“Splash” star Daryl Hannah is looking back at her time filming the iconic movie for its 40th anniversary.
Hannah admitted in an interview with People that she felt awkward about starring in one of her first movies.
“Oh, my God, it’s so embarrassing,” she told the outlet. “I was really naive.”
Hannah played mermaid Madison, who journeys on land and falls for Tom Hanks’ character, Allen, in the Ron Howard-directed fantasy/rom-com.
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“Splash” star Daryl Hannah admitted she was “really naive” while starring in the movie, one of the first in her career. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
The 63-year-old admitted she was shy about kissing Hanks, and kept skipping over the moment during rehearsals.
“Once you do it once, then it’s easier to get through the next time,” she said. “But that first time, when you don’t know somebody and you have to kiss them, is so embarrassing. At least for me, it was.”
Hannah was also “really anxious” about some of the scenes where her character had to appear nude in the water and on land.
“I was very world-traveled, but very sheltered at the same time,” the Chicago-born actress told the outlet. “I hadn’t really had a boyfriend yet… So I was incredibly anxious about any nudity.”
Hannah said she avoided kissing during rehearsals with Hanks because she was shy and it was “so embarrassing.” (Buena Vista Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection)
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According to Hannah, Howard and production “came up with my hair covering my boobs” to keep things PG “because they didn’t want me to have any kind of, I don’t know, shell bathing suit top or anything – which I understood.”
She added that for underwater scenes, “I would just make sure to have my hair taped down to my breasts.”
Director Howard told People that Hannah was “very relaxed about the question of the nudity” and “understood it was just something we needed to do for the movie. But she understood her character as a creature, a very natural, organic, free-spirited creature. And she made so much possible. It was amazing.”
He also noted that the production team used “a bandage or kind of pasty or something that was glued onto her breast” to keep things family friendly and “then her hair was glued to that. So wherever she would swim, the hair would always be there, but she wasn’t terribly concerned about that.”
Ron Howard and Hannah both recalled the team came up with the idea of having her long blonde hair covering her mermaid character’s chest. (Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Hannah even joked about the scene where she had to bare the most skin, when her character first leaves the ocean and approaches a bunch of New York tourists.
“When I’m at the Statue of Liberty, you see my butt,” she said. “But then, everybody’s got a butt! So I guess it’s not that bad.”
Nudity wasn’t the only uncomfortable filming scenario Hannah found herself in.
Hannah confessed that her mermaid tail “weighed so much and it put pressure on spots where it shouldn’t have pressure,” adding, “So almost every day, my feet came out bloody and stuff.”
Hannah recalled her mermaid tail being “incredibly painful.” (Buena Vista Pictures, courtesy of the Everett Collection)
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Due to the tail costume being “incredibly painful,” Hannah said she often opted to stay half-submerged in water during lunch on set.
She told the outlet Hanks and co-star John Candy “would come by and drop little french fries in my mouth.”
Despite the discomfort, Hannah said, “I loved filming the whole thing.”
She even channeled her inner mermaid and happily spent time in the water on her own while filming off an island in the Bahamas.
Hannah posing for a portrait on the set of “Splash” circa 1984. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
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“I was absolutely fine,” Hannah recalled. “Even when I accidentally swam too far in the wrong direction and a safety diver couldn’t catch up to me, I wasn’t panicked. When I’m underwater – I already have low blood pressure, but my heart rate even drops further. I get super, super chilled out. I can hold my breath for ages.”
Hannah also had animal encounters with undersea creatures.
“I had pilot fish following me around thinking that I was the real deal,” the “Kill Bill” star said. “Barracudas would hang out underneath the boat and watch everything that was going on. I used to think barracudas were really scary. And then after that, I realized that they’re super friendly and curious and fascinated by everything. They never attacked anyone or anything.”
Playing a mermaid also came easy to the “Roxanne” star after growing up loving swimming and indulging her imagination.
Despite the discomfort she experienced, Hannah said she “loved filming the whole thing.” (Jacopo Raule/Getty Images)
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“For me, wanting to do movies was wanting to disappear into real fantasy worlds, into different realities,” she told People. “It’s like a part I’d practiced for my whole childhood, as I’m sure many little girls have. We were fortunate enough to have a pool when I was young, and so I would just spend all my time basically underwater, pretending.”
“Splash” was a box office hit and earned an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay as well as a Golden Globe nomination for best motion picture, musical or comedy.
