Star of The Meg and The Meg 2 Jason Statham once competed in the Commonwealth Games…in diving

Jason Statham doesn’t stay very dry in The Meg (2018) and no doubt will get just as wet in its forthcoming sequel, The Meg: The Trench (2023). He’ll be used to it though as he previously competed in diving in the Commonwealth Games.

That’s right, the action star Jason Statham, who has appeared in everything from The Transporter to The Fast and the Furious films, competed in diving at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand.

Hay may not have come back with any medals, but impressively he took part in the 10 metre, 3 metre and 1 metre competitions. Although he was a part of Britain's National Diving Squad for 12 years, he sadly missed taking his diving skills to the Olympics.

After a stint in modelling he fell into acting, making a real splash with his debut role in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, from director Guy Ritchie. And he hasn’t looking back since. The swimming pool’s loss is cinema’s gain and – who knows – Statham may pull a few of his diving moves in The Meg: The Trench when it surfaces in the US on August 4, 2023.

Statham will have certainly been at home whilst filming, as in January this year the film kicked off production in Europe’s largest filming water tanks at the Warner Bros Studios in Leavesden, just outside London.

Not that Jason Statham is the only shark film actor to show a flair for sport, the main cast of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws were also sporty types, with Chief Brody actor, Roy Scheider, having once been an amateur boxer – which explains that distinctive nose.

Quint actor Robert Shaw was a golf nut and was the person who introduced Sean Connery to the game, and Matt Hooper actor Richard Dreyfuss, well Shaw put him through his paces on set doing push-up challenges. Whatever floats your bigger boat, whilst you are waiting for the mechanical shark to be operational.

Words by Dean Newman

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