‘Shark Beach With Chris Hemsworth’: Behind the Scenes With Valerie Taylor and Sally Aitken (Exclusive)

Shark Beach with Chris Hemsworth is the headlining title from National Geographic’s 2021 SharkFest celebration, and PopCulture.com has insight on what it was like behind the scenes of the documentary special. SharkFest is a six-week initiative from Nat Geo, with 21 hours of originals and 60 hours worth of “enhanced content” that will not only air on National Geographic’s flagship network but also Disney+, Nat Geo WILD, Nat Geo Mundo and Disney XD. It will start with Shark Beach and include numerous other titles, such as the Disney+ documentary Playing With Sharks.

Both Shark Beach and Playing With Sharks have two key talents in common: director Sally Aitken and legendary diver/conservationist Valerie Taylor. Playing With Sharks documents Taylor’s life story working in the sea with her late husband Ron Taylor, and Taylor brings that lifetime of experience to Shark Beach. She takes Hemsworth on his first swim with sharks and discusses the downsides of shark nets with the Thor actor as he tries to forge a deeper understanding between humans and the sea creatures.

PopCulture.com chatted with Taylor and Aitken about how the special came together, their impressions of Hemsworth, and how he really reacted after viewing grey sharks up-close. We also talk about the dangers of the aforementioned nets and how it feels knowing Playing With Sharks will be readily available to millions on Disney+. Scroll through to read our Q-and-A with the pair, which has been edited for clarity.

Sally, how did this project present itself? Because Chris Hemsworth and a shark documentary isn’t exactly the combination most people would have expected.

Sally: No, that’s part of the delight, isn’t it? When you think, “Oh, I didn’t even know.” I mean, he has a formidable reputation as a surfer. He’s an ocean lover, but the project came about through Nat Geo obviously, and also Nutopia, who are the production company started by Jane Root, headed up in the UK. And Nutopia, being based in the UK, were quite interested obviously, in having the opportunity to make a film in Australia. It was filmed during the pandemic. And as far as I know, Chris was absolutely up for the journey. He thought it would be a great experience and certainly educational. He’s a committed conservationist. And then when the project was brought to me with Chris attached, I sort of barely had to blink. Of course, who doesn’t want to work with Chris Hemsworth? So that’s sort of the origin story really.

Valerie, how did you get the nod to come aboard? And what did you think of this prospect of getting to dive with Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth?

Valerie: Oh, I thought it was great. At my age, I’m well into my 80s, I never thought I’d be diving with such a beautiful man, but I was. And he’s absolutely delightful, and he’s a great conservationist. And he learned to dive specially for this particular film, and he loved it. He was excited when he saw his first shark. I’d like to take him to where he can see a lot of sharks, big ones in his face, but that’ll probably never happen. He’s a busy man, with his films. The other things he does, he does a lot of work above water on conservation and saving different Australian animals. And now he’s starting in the ocean. And I just wish there were more people like Chris who would put themselves out there and speak on behalf of some potentially dangerous animal, I guess, but not dangerous if you know it. It’s a wonderful thing that he is doing. And I would like to help him in every way I can. Sharks aren’t as bad as the media would have us think.

There is a sit-down portion where you and Chris are discussing shark nets. Can you briefly explain why these shark nets — while they mean well — can actually do a lot of damage to marine life?

Valerie: I hate the mesh nets of the beaches along the coast, not because I think they don’t do a good job. They do a very good job. They catch dolphins, turtles, manta rays. The by-catch is far, far greater than any dangerous sharks that they catch. Most of the sharks I’ve seen in the nets are not particularly dangerous. Harmless sharks, just accidentally swimming into the net, minding their own business.

Ron and I used to, if we saw an animal in the mesh nets anywhere along the coast, we just dropped down and cut them out. Made us incredibly unpopular with the mesh netters because they’d come and find big holes in their net. But it’s terrible thing to see a baby dolphin in a mesh net with scratches all over where its mother’s tried to pull it out and failed. And it’s just as bad to see a beautiful white shark in the mesh nets.

We cut that one out too, by the way. … All that giant shark wants to do was escape, wanted the freedom of the ocean. They don’t go around looking for people to bite. I always say the sharks are biters, they not attackers. They don’t particularly attack us. What the average person doesn’t understand. We have hands, we see something. We usually feel it with our hands. Sharks don’t have hands. They see something unusual. It doesn’t belong in their environment. So they feel with their teeth. And I’ve in bitten four times and every time I’ve stayed still, waiting for the shark till it goes, which it did. But the average person can’t do that. They pull away. It’s an automatic response, and they tear their flesh over the shark’s teeth. The shark’s teeth, the dangerous sharks, — not all of them, just a dangerous ones, or potentially dangerous — their teeth are like a wood saw. You push a wood saw on a piece of wood, nothing happens. It has to move.

When the shark grabbed my foot, and it was a bull shark, and it was in The Bahamas, I just looked at it, stayed still. She looked at me and thought, “Oh yeah, I made a mistake,” and let go. But if I pulled away, I could have lost part of my foot, maybe the whole foot. I don’t know. That’s just how it happens.

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During the portion where Chris is diving under there with Valerie, there are just some absolutely beautiful shots. What was your reaction when you were able to review these, whether in the editing bay or later on? What were you thinking when you’re seeing all these fantastic shots underwater?

Sally: They are, they’re absolutely incredible shots. We had an amazing team actually working with us. So top side, we had a different camera department than the underwater crew. And the underwater crew was largely headed up by Adam Geiger from SeaLight Pictures, who’s a very experienced diver and a filmmaker in his own right. And some of those incredible images, where the huge grey nurse just glides over the top of Valerie and Chris, for example, those are Adam and also a guy called Chris Miller was also filming underwater. And he’s worked with Valerie in years past as well.

So when you receive all the rushes of a given day, and we had a … Because we were on location, we had our remote set up, in order to ingest all the footage. Everyone gathers around, “Oh my God, look at those shots that we got in today.” So it was exhilarating, you didn’t have to be under the water to feel thrilled when you saw the image. And in fact, you knew that even if you hadn’t even seen the footage from the reaction by Chris, when he came up to the surface and was so effusive about his experience, you knew that there was something of a treasure to be held in the rushes. And it certainly is there. I’m so glad you love those shots. I love those shots too.

What difference did you see in Chris before and after getting up close with those big fish?

Sally: He’s a lovely, quite engaged, very curious and incredibly professional guy. So on the way out to Fish Rock, he and Valerie were at the back of the boat, having quite a big chat about everything, asking a lot of questions, as I said, a curious mind. So I would say he had a great deal of anticipation, but he’s not an excitable character. I think those years of working with stunt filming and under all sorts of extreme conditions have given him a very sort of zen-like quality. So I think he was curious and anticipatory about the experience, but when he came up, he was exhilarated.

And look, Valerie will tell you, after years and years, and years and years of diving, that when you’ve had a good dive, you’ve had a good dive. And I think for Chris, that was a good dive. It was his first experience of grey nurse sharks up close in their domain. And they’re magnificent creatures. And I don’t know, what do you think Valerie? He was exhilarated, wasn’t he?

Valerie: He was very excited. At one stage, he said he wanted to do more diving with sharks. I suppose he meant grey nurse. He was extremely professional. You wouldn’t have thought he was a new diver. He wanted to know everything that I could tell him about sharks, particularly as the grey nurse. And personally, I think he’ll end up going back and visiting them again. It wasn’t a good day. It was big swell, dirty water, and we had to go deep. Even though we went deep, we didn’t get away from the swells. It was a difficult situation, not ideal, not pristine. And I wish so much it had been, because it makes a big difference to the way you look at the sharks and where they live. You can actually sit back and wait for them to come to you. You can see them in the distance.

The grey nurse have a pattern when they swim, and they always swim a certain way up a certain gutter. And you know that if you put yourself in their way, and they won’t avoid you. They’ll just brush past you, nice and close. We didn’t have that sort of a day. But for first-time dive with sharks, Chris handled it very well. He was very excited, very happy with himself and very curious about every aspect of the sharks when he came up. He wanted to know more and more. And I appreciate that. I just wish there were more well-known famous people like Chris, who would take the sort of an interest in wildlife — not just on land, but in the water. I think it’ll make a great difference if this happens.

I know a few well-known people who are interested in diving, and I do dive with them on occasions. But Chris is different. He is known worldwide, and I think he speaks to younger people, a lot, the adventurous people. And I think that what he says in that film will make young people want to go out and have a similar adventure, make them understand more about sharks, the marine world. It’s all waiting out there to be visited, to be discovered. And I salute Chris for doing this.

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Playing With Sharks is coming out just in a little bit. It’s going to be on Disney+, which is just going to be a huge platform for this documentary. Valerie, how does it feel to have your story available to so many people around the globe? And Sally, this is a project you put so much time and heart into. How does it feel to have the story available to everyone — just on their phone, on their laptops, everywhere?

Valerie: I really enjoyed seeing Ron’s footage brought to life again, especially a lot of the early footage in the early days, when we were both young and good-looking. Not anymore. And there’s a story to be told, and the people who’ve seen the film get so excited. It’s wonderful. We get accolades, and I find that marvelous.

Sally: We’ve had so many lovely comments, emails. The idea that, as you say, John, the Disney+ platform, the ability to share Valerie’s story and her legacy with millions of people around the world, from landlocked countries, to those with coasts, that’s hugely exciting. And I can’t wait to see what the reaction’s going to be.

We’ve been overwhelmed by the reactions so far when we’ve played in various (places). We launched at Sundance, and we’ve had various other film festivals, some marquee film festivals that we’ve played at. And locally in Australia, we’ve had a very, very small run in the cinemas. We had standing ovations. The children love it. The adults love it. The grandparents love it. The great grandparents love it. It really seems to capture quite a wide set of eyeballs. So yeah, we’re excited to see what will happen and just thrilled that National Geographic Films is the home for Playing With Sharks.

How to Watch ‘Shark Beach With Chris Hemsworth’ and ‘Playing With Sharks’

Shark Beach with Chris Hemsworth will air Monday, July 5 at 9 p.m. ET on National Geographic. There will be an encore presentation on Aug. 2 at 10 p.m. ET. on Nat Geo WILD. Starting July 9, Disney+ subscribers will be able to watch the special on the streaming service. As for Playing With Sharks, it will begin streaming on Disney+  starting July 23. Click here for a total guide to SharkFest 2021.