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When low temperatures mean big challenges...
Hypothermia is a medical emergency characterized by a dangerous, and sometimes fatal low body temperature, caused by exposure to extreme cold temperatures. Sufferers are left shivering, confused and with heart fluctuations, it is deadly unless you can get into the warm. You don't need to be on an expedition to the Arctic to get it, some of the world's biggest stars have had it when shooting a movie or TV project! (©BANG Showbiz)
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Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet, 47, gave one of her greatest ever performances in James Cameron’s 1997 disaster epic ‘Titanic’. However, filming it in the middle of the Atlantic was not exactly easy! When promoting the movie, Winslet revealed that she suffered from hypothermia and was close to drowning twice. She said: “You’d have to pay me a lot of money to work with Jim again.” Obviously a big offer came in, as she stars in Cameron's 2022 sci-fi sequel Avatar: The Way of Water’, and is expected to star in ‘Avatar 3’, set to hit theaters in 2024. (©BANG Showbiz)
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Russell Crowe
Russell Crowe, 58, starred in Darren Aronofsky’s 2014 film ‘Noah’, taking on the titular role in the Biblical story about Noah's Ark. The majority of the movie was filmed in Iceland, a country very-well known for its low temperatures. In an interview with The Daily Mail newspaper, the actor recalled how this extreme weather led him to suffer from hypothermia. He said: “We were doing a scene in Iceland where I had to fall into the sea. I’d been in and out of the sea, half-naked, filming all day, physically it was very demanding. There were these rain towers in the sky that could flood eight football fields in 30 seconds, and it was constant rain. We had 36 days of it. It gets to the point where it's like Chinese water torture. You can't take it anymore. I went into hypothermia. When we wrapped, I was lying on these stones, and I couldn't get up. I couldn't stop shaking. I couldn't stop crying. Seven or eight people put blankets on me and sat on me until I stopped. It was crazy - they were hugging me, trying to stop me shaking. This happened just a few weeks after Danielle (Spencer) had told me she didn't want to be married anymore and insisted that we sit in front of our children and tell them. So, it was pretty heavy.” (©BANG Showbiz)
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Ulrika Jonsson
TV presenter Ulrika Jonsson, 55, faced a similar situation on ‘Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins’. Like Andrea McLean, she suffered hypothermia, which was documented in a 2021 episode where she appears saying: “It is so cold, I have no feeling in my toes or fingers." Later on in the episode, fans get to know that luckily, she got the medical attention and hydration needed, and she was given the “all clear” to rejoin filming. (©BANG Showbiz)
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Alicia Witt
Alicia Witt, 47, known for her role in ‘Law and Order: Criminal Intent’, faced a tragic event when her parents, Robert and Diane, died of hypothermia after their heat had gone out in their home. That same year, the ‘Walking Dead’ star posted a heartfelt message on her Facebook page, which read: “My parents were not penniless. They were fiercely stubborn, beautifully original souls, and with that, they made choices - choices that I couldn’t talk them out of. I did help them, in all the ways I could - in all the ways they would let me. I had no idea that their heat had gone out. I will never understand how or why they made the choice not to tell me this, not to let me help them with this. My heart is broken.” (©BANG Showbiz)
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Craig Strickland
Country music singer Craig Strickland, died on December 27, 2015, aged 29. The ‘Save Your Words’ singer was reported missing during a hunting trip in Kaw Lake, Oklahoma. His body was eventually found nearby by authorities. In 2016, the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s office told PEOPLE that following the corresponding autopsy, it was determined that he had died of hypothermia. (©BANG Showbiz)
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Anne Hathaway
In 2014, actress Anne Hathaway, 40, starred in Christopher Nolan’s film ‘Interstellar’, She had a major health scare on set as she had suspected hypothermia. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Anne recalled: “I was feeling all sorts of weird flashes and things were getting a little hazy around the edges, and that’s when I turned to our first [assistant director], and I said, ‘Hey, I don’t know that much about hypothermia, but what are the symptoms?’ And I explained what was going on, and he said: ‘Oh! Like, right now?’ And I’m like: ‘Yeah! And so, then he went over to Chris [Nolan], and Chris was like, ‘OK — let’s roll, let’s roll, let’s roll right now!’ And we were done shortly thereafter.” (©BANG Showbiz)
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Gemma Arterton
In 2020, Gemma Arterton, had a number of difficulties shooting ‘Summerland’ in Kent, Brighton and Seaford, England. The 37-year-old actress said that, at some point, she began to experience terrible symptoms due to the low temperature. She recalled: “I was so cold. We were in there for quite a while, and I actually thought I might have got hypothermia.” Gemma then said that it was her co-star, Lucas Bond, who took care of her. She added: “He just wrapped me up in blankets and got me a hot water bottle. He’s just the sweetest boy and took care of me, even though he himself was freezing.” (©BANG Showbiz)
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Riley Keough
In 2015, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, 35, and Riley Keough, 33, shared screen time on George Miller’s film ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’. In an interview with Esquire that same year, model Rosie revealed how tough the shoot was on the cast due to the freezing temperatures on location. Rosie said: "The first scene, when you see the wives for the first time, we had to be wet down with hoses before each take for two weeks and it was freezing. Poor Riley got pneumonia or hypothermia. All of us got colds and aches and pains. It was tough. It was physically tough, for sure.” (©BANG Showbiz)
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Andrea McLean
British journalist and TV presenter Andrea McLean, 53, appeared on the reality TV show ‘Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins’, on which celebs have to undergo gruelling special forces military training. In 2019, she told the Daily Mirror newspaper that during filming she was exposed to very low temperatures, which resulted in her suffering from hypothermia. She said: “While we were on that mountain a storm came in. It got colder and colder and colder. I collapsed and got hypothermia. All I can remember is I was so cold, and Ant (Middleton) shouted at everyone to gather around me and I can’t remember what he called it, but it was something to do with penguins. I didn’t fully black out, but I had no control of anything in my body. I just felt really numb. You don’t even feel scared. It’s a weird, weird, floaty nothing feeling.” (©BANG Showbiz)
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Gal Gadot
Gal Gadot, 37, may play a superhero in 2017 film ‘Wonder Woman’ but she has no super power to protect her from the cold. Gadot - who served in the Israeli army - came down with hypothermia whilst shooting on location in the UK. She said: "In the first one, the hardest thing was dealing with the cold. Because we shot outside in England during the winter and I was just freezing. "I remember one night when we shot the scene where we say goodbye, Steve and I were going through hypothermia ... I was like, ‘OK, I just have to forget about everything.'" (©BANG Showbiz)
Hypothermia is a medical emergency characterized by a dangerous, and sometimes fatal low body temperature, caused by exposure to extreme cold temperatures.
