Cracking time on Send Help taught me how to open a coconut

Send Help star Rachel McAdams has said working on the film saw her learn how to open a coconut for herself.

The 47-year-old Canadian actor plays Linda Liddle in the film, an employee who is mistreated by her sexist boss Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), who refuses to promote her as his father had wished, instead sending her on a trip to Bangkok to prove herself before her plane crash-lands on a deserted island.

Asked what she had learned on set, while speaking to the Press Association at the film’s UK premiere, McAdams said: “Well, there were many (things), but my favourite is now being able to open a coconut by myself, which is a daunting task.

“Because you go buy them at the grocery store, and … I’ll never buy a coconut and now, now I will, I’ll have fresh coconut milk whenever I feel like it.”

The film also stars Dennis Haysbert as Franklin, Xavier Samuel as Donovan and Chris Pang as Chase, and is directed by Sam Raimi.

Speaking about McAdams’ performance, Raimi told PA: “She was so thorough in her preparation of the actor she portrayed and I thought she did so beautifully.

“But then in the movie, there’s another multiverse … so there’s a second Rachel McAdams, very similar to her original one, but with different backgrounds, as described by the writer, and I saw them very suddenly pulled into her performance.. and then we had a third version that got cut out.”

He went on to say that the film depended more on the “characters’ interaction” than any other movie he had made and added that he had to “focus and concentrate on the joint performances” while making it.

Send Help will be released in cinemas in the UK on January 30.