8 Scariest Shark Encounters Of Celebrities
The "Shark Week 2022" came to an end and has given us emotion in spades. Every year, Discovery Channel hosts a week-long marathon of shark-related programming to serve as a reminder to viewers everywhere of the dangers residing in the waters they so dearly love. Sharks are undeniably cute, but they're never "approachable", so we should keep our distance from them.
However, many celebrities were so close to these dangerous predators. Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio had an encounter with a huge white shark when filming "Blood Diamond" in 2006. Australian famous star Ryan Kwanten even got shark attacked, yet luckily survived.
That is just two of several infamous celebrities' shark encounters. We've enlisted 8 celebrities who had terrifying experiences with sharks in this article. Scroll down to check them out. terrifying
Will Smith overcame one of his worst phobias by deciding to swim with the ocean's apex predators during Shark Week 2020. The actor, who was 51 at the time, appeared in the Will Smith: Off the Deep End special on the Discovery Channel and swam with a tiger shark. He subsequently admitted that he was so scared of sharks that he didn't learn to swim until he was in his 40s.
Smith was heard saying during the presentation, "I blame Steven Spielberg," about the director's 1975 hit movie Jaws. “I was literally scared in the bathtub. I felt like a shark could come out of the spout.” But then he added that he's grown more motivated to face his concerns as he got older: "I am a firm believer that fear creates the greatest atrocities and evils that have ever been committed on this planet,” he shared.
Leonardo DiCaprio, star of the film Titanic, was participating in an underwater expedition in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2006. When he came face-to-face with a great white shark, his utterly logical fear of sharks was put to the ultimate test.
In a 2014 interview with Ellen DeGeneres, he shared: "I had a huge fear of sharks, and when I did Blood Diamond in 2006 I actually got stuck in a cage with a great white, which was awesome,”, he added: "It was a gigantic great white… They said in 30 years this has never happened, but the tuna kind of got stuck on the top of the cage and the great white leaped out and tried to bite it and went into the cage with me. Half of its body was in and out, and I flattened down at the bottom, and it was this far away, and it chomped a few times but I survived it".
Ross Lynch opted to go snorkeling off the coast of Puerto Rico while taking a break from filming the Disney Channel's Teen Beach Movie. A shark that Lynch described as being "a good enough size to take a limb" approached and gave the actor and his friends quite the fear as they were getting into the water.
“We were snorkeling for three hours, so we were a bit far out and a shark started swimming up to us. And we all freaked out and… held on to each other real close,” Lynch said. Fortunately, the predator swam back into the deep without showing any interest in them.
While filming David Hasselhoff's Shark watch, a series of movies for The Underwater Channel, the former TV lifeguard had a scary encounter with a tiger shark, one of the most dangerous predators living in the ocean. The Baywatch star recalled the experience in an interview with Britain's Hello! Magazine, saying: “Suddenly, a tiger shark loomed towards me—a big girl, around 10 feet long. Although I’m 6 foot and no lightweight, I felt as if I appeared nothing more than a snack to her.”
Blood and bites seem to be nothing new for Australian actor Ryan Kwanten. In an episode of Esquire Network’s The Getaway, the celebrity made note of the fact that he has survived a shark attack. Kwanten gave up his dream of being a surfer when he was just 12 years old after a scary encounter with a shark off the coast of Sydney, Australia.
“I fell off the top of a wave and put my hand down, expecting to get the sandbank, and it went straight into the mouth of a shark… [but] it was a wobbegong shark; it’s got more gums than teeth… I didn’t get bitten, I got gummed [but] there are scars to prove it,” he granted.
American actress Hayden Panettiere described herself as a shark magnet when appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live. She claimed that whenever she is in the ocean, whether she is paddleboarding or swimming, a shark materializes out of nowhere. The Scream 4 star continued by recounting a particularly terrifying scuba diving incident.
She said: “This safety diver got in to take pictures of my brother and my mom, and they had their fins on. And when the shark comes too close, you put your fins in their face, and I didn’t have my fins on. And, all of a sudden, they start going, ‘Shark, right behind you”
“I swam for my life… They were yelling at us because the worst thing to do is to swim away from the shark and make all the splashing,” she added. “I was like, ‘Guys, you yelled shark… How else do people react?’ I practically walked on water back to the boat.”
In 2016, John Krasinski disclosed the honeymoon shark encounter he and his wife Emily Blunt had while submerged 100 feet under the water. He said on an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show: "Emily never wanted to learn scuba diving and I was like, ‘We’ll never get into trouble with sharks’,”, he continued: “All of a sudden one broke off from the circle and started swimming behind us. I saw it and Emily didn’t. He started to charge [at] Emily, so my decision was, ‘If I spook her and she moves a lot, he might bite her.”
The shark ultimately came to swim by the actress after Krasinski chose to go with the flow. But the Devil Wears Prada actress "kind of passed out underwater" as she realized what had occurred.
“All of her air just went to the top,” Krasinski shared. “It was pretty scary.”
However, many celebrities were so close to these dangerous predators. Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio had an encounter with a huge white shark when filming "Blood Diamond" in 2006. Australian famous star Ryan Kwanten even got shark attacked, yet luckily survived.
That is just two of several infamous celebrities' shark encounters. We've enlisted 8 celebrities who had terrifying experiences with sharks in this article. Scroll down to check them out. terrifying
#1 Will Smith
Source: Image Courtesy of @willsmith from Instagram
Will Smith overcame one of his worst phobias by deciding to swim with the ocean's apex predators during Shark Week 2020. The actor, who was 51 at the time, appeared in the Will Smith: Off the Deep End special on the Discovery Channel and swam with a tiger shark. He subsequently admitted that he was so scared of sharks that he didn't learn to swim until he was in his 40s.
Smith was heard saying during the presentation, "I blame Steven Spielberg," about the director's 1975 hit movie Jaws. “I was literally scared in the bathtub. I felt like a shark could come out of the spout.” But then he added that he's grown more motivated to face his concerns as he got older: "I am a firm believer that fear creates the greatest atrocities and evils that have ever been committed on this planet,” he shared.
#2 Leonardo DiCaprio
Source: Image Courtesy of @leonardodicarpio from Instagram
Leonardo DiCaprio, star of the film Titanic, was participating in an underwater expedition in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2006. When he came face-to-face with a great white shark, his utterly logical fear of sharks was put to the ultimate test.
In a 2014 interview with Ellen DeGeneres, he shared: "I had a huge fear of sharks, and when I did Blood Diamond in 2006 I actually got stuck in a cage with a great white, which was awesome,”, he added: "It was a gigantic great white… They said in 30 years this has never happened, but the tuna kind of got stuck on the top of the cage and the great white leaped out and tried to bite it and went into the cage with me. Half of its body was in and out, and I flattened down at the bottom, and it was this far away, and it chomped a few times but I survived it".
#3 Ross Lynch
Source: Image Courtesy of @ross_lynch from Instagram
Ross Lynch opted to go snorkeling off the coast of Puerto Rico while taking a break from filming the Disney Channel's Teen Beach Movie. A shark that Lynch described as being "a good enough size to take a limb" approached and gave the actor and his friends quite the fear as they were getting into the water.
“We were snorkeling for three hours, so we were a bit far out and a shark started swimming up to us. And we all freaked out and… held on to each other real close,” Lynch said. Fortunately, the predator swam back into the deep without showing any interest in them.
#4 David Hasselhoff
Source: Image Courtesy of @davidhasselhoff from Instagram
While filming David Hasselhoff's Shark watch, a series of movies for The Underwater Channel, the former TV lifeguard had a scary encounter with a tiger shark, one of the most dangerous predators living in the ocean. The Baywatch star recalled the experience in an interview with Britain's Hello! Magazine, saying: “Suddenly, a tiger shark loomed towards me—a big girl, around 10 feet long. Although I’m 6 foot and no lightweight, I felt as if I appeared nothing more than a snack to her.”
#5 Ryan Kwanten
Source: Image Courtesy of @Ryan_Kwanten from Twitter
Blood and bites seem to be nothing new for Australian actor Ryan Kwanten. In an episode of Esquire Network’s The Getaway, the celebrity made note of the fact that he has survived a shark attack. Kwanten gave up his dream of being a surfer when he was just 12 years old after a scary encounter with a shark off the coast of Sydney, Australia.
“I fell off the top of a wave and put my hand down, expecting to get the sandbank, and it went straight into the mouth of a shark… [but] it was a wobbegong shark; it’s got more gums than teeth… I didn’t get bitten, I got gummed [but] there are scars to prove it,” he granted.
#6 Hayden Panettiere
Source: Image Courtesy of @haydenpanettiere from Instagram
American actress Hayden Panettiere described herself as a shark magnet when appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live. She claimed that whenever she is in the ocean, whether she is paddleboarding or swimming, a shark materializes out of nowhere. The Scream 4 star continued by recounting a particularly terrifying scuba diving incident.
She said: “This safety diver got in to take pictures of my brother and my mom, and they had their fins on. And when the shark comes too close, you put your fins in their face, and I didn’t have my fins on. And, all of a sudden, they start going, ‘Shark, right behind you”
“I swam for my life… They were yelling at us because the worst thing to do is to swim away from the shark and make all the splashing,” she added. “I was like, ‘Guys, you yelled shark… How else do people react?’ I practically walked on water back to the boat.”
#7, #8 John Krasinski and Emily Blunt
Source: Image Courtesy of @johnkrasinski from Instagram
In 2016, John Krasinski disclosed the honeymoon shark encounter he and his wife Emily Blunt had while submerged 100 feet under the water. He said on an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show: "Emily never wanted to learn scuba diving and I was like, ‘We’ll never get into trouble with sharks’,”, he continued: “All of a sudden one broke off from the circle and started swimming behind us. I saw it and Emily didn’t. He started to charge [at] Emily, so my decision was, ‘If I spook her and she moves a lot, he might bite her.”
The shark ultimately came to swim by the actress after Krasinski chose to go with the flow. But the Devil Wears Prada actress "kind of passed out underwater" as she realized what had occurred.
“All of her air just went to the top,” Krasinski shared. “It was pretty scary.”
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