Editor’s Note: Stephanie in the Water is now available for pre-order at stephanieinthewater.com.
Stephanie Gilmore and Ava Warbrick dropped by The Inertia HQ in Venice to dish on their much anticipated film, Stephanie In the Water. Photo: Dan Lemaitre
In May, The Inertia team headed to the Newport Beach Film Festival to watch a special screening of Steph Gilmore’s new film, Stephanie in the Water. I anticipated a story of recovery – one that delves into the depths, emotionally and physically, of a senseless attack that occurred outside Steph’s Coolangatta apartment in December 2010. The event certainly represented a landmark in Gilmore’s career – one with a profound effect on her attitude and approach to competition – and life in general. The attack revealed the vulnerability and the humanity that we sometimes forget applies to everyone who walks on this earth – celebrities and athletes included. It also reinforced Steph’s status as a crowd favorite. Then a 4-time world champion and widely adored ambassador of women’s surfing, the assault enabled her to challenge herself, heal, and earn a fifth world title as the world rooted her on. She did it all right in front of us. Stephanie in the Water documents this ascent, but refuses to allow that moment define the film – or her legacy. Instead, it speaks to a longer moment of transition in Stephanie’s life – where she evolves from a girl with a killer competitive instinct to a young woman interested in knowing herself more fully.
A few weeks ago, Stephanie and Ava Warbrick, her longtime friend and director of the film, dropped by the office to share their perspective. It went something like this.
So what would you say was the one, defining objective in making this film, Stephanie in the Water?
SG: Originally, we were like, “Okay, let’s make some funky, cool little webisodes,” because that’s what everyone was getting into for their brands. As our friendship grew and time went on, my story evolved. The story just grew better and better. And then it was three and four years later, and we were like, “Okay, let’s do something beautiful, and let’s take it to another level and make a really good film.” I left pretty much all of it up to Ava in that sense, because I was curious. She came from the surfing world, but was so detached from it for such a long time. I was curious to see with her art and film background, what she was seeing – or how she was picturing my life to be. The objective was just to tell a story, like any film.
AW: Yeah, I agree. I think that ultimately the objective is to find a story. Find a story that I want to tell through Stephanie’s story and do that in the most authentic, powerful and subtle way that I could. And I think that’s what we’ve done. But initially, like Stephanie said, it started as something else. It was more playful, something for the Internet, and then we began shooting a feature-length narrative about Stephanie. It is essentially a document of that time for Steph. It’s not a full life story or career piece. It was this moment we shared together where I was able to follow and document and pull out what I felt to be the most poignant themes in her life at that time.
I had a chance to see the film a few weeks ago, and I thought the two most apparent tensions – well they’re very different. I thought the first, and arguably the most compelling is your recovery from a traumatic, unforeseeable attack. It was interesting the way you chose to address it. It was almost understated, and I assume intentionally. And, I think the second tension that was really apparent to me, was you grappling with fame. With your identity, with your public identity, with how you were being perceived and who you think you are. And correct me if I’m wrong there, but I’d love to hear your perspectives on those two separate issues.
SG: Yeah, well obviously the attack was, I’d say a key moment for any sort of film. You know, the drama. Everyone loves a little drama, and that’s really what made the film become something and find its zone again. That’s like your typical hero moment in any film. But I think the coming of age thing is what we intended from the beginning. Because, I started on tour when I was quite young, and then I was just so, surf, surf, surf. I started to grow into a young woman and started to discover other parts of the world and discover you’re actually interested in other things and what you’re passionate about and you want to venture into those worlds and Ava was the facilitator. She was like, let’s do something cool.
That was obviously a pretty big, key part of the story – me discovering myself. With anyone in the media – I mean there’s a certain picture painted of you, whether that’s authentic or not. You know, that’s hard for you to have any control over, really. You can have control over it, but people have a certain opinion, and that’s what they run with. I think I was also curious to see how Ava had perceived my transformation in that sense. And she could see that I was interested in evolving and not just being at the beach all day long. It was very intimate to me. For some reason I was very comfortable letting the camera in.
AW: I don’t disagree. I think those are two standout themes. Of course, something as critical as Stephanie’s attack – that’s not something I anticipated, nor foresaw nor could ever imagine would incorporate right into the film. So, that was unplanned, being dealt that. So, that’s a separate thing.
I will say that what you pulled out as dealing with fame, I saw more as we’re all trying to figure out who we are. And I’m a little bit older than Stephanie, and being friends, we were making this movie, and I’d say, “I remember being this age, what was I going through then?” And I wanted to capture that. But of course, I’m not a professional athlete at the top of my game. I’m an artist. I’m trying to understand what it’s like to be that person and deal with a couple different kinds of pressure. So, I was really looking for a way to understand that and describe that on film, and I think that’s probably the theme you were identifying. That was very interesting to me. And it is very interesting.
