\n \u201cJimmy and I love stories about people who push the boundaries of what\u2019s possible,\u201d she explained. \u201cAnd when we read the script for Nyad, we both had this moment of being like, Diana Nyad is just that.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it is a very unique opportunity to create two rich role roles for some spectacular female actresses. So I think it was that, and I think also we\u2019ve made a lot of docs, and I was curious about how telling a true story would translate into narrative fiction. It\u2019s always nice to find yourself evolving creatively, and this was an opportunity to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n For Stoll, watching the film wasn\u2019t too far away from the experience of watching a documentary, and she explained that Vasarhelyi and Chin were scrupulous when it came to recreating real-life scenes.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really lucky to have every single person that was affiliated with this film,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just really well done. And it\u2019s very true to life \u2013 seeing it on the big screen looked very real, very real.\u201d<\/p>\n She pinpoints one scene in particular \u2013 when Diana has been pulled out of the water and is close to death during one of her failed attempts \u2013 as being especially close to the real thing, while later she adds that a scene in which she and Diana celebrate the failed attempt of a younger swimmer also matches up with reality.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were pretty happy,\u201d she smiled. \u201cThat was really well done, because that\u2019s kind of what happened, except there were 10 of us jumping!\u201d<\/p>\n As for seeing herself played by a two-time Oscar winner in Jodie Foster, Stoll said that she ended up finding out things about herself that she had never been aware of before.<\/p>\n \u201cWe spent quite a bit of time together,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd she picked up a lot more than I realised until I watched the movie.<\/p>\n \u201cI was telling Chai that, you know, I was sitting there watching, and then I see I was sitting there just like this, and I saw Jodie do it and said, \u2018Oh, maybe I do that a lot.\u2019 And then I saw her do it again. So I guess that\u2019s something I do. Which I didn\u2019t know!\u201d<\/p>\n Although it might resemble a documentary in some senses \u2013 and the directors were<\/em> after a strong sense of realism \u2013 Vasarhelyi explained that the process was rather different from putting together a doc and allowed them more room to experiment.<\/p>\n In particular, she was interested in finding ways to dramatise certain aspects of the story without them becoming too \u201cmonotonous\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI was thinking more about, like, how do you dramatise the endurance of it?\u201d she said. \u201cHow do we make the water and each swim build upon one another? How do we add meaning to that? You know, what is the function of memory here?<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so it was very different as a process in terms of your prep, and it was also interesting to work with visual effects, where I\u2019ve never had that opportunity to just create something.\u201d<\/p>\n The most striking use of visual effects in the film comes when Diana experiences some hallucinations underwater, after she has become delirious during the swim, which includes the yellow brick road from The Wizard of Oz.<\/p>\n And although this part of the film might sound less realistic, this, too, is very much based on Nyad\u2019s account.<\/p>\n \u201cThose two hallucinations are based on real hallucinations Diana Nyad had,\u201d Vasarhelyi explained.<\/p>\n \u201cBut for us, they function also as a moment of levity and humour, trying to remind audiences of the delight that Diana does experience, the wonder, as well as how separate from her own body she becomes and how much she needs Bonnie, who\u2019s standing by her and her team because they really end up like being responsible for her.\u201d<\/p>\n One member of the team who is especially prominent in the film is John Bartlett \u2013 played by Rhys Ifans \u2013 the chief navigator who sadly passed away shortly after Diana succeeded in her fifth attempt.<\/p>\n The film is dedicated to his memory, something Stoll found emotional.<\/p>\n \u201cDiana and John Bartlett were very close,\u201d she said. \u201cVery close. And he was a great human being. I mean, nobody knows the Gulf Stream like he does \u2013 every 15 minutes he was pinging all along, because not many people know about the eddies. And when you\u2019re swimming two miles an hour and the boat has to go two miles an hour, it is not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n And she added that it was important to pay tribute to all the members of Diana\u2019s 40-strong team, even if not all of them could be prominent characters in the film.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody did their job,\u201d she said. \u201cThe shark divers, and then the boat drivers. And then, you know, they go on their mother ships to eat and sleep before they come back for their next stint.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultimately, though, it\u2019s Bonnie who emerges as Diana\u2019s true right-hand woman, and the film presents their friendship as a special and strong one.<\/p>\n Stoll said that she doesn\u2019t \u201cthink there\u2019s many friendships like this\u201d, and for Vasarhelyi, capturing this accurately was every bit as vital as ensuring authenticity in terms of the swim.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was incredibly important to us to kind of honour this idea of chosen family, and, like, a friendship between women of a certain age,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause the film is not about a swim, right? The swim is a vehicle for exploring what drives this ambition in this complicated, complex woman, and then the kind of challenges she needs to work through to achieve her dream.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd really, it\u2019s the friendship that emerges as kind of the beating heart of the film.\u201d<\/p>\n Nyad is now streaming on Netflix \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Sign up for Netflix from \u00a34.99 a month<\/a>. Netflix is also available on\u00a0Sky Glass<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Virgin Media Stream<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Check out more of our\u00a0<\/strong>Film<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0<\/strong>TV Guide<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/strong>Streaming Guide<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to find out what\u2019s on tonight.<\/strong><\/p>\n Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only \u00a310 \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>subscribe now<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and celebrate the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who with a special issue of Radio Times. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0<\/strong>The Radio Times Podcast<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div> <\/body><\/html>\n Co-director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and one of the film’s real-life subjects, Bonnie Stoll, talk to RadioTimes.com about adapting the story of Diana Nyad. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":39257,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/11\/nyad-true-story-how-the-inspirational-achievement-was-adapted-for-the-screen.jpg",620,412,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/11\/nyad-true-story-how-the-inspirational-achievement-was-adapted-for-the-screen-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/11\/nyad-true-story-how-the-inspirational-achievement-was-adapted-for-the-screen-300x199.jpg",300,199,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/11\/nyad-true-story-how-the-inspirational-achievement-was-adapted-for-the-screen.jpg",620,412,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/11\/nyad-true-story-how-the-inspirational-achievement-was-adapted-for-the-screen.jpg",620,412,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/11\/nyad-true-story-how-the-inspirational-achievement-was-adapted-for-the-screen.jpg",620,412,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/11\/nyad-true-story-how-the-inspirational-achievement-was-adapted-for-the-screen.jpg",620,412,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Co-director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and one of the film's real-life subjects, Bonnie Stoll, talk to RadioTimes.com about adapting the story of Diana Nyad.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/39256"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Nyad true story<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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