The casting process was extensive. We needed to find a child actor who could convincingly bring a full range of emotions to the single phrase “look at me”, going from happy to terrified in just a few seconds. Not only that, we had to find an actor who could do it all while under water and had parents who would let her.

After many rounds we street cast a non-actor from a local swimming club who had the perfect mix of confidence and vulnerability. A sporty and fearless 10-year old with bags of energy who was willing to run laps of a beach so she sounded out of breath, who was happy to let water go down the wrong way to sound like she was choking, and who was enthusiastic about diving under the water to perform take after take after take.