If you enjoy uplifting and heartfelt dramas about the resilience of the human spirit, NYAD is the movie to watch in November. The fascinating true story of athlete Diana Nyad arrives on Netflix Nov. 3 after a short run in select theaters. The film aptly captures the story of Nyad, the famous swimmer who, at the age of 60, commits to achieving her life-long dream: swimming 110 miles in open ocean from Cuba to Florida. Annette Bening (Death on the Nile, Captain Marvel) turns in a powerful performance as Diana Nyad. Jodie Foster (The Accused, Silence of the Lambs) is a welcome presence as Bonnie, Diana’s best friend/coach, and one of the many fine humans who helped Nyad accomplish the impossible.

The film also marks the narrative directorial debut of Academy Award-winning documentary filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (Free Solo, The Rescue). The screenplay by Julia Cox was adapted from the memoir Find a Way by Diana Nyad. Cox shared more about the film, Annette Bening’s stunning performance, and much more in this exclusive MovieWeb interview.

Diving Into Diana Nyad’s Story

For viewers not privy to Diana Nyad’s legendary sports accomplishments, this film also serves as a fun history lesson, blending real-life footage into the narrative. Nyad initially garnered national attention in 1975 by swimming around Manhattan in record time. Her 28-mile journey garnered headlines and sparked other ventures. In 1979, she swam from the Bahamas to Florida, covering 102 miles.

NYAD picks up three decades after she gave up marathon swimming for a vibrant career as a sports journalist, mostly with ABC Sports. But at the age of 60, Diana wants more. Suddenly, she’s obsessed with completing an epic and dangerous swim she never achieved — a 110-mile journey from Cuba to Florida, known as the “Mount Everest” of all swims. To portray such a figure, Annette Bening had to act with all her physicality.

“I cannot describe the thrill of getting actors like [Annette Bening and Jodie Foster] to play these roles,” Julia Cox shared. “I guess it shouldn’t surprise me because now knowing her as well as I do, Annette is unbelievable and a force of nature, and so committed and passionate. But we were all pretty blown away by the incredible athleticism she showed in this movie.”

Annette Bening’s Spellbinding Performance
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Bening is exhilarating in NYAD, bringing humanity, brilliance, warmth, and understanding to the character. Cox noted that the actress took pertinent notes on the script, particularly some of the intense dialogue scenes between Diana and Bonnie. Beyond that, Bening underwent a physical transformation for the role, too.

“Annette showed up on set and was able to swim for so long and so well,” Cox added. “It’s not an easy sport, and it’s not something that had been a part of her life before she started training for the movie. She learned how to swim exactly like Diana, who has kind of an idiosyncratic stroke, but Annette captured it so perfectly that when Diana and Bonnie visited the set, Diana got in the tank with Annette.” Audiences will notice that during the film credits, which features a clip of the two women swimming in unison.

They’re practically indistinguishable because their strokes are so exact, their pace is so similar, and so Annette’s mastery of the sport was probably the biggest, humbling surprise, and it makes the movie because it’s her in all of those scenes.

“There were stunt people on the set who had nothing to do because she didn’t need them,” she went on. “She would be in the water for eight hours, swimming, hitting underwater marks, playing scenes beautifully, swimming again, cutting through crazy surf created by the wave machines. She was a force of nature.”

On Working with Jodie Foster
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NYAD takes its time setting up the story, which may initially surprise viewers craving a high stakes drama. Have patience. It’s hard not to warm up NYAD, especially in its second half when the swimmer repeatedly risks her life to conquer a great feat. With a strong-willed protagonist who just won’t quit, NYAD is in the vein of other uplifting films, such as Miracle, Rudy, and even Rocky.

At the age of 60, Diana is determined to become the first person to finish the Cuba-to-Florida swim without a shark cage, and she convinces her bestie/coach Bonnie to be part of the journey. Cox says Foster fully embraced the role and that audiences will be surprised by her performance.

“I wanted her to kind of sneak up on us as a character,” she said. “And it was always by design that she would be sort of the surrogate for the audience in terms of understanding Diana and relating to Diana and loving Diana. Like through the love between these two, we can really appreciate the sum total of the friendship. We can also understand how amazing Diana is and her more endearing qualities through Bonnie’s affection for her and Bonnie’s willingness to stick with her again and again and again.”

Related: NYAD Review: Annette Bening and Jodie Foster Keep This Marathon Swimmer Biopic Afloat

She said Foster is “the most warm and natural actor imaginable,” grounding the film. Cox explained:

“That was a really important counterpart to the Diana character and just lovely. But Jodie Foster is a director too. She thinks like a director. She had really smart notes on the script. She would often find that she needed to say a lot less than what I wrote. I can be a little bit wordy on the page. She had really good instincts for how little she had to say to convey a lot of emotion because she’s Jodie Foster, and she can do that with a look or with a twitch of an eyebrow. She can tell you everything you need to know.”

On Dealing with Pushback
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The final 30 minutes of the film are gripping, often pulse-pounding. Powerful storytelling all around, delivering a compelling and rewarding drama. The film moves toward the pivotal date of September 2, 2013, when Nyad, now 64 years old, staggered onto the beach at Key West after swimming for approximately 53 hours from Cuba. It’s an applause-worthy moment, but recent headlines question the validity of Nyad’s 2013 swim.

Related: The True Story of Netflix’s NYAD, Explained

“I think it’s kind of inevitable when you’re dealing with an athlete at the top of their field,” Cox said, when asked how she stays grounded amidst pushback that befits the current era. “There are always going to be detractors and naysayers out there. And when you’re dealing with the internet, there are always going to be some haters. When you’re dealing frankly with a woman who has the personality that — you know, she’s not a people pleaser, and that triggers some folks. So I try to trust my research, trust myself, and trust my utter faith that Diana did exactly what she said she did.”

Not only do I believe her, and do I completely trust the integrity of Bonnie who was along for the ride with her, but there were also 40 other crew members who were with her who signed up for this journey and through torturous circumstances, stuck with it and made it to the end. And they all endorsed her.

“So, there are always going to be naysayers, and you have to be thorough and look under every rock and then sometimes write off the naysayers as just that,” concluded Cox, and after you watch NYAD, you’ll likely be a believer too.

Nyad streams on Netflix November 3.