NYAD tells the remarkable true story of athlete Diana Nyad who, at the age of 60 and with the help of her best friend and coach, commits to achieving her life-long dream: a 110-mile open ocean swim from Cuba to Florida. It is now available on NETFLIX.
SYNOPSIS | A remarkable true story of tenacity, friendship and the triumph of the human spirit, NYAD recounts a riveting chapter in the life of world-class athlete Diana Nyad. Three decades after giving up marathon swimming in exchange for a prominent career as a sports journalist, at the age of 60, Diana (four-time Academy Award nominee Annette Bening) becomes obsessed with completing an epic swim that always eluded her: the 110 mile trek from Cuba to Florida, often referred to as the “Mount Everest” of swims. Determined to become the first person to finish the swim without a shark cage, Diana goes on a thrilling, four-year journey with her best friend and coach Bonnie Stoll (two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster) and a dedicated sailing team.
NYAD is a powerful, inspirational movie. My question to Annette Bening was, “talk of the importance of getting films like this in front of young women to remind them of what is possible”. She was quick to remind me that it is really an inspiration to us all.
ANNETTE: “Yeah. That sounds good. I appreciate that question, but it’s also not just for young women.
It’s for young men. It’s for middle aged people. It’s for men and women, just like any great sports story. It’s about something more than gender and age. And that’s, of course, what’s so cool about Diana is that she did decide to do it when she was 60, which is really weird and unusual and, you know, it is true, though, what she said is that “I couldn’t do it when I was in my 20s, ‘cause I didn’t have the mind that I have now. So, that’s the thing that she knew she had, and I think most athletes, I studied athletes my whole life. I love their mentality. The great ones. It’s so interesting to talk to them and to explore their stories.”
ANNETTE: “And, you know, when the Olympics come on and they go into all the personal stories of everybody, I love all that stuff. And so, it’s the mind which eventually you’re confronted with. And certainly as a swimmer, it’s your mind. And so, this mechanism that we all have to engage in, you know, her book is called Find a Way, and that’s really what the movie is about. It’s about finding the way. And that’s the metaphor that we all need in whatever way it is. It’s just like we’re giving human life, and it’s like what do we do with it and what do we do with our problems and our relationships and our kids and our parents and all our partners, all of it.”
ANNETTE: “It’s like you’re always trying to just find a way to get there. And that’s what the movie is about is her thing, her determination. And that is, yeah, I want young women to see that and say wow, that’s great. But I also want young men and everybody to say oh, I see. It’s like maybe I could. ‘Cause how often do we just not do the thing that we think about doing? We all do that. We procrastinate or we just don’t do the thing and there are so many reasons not to. And of course, the story is all about the reasons not to. And so, in this case, it’s like she said, no, I have to. I have to find a way.”
ANNETTE: “So, it’s a kind of gift to the rest of us to say oh, well, maybe we can figure something out.”
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