This seal gag did not make the final cut, but what a memorable shoot it was. The action was Lloyd Bridges' President Benson personally invading Saddam Hussien's Iraqui seaside palace from the sea, coming up undetected in full scuba gear. Mind you this is 1993, years later than Seahunt. Lloyd is now 80 years old and still diving! He was a great guy to work with and expressed more concern for my wellbeing than his own. The gag called for him to surface, then two Navy Seals to his left, then one real seal. To be acurate, we were using sea lions- Hollywood has misguided the public for years, using the imminently more trainable sea lions to stand in as 'seals.'. The real seal, our puppet, looks over at Lloyd and away, then does a quick double take in shock -brows raised and jaw dropped- and escapes by diving back underwater.

Setup- A steel basket was cantilevered underwater off the back of the boat for me to work in. To insure that I stay underwater, I was given double weight belts and no buoyancy jacket. My regulator exhaust was hooked up to tigon tubes that led away underwater to surface off camera. First issue to develop setting up the gag, is that when the tigon tubes filled up with my exhaust air, they floated up to the surface where they would show up on camera. So they're weighted down, requiring me to bite down like a pitbull on my regulator to keep it from literally being pulled out of my mouth. Secondly, when everyone on the boat hears that the seal puppet is playing, they all move to the back of the boat to get a good vantage point. What effect do you suppose this has on me? Yes. With all their weight shifted, down goes the back end of the boat and with it, me. My perch sank so low that I had to stand up on it's very top edges just to get my head barely above water -and even that was only good between the swells that came and rocked the boat. I must have looked like a real disinterested joker, alternating up and down, above water then under water, while being given my directions.