LOS ANGELES (NYTIMES) - When Ron Howard set out to retell the story of the dramatic 2018 rescue of a young soccer team from a flooded cave in northern Thailand, he knew he would have to grapple with underwater photography, hordes of extras and a handful of surly protagonists in the form of the British divers who successfully saved the boys through extraordinary methods.
But he also knew that, as an American director tackling a specifically Thai story, authenticity would be crucial.
So for the new film, Thirteen Lives, Howard and his producing partner, Brian Grazer, hired Thai cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, employed producers Raymond Phathanavirangoon and Vorakorn Ruetaivanichkul, and relied on actors from the region to serve as his guides.
One such actor Howard came to trust was Pattrakorn Tungsupakul, 33, a petite television star from northern Thailand who plays Buahom, a single mother forced to wait helplessly at the entrance to the cave for an excruciating 17 days. Timid and afraid for her son, Tungsupakul's character serves as the film's emotional centre.
"Ron, he always asked me, 'What do you want to do?' 'What do you want to say?' And he listened," she said in an interview. "Because he trusted me so much, I had to prepare myself and work harder. I had to bring my experience to this project."
She may also be the film's secret weapon.
"She's the most broadly relatable person in the film," said Howard, who compared Tungsupakul's character's seemingly endless wait outside the cave to being stuck in the waiting room while your child is in surgery - if the procedure lasted 17 days. "Dramatically, she's the most heartbreaking."
Tungsupakul hails from Chiang Mai, a city not far from the Tham Luang Cave where the boys were trapped. Howard was initially attracted to Tungsupakul for her visceral connection to the character, but when he discovered she was also from the area and wouldn't have to learn the very specific dialect, he knew she was the right woman for the job.
Tungsupakul, who goes by the nickname Ploy, became an integral part of the production team. She improvised lines, researched specific cultures and traditions of her hometown, selected her own wardrobe and even suggested plot points that made it into the film.
Getting details right was especially complicated because Covid-19 restrictions prevented Howard from entering Thailand at all. Instead, Thirteen Lives, which stars Viggo Mortensen Colin Farrell as divers, was shot in Queensland, Australia, and Howard remotely oversaw a film crew shooting exteriors in Thailand.
As the producers didn't have life rights to the boys or their families, Tungsupakul wasn't able to meet with any of the survivors or their parents. Instead, she studied news footage of the rescue, particularly the reactions of the parents when journalists peppered them with questions each day.
"The reporters kept asking 'How do you feel?', 'How do you feel?', 'You must be sad'," she said. "It was terrible. But for me, it was good because I have to do research and I want to see the real reactions."
Tungsupakul is also one of a handful of female characters in a male-dominated cast - a factor that Ruetaivanichkul, one of the producers, said was crucial to creating balance within the production, which is one of a spate of screen projects, including 2021 documentary The Rescue, about the mammoth effort to save the stranded soccer team and its coach.
"She introduces femininity and the soft side of energy," Ruetaivanichkul said. "She shows the empathy within the group. That is what Ron emphasised from the very beginning, because otherwise it's not going to be different from the story in the documentaries that focus on the rescuers. We are trying to do the world-building of Thai culture."
Thirteen Lives is available on Prime Video.
