Date: 28th November 2000

Cuba Gooding JR. Sings His Way Through Diving Camp


Movie star CUBA GOODING JR's ability to belt out a song saved him from panicking during his two week diving course in Seattle Washington, to prepare for his role as the first black Navy diver, CARL BREASHER, in the upcoming film, MEN OF HONOR.

The JERRY MAGUIRE star was so nervous about what could happen to him if he made the wrong diving move, that he was told to sing a song to relax himself He explains, "They said, `Okay, we're gonna go down to the bottom of the pier,' and I never dived before.

"
During the training of all the paperwork and learning about atmospheric pressure and embolisms that can happen if you hold your breath, this fear came over me. I mean everything they said, `If you do this you can die' so going down they said sing a song. And I'm singing my song and as I got closer to the bottom it got more erratic and crazy.

Everybody kind of laughed when I finally got back up to the top and I'm still singin'!" Then the challenge for Gooding, Jr. was to test his patience wearing the heavy metal Mark Five diving gear. He says, "The confinement was a little bit much and it took forty-five minutes to get into the suit and forty five minutes to get out. For the most part it was very restricting and confining. And then when you went underwater in this thing you just knew you weren't going anywhere in a hurry." (RXM/WN/PDD)

c

Source: WENN