Rated 4.3/5, Laurent Lafitte’s Film Shines, But His On-Set Ordeal Was Unforgettable!

Warning, spoilers ahead! This article contains spoilers for the movie “See You Up There” (2017). If you haven’t seen it yet, you might want to stop reading now to avoid spoilers.

Filming certain movie scenes can sometimes be more hazardous than one might expect. From underwater sequences where James Cameron nearly drowned during the making of The Abyss to the mishaps Michael J. Fox experienced on Back to the Future Part III, actors often face perilous situations. In 2017, Laurent Lafitte had such an experience on the set of the historical drama and comedy “See You Up There” directed by Albert Dupontel.

Lafitte, who plays Lieutenant Pradelle, recalls a particularly grueling scene: his character is buried alive. While the concept was already stressful, it triggered a latent fear in him: claustrophobia.

“I’m a bit claustrophobic. I was a little before, but not too much, and it got worse because of a filming. In ‘See You Up There,’ the film by Albert Dupontel, I die buried under tons of sand,” the actor explained.

For the scene, Laurent Lafitte had to remain buried under a large amount of cork crumbs on a platform with jacks that were supposed to lift him after a few seconds of holding his breath.

“(…) It wasn’t sand, because that would have been too heavy, I would have really been crushed, it was cork crumbs, but there was a lot of it. (…) I was on a plate with jacks, buried under this ton of cork, and I had to hold my breath for a few seconds, I was covered in it, and then the platform would rise and pull me out of the cork pile.”

Mechanical Failure and Extended Breath-Holding

The issue was that the platform’s mechanism stopped working at a critical moment. For several seconds, the actor was completely stuck: unable to move his hand, deprived of air, in the midst of what felt like “solid water.”

“I realize the system isn’t working, I’m totally buried, I can’t even move a hand, it’s like solid water, I can’t do anything, and I hear (…) panic movements above. And I’m totally petrified in the mass, I can’t do anything, holding my breath. And then, they dig, and they cleared my head so I could breathe, and after that, they pulled me out by hand, but I was terrified, an immense anxiety. Obviously, it was the first take, and I had to do it again afterward.”

Despite the scare, Laurent Lafitte had to repeat the scene for subsequent takes. According to him, this experience profoundly impacted his perception of enclosed spaces and highlights the often unknown risks actors face to bring their characters to life.

See You Up There is available on VOD.

Don’t miss our interview about the film below: