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Daily Inspiration Quote by Kathleen Quinlan

"I filmed underwater for two days in the open ocean with dolphins"

About this Quote

There is a particular kind of Hollywood brag that doesn’t sound like a brag until you picture the logistics. Quinlan’s line lands because it’s both plainly factual and quietly outrageous: two days, underwater, open ocean, dolphins. The sentence stacks constraints like weights on an actor’s body. It’s not “I worked hard”; it’s “I put myself somewhere humans aren’t built to be, and I kept doing takes.”

The intent reads as proof-of-work without the usual self-mythologizing. Quinlan isn’t selling inspiration; she’s establishing credibility in the only currency that really counts on set: what you endured and still delivered. “Filmed underwater” signals technical discipline and physical risk; “open ocean” strips away the controlled safety of a tank; “with dolphins” adds a surreal, almost childlike wonder that also hints at unpredictability. Dolphins aren’t props. They’re wild animals with their own agenda, which means the performance is happening inside a moving, unrepeatable environment.

The subtext is also about visibility. Underwater labor is famously hard to translate on screen: the audience sees minutes, not the hours of breath control, cold, pressure, and disorientation. Quinlan’s matter-of-fact phrasing insists on the off-camera reality without pleading for applause. It taps into a broader cultural fascination with “authentic” filmmaking, where suffering becomes a backstage featurette and an actor’s body becomes part of the production design. The dolphins provide the glamour; the open ocean provides the truth.

Quote Details

TopicOcean & Sea
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Quinlan, Kathleen. (2026, January 16). I filmed underwater for two days in the open ocean with dolphins. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-filmed-underwater-for-two-days-in-the-open-107444/

Chicago Style
Quinlan, Kathleen. "I filmed underwater for two days in the open ocean with dolphins." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-filmed-underwater-for-two-days-in-the-open-107444/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I filmed underwater for two days in the open ocean with dolphins." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-filmed-underwater-for-two-days-in-the-open-107444/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.

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Kathleen Quinlan on Filming with Dolphins
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About the Author

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Kathleen Quinlan (born November 19, 1954) is a Actress from USA.

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