“He was like, ‘She dead,’” the “Invite” director remembers of nearly drowning while filming “Turistas.”

How a cameraman saved Olivia Wilde’s life mid-scene (exclusive)

"He was like, 'She dead,'" the "Invite" director remembers of nearly drowning while filming "Turistas."

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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July 2, 2026 10:00 a.m. ET

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Olivia Wilde in 'Turistas'. Credit:

20th Century Fox

- Olivia Wilde shares a haunting memory about nearly drowning while shooting a project early in her career, in the mid-2000s.

- The *Invite* star and director says a camera operator "dropped the camera to grab me, because he was like, 'She dead.'"

- Wilde says the incident occurred on the set of the 2006 horror movie *Turistas*.

Olivia Wilde says that a drowning scene became a little too real while shooting one of her earliest movies.

The *Booksmart* filmmaker recalls a terrifying incident that occurred on the set of the 2006 horror film *Turistas* during a new installment of* ’*s “Lie vs. Lie" video series.

"I had to learn how to free dive to go into tunnels and hold my breath for minutes upon minutes," Wilde says after Seth Rogen, her costar in *The Invite*, asked her a question about learning an unusual skill for a role. "We had to go down into this tunnel, and I got lost. It's a job a stunt person should do. And you have to suck down little bubbles of air that look like little mercury pods."

Wilde explains that she was taken underwater with a scuba tank before every take, and that as she attempted to inhale the aforementioned air bubbles, she "sucked down a bunch of water" into her lungs.

"My character was supposed to be drowning, so when I started drowning, they were like, 'All right…she's nailing it, she locked in,'" she remembers, noting how a courageous camera operator helped her in a moment of crisis. "And the cameraman dropped the camera to grab me, because he was like, 'She dead.'"

Beau Garrett, Olivia Wilde, and Josh Duhamel in 'Turistas'.

20th Century Fox

"Is it in the movie?" Rogen asks.

"It was the only take, so it had to be [in the movie]," Wilde responds.

*Turistas* followed a group of American tourists who encounter an organ trafficking operation while backpacking in Brazil. The film also starred Josh Duhamel, Melissa George, Beau Garrett, Agles Steib, Desmond Askew, and Max Brown. The film ultimately made around $14 million on a $10 million budget.

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Elsewhere in the "Lie vs. Lie" game, Rogen tells the tale of an unfortunate injury he sustained — though not on a set.

"I once, when I was younger, thought it'd be cool to stick my hand in a fan in the ceiling," he says. "I did it alone, to see what it felt like. [It] really, really, really hurt."

Rogen didn't think the fan would continue spinning when he poked at its blades. "I thought it would just stop," he says. "I thought it would stop much easier than it did, and it really hurt my hand. It chunked a big chunk of skin off my finger. It didn't just hurt in a bruise, it almost felt like it broke my hand — I was bleeding profusely after it happened."

Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde in 'The Invite'.

Courtesy of A24

Wilde begins to ask about the fallout of the injury. "And you had to say to your mom, like—"

"No, I was like 30!" Rogen interrupts, laughing. "I had to go to my *wife*! She was like, 'What the f--- did you do to yourself?' I was like, 'I stuck my hand in the fan.' She was like, 'Why?'"

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"This was only okay if you were 11," Wilde responds.

"Yeah, no. I was a grown man," Rogen says.

*The Invite* is now playing in theaters. Watch the full "Lie vs. Lie" video above.

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Source: “EW Horror”