Amelia Warner gently pulls at the heartstrings in The Young Woman and the Sea. There’s an art to that. The composer can go big with strings and deliver the rousing, audible spectacle we want from a sports movie, but within that, treat the audience to nuanced tracks that capture a character’s soul.
It’s a fine line Warner walks very well in the Jerry Bruckheimer production.
Previously, Warner composed Mary Shelley and Mr. Malcolm’s List. With The Young Woman and the Sea, she got to craft her most rousing score to date. It’s both crowd-pleasing and personal work that Warner recently spoke with Immersive Media about.
I’ve talked to a lot of composers about how their work either dances or clashes with sound effects. In the case of this film, I was wondering how you wanted your score to collaborate with the waves?
Yes. I think when you are doing a film that involves water, it’s hard, and it’s a big thing to navigate and think about because, obviously, it’s essentially white noise. Whether it’s the splashing, the waves, or underwater, it’s really loud. So that was something I knew was going to be competing and something that obviously needs to be there, needs to have space. The sound of the water is so important and powerful and adds its own drama. But the splashing, in particular, was tough in certain sequences to be able to hear the music properly.
So it was a dance, and it definitely went back and forth. Sometimes things were pushed back and things were pulled up, but it was about trying to find frequencies, I suppose, that were different and trying to find things that could cut through or be more in your belly or low bass. And then higher frequency as well, which I think is when the electric cello really seemed to cut through it, and that ended up being used in a lot of the water sequences. It just had a pulse that you could always kind of hear. So it was just finding those instruments, finding those sounds so they could exist alongside each other.
The electric cello is a great modern touch here. As a composer, what balance did you want between maybe more old-school classic touches and modern flares?
Yeah, I think I wanted it to feel very classic, kind of like an old-school Disney movie. But I also didn’t want it to feel too much like a biopic. It was like, how do we push it? How do we make this really cinematic? And just introducing those few elements seemed to really work, and everybody seemed to really like it. I think very early on, it was established that we didn’t have to be super true to the period.
And for Trudy, who was such a kind of modern woman and so ahead of her time, I wanted the score to reflect that and to feel timeless, to not be stuck in a box of the 1920s or be restricted by that. I just wanted to score it with what I felt it needed, which, at times, was loads of percussion, lots of bass, and lots of subby, simple basses. And like I say, the electric cello just worked in a way that an acoustic wouldn’t have; it wouldn’t have felt the same.
Since the movie does rely quite a bit on silence in defining Gertrude, how did you want to write her inner voice?
I think there were different elements to her character. They were all equally important. I wanted something that felt really bold, powerful, and direct because she has this truthfulness and directness to her in her swimming and athleticism. But it felt equally important that she’s surrounded by love. I think that part of the story is what makes it so moving because, obviously, her swimming achievement is extraordinary.
But the reason the film is so moving is that you truly believe in the relationship between her and her family, and the unconditional love she shares with her sister and the support from her family. So I think the other side of it was finding something really emotional to ground her in a loving family. And then, the other side she has is this mischievous, rebellious, fun side – quite silly, quite childlike. The free spirit theme was trying to reflect that, something that felt a bit lighter and more playful.
There’s a scene in particular I’d like to hear about – when she kind of goes off into the abyss, the darkness. It’s a very moving scene, but it’s also very tragic in many ways. What was your initial reaction to seeing that? What, for you as a composer, felt appropriate or inappropriate for that kind of moment?
Oh, I mean, to be honest with you, every time I watched the last 15 minutes of that film, even while writing the music, I was crying. I found it so moving when she’s lost; I found it so unbearably sad and difficult to watch. But I think it was about conveying the peril and despair of her situation, while always keeping the hope and heart alive. It was that balance. And even though everyone knows the story and knows she made it, somehow it still felt very perilous to me.
I still never quite knew if she was going to make it to that beach. And I think the music had to reflect that – write it in a way that maybe she doesn’t make it. I think there were a couple of versions that weren’t dark or emotional enough. So it was just about finding the emotion, the feeling, and the scope of it, and trying to convey the size of the sea and how small she is.
I was going to say, the scope of it is really impressive. Throughout that third act, how did you want to keep building momentum?
Well, I think that was the trick and probably the hardest part, because it starts big and just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I suppose I almost worked backward since I kind of knew what was going to happen when she swam to the beach before I wrote the rest. I had this end goal I was working toward, but it was hard not to go too heavy-handed in certain parts or to save things for later. But then, you’re also trying to create and build that tension and suspense.
There’s so much going on — you’re jumping between different people and stories, and it’s about weaving all of that together. It’s about keeping that headspace to have something left for that very end sequence. And then even after she makes it to the beach, there’s a huge celebration sequence, and then the archive footage — it just keeps going. So probably one of the biggest challenges was just the pacing.
You don’t want to be shy, but you don’t want it to be heavy-handed. What’s the line for you?
Yes, and I think that was something I wrestled with throughout because my instinct would probably be to pull back, whereas this was much more about leaning in and really scoring those moments. Jerry would also say, “Let the music tell the story. Let the music do it for you at certain points,” which is just an amazing thing as a composer. But this was not a movie to shy away from that. There’s not a cynical bone in this film’s body.
It is a truthful, earnest, emotional film. You have to hit those beats. There was no other way. And it’s one of those films where you sit down, hand yourself over to the filmmakers, and go, “Right, I’m ready,” and it takes you on a journey. That’s rare now. Most films are a bit more mysterious, or we like to leave some things unsaid, whereas this wasn’t that. This was very much like, “This is what’s happening. This is what we’re feeling. Let’s do it.”
An opportunity to be sincere musically.
Sincere musically. Exactly.
Gertrude’s theme, how did you see it technically, from beginning to middle to end? How did you want that to ebb and flow throughout the movie?
Well, the note from Jerry about the theme going down was really enlightening to me. I hadn’t realized that I tend to write themes that go down, and I never even thought about it. When I wrote the initial ideas for her theme, I had about five or six, and I played the first two. He said, “The notes are all going down.” Then I realized, “Oh my God, they do on all the others as well.” I went back and looked at some of my old films and thought, “Why does every theme go down?” So after that meeting, I felt horrified and terrified that I was about to be fired.
The next morning, I wrote her theme. I think I started with the middle, almost like the chorus. And again, Jerry had said something helpful: “You’re going to write me a song. It’s going to have…” So seeing it in that structure was helpful as well. I felt like I did have a verse and a chorus. Once that was written, which happened really quickly after that meeting, I felt we had it. Everyone agreed it felt right; it had the emotion, the triumph, and it felt rousing and inspirational.
Young Woman and the Sea is now available to stream on Disney+.
