Colin Farrell suffered panic attacks on set of Thirteen Lives

Colin Farrell suffered several panic attacks while filming underwater scenes for Thirteen Lives.

In Ron Howard’s new film, which chronicles the events of the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue in Thailand, the Irish actor portrays British cave diver John Volanthen.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter at the film’s recent Los Angeles premiere, Colin revealed that he had a “couple of really panicky moments underwater" on the set.

“At times, there was no surface over your head, just a ceiling and it was incredibly nerve-racking and I was incredibly uncomfortable," he recalled. "There was no light and you would wait for (the crew) to get on the speakers to tell you the camera was rolling. But if you were underwater when they called ‘action,’ you might not hear the f**king speaker so everyone is looking at everyone else under the water. If something happened, someone might back up into you and hit your f**king mask. All of a sudden — hello, panic attack.”

Colin went on to note that he used breathing techniques to calm himself down.

“I had to say to myself, ‘Just relax. Be calm. You’re fine. There’s nothing to worry about. Your tank is good, you’ve got a 60 per cent full tank. Just slow your breath down. It’s OK,'” the 46-year-old added.

Thirteen Lives, also starring Viggo Mortensen, Joel Edgerton, and Tom Bateman, is now showing in U.S. cinemas and will begin streaming via Prime Video on 5 August.