When Ron Howard set out to tell the story of the dramatic rescue of a young football team in 2018 from a flooded cave in northern Thailand, he knew he would have to grapple with underwater photography, hordes of extras and a handful of gruff protagonists in the form of the British divers who rescued the boys with extraordinary methods. But he also knew that, as an American director tackling a Thai-specific story, authenticity would be crucial — and that any deviation from the truth would come at his own risk.
So for the new movie, “Thirteen Lives,” which debuts Friday on Prime Video, Howard and his production partner, Brian Grazer, hired Thai cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (“Call Me by Your Name”), hired producers Raymond Phathanavirangoon and Vorakorn in service. Ruetaivanichkul, and relied on actors from the region to serve as his guides.
One of those actors Howard learned to trust was 33-year-old Pattrakorn Tungsupakul, a frail television star from northern Thailand who plays Buahom, a single mother who was forced to wait helplessly at the cave entrance for 17 days. Timid and afraid of her son, Tungsupakul’s character serves as the film’s emotional center.
The whole experience was refreshing — and strange — for an actress who has worked for Thai television for nearly a decade, an environment Tungsupakul says hasn’t always been very collaborative or encouraging.
“Ron, he always asked me, ‘What do you want to do?’ ‘What do you want to say?’ And he listened,” she said in an interview in Los Angeles, where she was accompanied by her older sister, Rugeradh Tungsupakul, a lawyer who acted as her interpreter. “Because he trusted me so much, I had to prepare and work harder. I had to bring my experience to this project.”
She can also be the secret weapon of the movie.
“She’s the most recognizable person in the movie,” said Howard, who likened Tungsupakul’s character’s seemingly endless waiting outside the cave to being stuck in the waiting room while your child undergoes surgery — if the procedure took 17 days. “Dramatically, she’s the most heartbreaking.”
Tungsupakul is from Chiang Mai, a town not far from Tham Luang Cave where the boys were held. Howard was initially attracted to Tungsupakul because of her deep-rooted connection to the character, but when he discovered that she was also from the area and didn’t need to learn the very specific dialect, he knew she was the right woman for the job.
Tungsupakul, nicknamed Ploy, became an integral part of the production team. She improvised lines, researched specific cultures and traditions of her hometown, selected her own wardrobe and even suggested plot points that made it into the film.
It was especially complicated to get the details right, as Covid restrictions prevented Howard from entering Thailand. Instead, “Thirteen Lives” was shot in Queensland, Australia, with Howard remotely overseeing a film crew shooting outdoors in Thailand.
“That was a challenge,” Howard said in an interview. “And there’s definitely the risk of underperforming that way.”
Since the producers had no right to the boys or their families, Tungsupakul was unable to meet any of the survivors or their parents. Instead, she studied news footage of the rescue, especially the reactions of the parents when journalists bombard them with questions every day. “The reporters kept asking ‘How are you feeling?’ ‘How do you feel?’ “You must be sad,” she said. “It was terrible. But for me it was good because I have to do research and I want to see the real reactions.”
The character of Tungsupakul is a poor working mother who is hugely guilty for not being home enough for her son. She is also stateless, a recent immigrant from Myanmar who is unsure that her child will be rescued along with the others because she does not have the correct nationality.
Her character’s arc means that you find her voice in the quiet moments: she challenges the governor directly (“How can you understand that? Is your own son going to die?”) – a moment very uncharacteristic of a culture that based on courtesy and respect. In one scene, she asks a famous local monk to bless a handful of traditional Northern Thai bracelets. She then hands the bracelets to the divers (played by Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen, among others) before diving back into the depths.
Tungsupakul brought the idea of the bracelets to production as another example of attention to the local customs. “I asked my friend who studies northern culture at Chiang Mai University, and he said this is a must-have item,” she said. “It is a signature of happiness to a person, giving him a blessing that if you go on a dangerous mission, you will be safe.”
Tungsupakul is also one of the few female characters in a male-dominated cast – a factor that, according to Ruetaivanichkul, one of the producers, was crucial in creating balance in the production, one of many screen projects, including the 2021 documentary “The Rescue”, about the massive effort to rescue the stranded soccer team and its coach. (The producer PJ van Sandwijk worked on both “Thirteen Lives” and “The Rescue.”)
“She introduces femininity and the soft side of energy,” Ruetaivanichkul said. “She shows empathy within the group. That’s what Ron emphasized from the start, otherwise it won’t be any different from the story in the documentaries where the rescuers are central. We are trying to do the world building of Thai culture.”
Tungsupakul and her sister were raised by parents who ran a small building materials business. She graduated from law school but instead decided to move to Bangkok to pursue an acting career. The early success of a 2013 series in which she played a country girl who was forced to move to Bangkok after her father was murdered made her a star in Thailand. When asked if she was famous, Tungsupakul protested with a quiet “Yes,” before adding, “But if I say ‘yes’ then maybe ‘Oh, I’m too much’.”
“Thirteen Lives” is her first international production, one that she found challenging when it came to modulating her emotions. She recalls Howard telling her at one point, “‘Ploy, please don’t cry in this scene. No more tears,'” she said with a laugh. The tears came so easily because the world the production team had recreated in Australia was so close. Tungsupakul was in Bangkok when the rescue was underway, but she remembers being glued to the television and the story unfolding, convinced that no child would survive.
“I told Ron there was just no hope,” she said. “It’s desolate. They have no light. It is wet. Scientists say people can starve in three days. There are just many ways to die.”
At the time of the July interview, Tungsupakul had yet to watch the film with a Thai audience, even though she had viewed the link she had sent seven times. For example, her sister is a fan. “I’m proud,” said Rugeradh Tungsupakul, passing by Waen. “I know how hard it has been for her to get to where she is now.”
Tungsupakul’s greatest regret is that her father is not alive to witness her success. He died before her first TV show ran and hadn’t been happy when she left the law for an actress’s unpredictable life.
“If there’s a wish I could make,” she said, “I want Prime Video to be available where he is now so he can watch me in ‘Thirteen Lives’ too.”
