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Turbulence Stars Hilmar & Irvine on Co-Stars, Battling Elements & More

Turbulence stars Hera Hilmar (See) and Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) spoke to Bleeding Cool about bonding w/ co-stars and freezing temperatures.

While filming at extreme heights in a hot air balloon might be impractical for Lionsgate's Turbulence, the actors still must battle extreme conditions to bring as much authenticity to the experience as possible. Hera Hilmar (See) and Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) play Emmy and Zach, a couple who go on a romantic hot air balloon ride under the guidance of operator Harry (Kelsey Grammer) when a stranger from Zach's past (Olga Kurylenko) sneaks on board with skeletons Zach doesn't want to come out. The two spoke to Bleeding Cool about working with The New Avengers (2025) and Frasier stars, and trying to warm up in between takes as they're getting blasted by wind and rain machines on set while shooting the Claudio Fäh survival thriller. The following contains spoilers.

Turbulence Stars Hera Hilmar and Jeremy Irvine on Making the Most of Their Time with Olga Kurylenko and Kelsey Grammer, and Battling Freezing Temperatures

What did you like about working with Olga and Kelsey, and what was it like working in that limited space with them?

Hilmar: I loved working with both. Olga is such a fun character to work with, so ballsy, fun, humorous, and like we were saying, so up for anything. It was never boring around Olga.

Irvine: She's such a brave actress. It's so exciting to work with someone whose actions you never know what she's going to do. That's a joy because then you must react. It makes your job so much easier, and it's so much more interesting.

Hilmar: We had less time with Kelsey than with Olga, but it was short and sweet the time we had. He came in as Harry, who was just there. He's so seamless in his charisma. Also, as a person, it was fun to hang out, because we were always hanging out in this balloon together. There were a lot of stories told (between shots), and fun to be had, so it was really nice.

Irvine: Normally, if you're on a set, maybe in between shots you'd go back to your trailer or go and hang out somewhere else. We're 15 ft in the air in a wicker basket, and in between setups, we can't go anywhere, so it's great. It means I got to pick apart Kelsey's brain for all the fun Frasier stories that I wanted, so many great stories. He was fantastic. All the singing from Kelsey as well.

Hilmar: He's such a good singer, and so knowledgeable. I was going add to what you were saying, I feel even if it had been easy to get out of the basket, I don't think we would have left the basket that much. It felt like, and then maybe that's also what created the energy between us, like we were constantly in the sort of vibe of it all, like if it would have felt weird to hang out in our rooms on our own too much.

Irvine: Or maybe Kelsey wanted to get away from me asking so many Frasier questions [laughs]

Hilmar: Maybe

What would you say was the most difficult sequence to film?

Hilmar: The rain sequence, the storm. Is it not for you, Jeremy?

Irvine: Yeah, no, 100 percent. I'll go as far as to say it was miserable, because they have wind machines and then rain machines. It's December in London in an unheated studio, and it got so bad. We would remain here; it was so cold that production got us these little sauna things for us to sit in between so we wouldn't get hypothermia, because I couldn't move anything by the end of it. You must do so much more than I, and those weren't great days at work, especially not doing 12 hours of it.

Hilmar: It was hard for sure. I get a little kick out of action stuff, so I was adrenalized a lot of the time. I remember being closer as we got to the end of the week, because we filmed it for a week. I mean, not all the sequences we filmed are in the film. That was a bit too long, but as we got closer to the weekend, my adrenaline went down, and I started to feel colder and weaker. I think we both got sick over the weekend and got fine by Monday.

Irvine: The perfect way to all get really ill, and like you say, "Doing the actual shots was fun," but then you've got 45 minutes in between shots where you're just soaking wet, freezing cold, and questioning if maybe there's another career choice actually [laughs].

Hilmar: We did have a good time in the sauna pods, I have to say.

Irvine: We did, that made the difference. As soon as they got the sauna pods, that turned into a holiday.

Hilmar: We're like two batteries. walkie-talkies being charged, that's fun.

Irvine: That quickly gets us back up to normal human body temperature, and then they throw us back in the freezer.

Do you have anything else you want to let the audience know as Turbulence comes out?

Irvine: It's a fun romp. It doesn't take itself too seriously. If you want a fun movie to watch this Christmas, then I think you'll enjoy it. It's exciting, and at times, it's quite funny. I hope you enjoy it.

Hilmar: Yeah, same. Get your popcorn out. Get your friends out, or even on your own.

Turbulence is in theaters.

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