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In the new action-adventure flick Fool's Gold, Matthew McConaughey's character Ben "Finn" Finnegan and Kate Hudson's Tess Finnegan find themselves negotiating dangerous situations like pilot-less planes, treacherous cliffs and armed baddies as they hunt for hidden treasure.
But all that fictional stuff is nothing compared to some of the real dangers the two Hollywood stars faced while filming director Andy Tennant's new film in Australia.
"We couldn't be in the water for about two weeks because this wild jellyfish came through and ran everyone out of the water," McConaughey said about the interruption of the film's dive scene.
Added Hudson: "These deadly jellyfish, they literally put you in the hospital for three days on a morphine drip. Really, really bad. They say it's not the sting that kills you it's the pain."
In fact, the two actors in their second pairing after 2003's How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days think the land Down Under itself is a danger zone, but in a cool way, of course.
"The cool and adventurous part about Australia is that everything in the water, in the air, on the land, bites hard and is somehow poisonous. I had pythons in my trees near the little beach hut I was living in," said McConaughey.
Despite the risks posed by the natural elements, McConaughey and Hudson were game to do as many of their own stunts as possible.
While McConaughey is no stranger to living on the edge be it returning with welts and bruises after a scuba diving trip in Papua New Guinea or getting arrested for waking up the neighbours by dancing around naked and playing bongo drums in his Austin, Texas home the 38-year-old's adventurous streak seems to be rubbing off on his usually demure co-star.
"I held my breath in one take," said Hudson of a particular underwater scene.
"Oh, I was terrified. I was so scared. I would sit on the edge of the boat and I'd be, like, 'I don't know why I'm doing this. I don't want to get in the water.' But I was really proud of myself for that stunt. It was wild. When you see it, you're like: 'God, they make it look so easy'!"
Besides hunting for treasure in the film, the two play a couple trying to salvage their rickety marriage. Despite the less-than-positive reviews, McConaughey and Hudson's on-screen chemistry got audiences to the theatre and the film opened at the top of the United States box office.
"I think it just kind of happened," Hudson said of their chemistry.
"The first meeting we ever had, when we were going to shoot How to Lose a Guy, I think everybody in the room was, like, 'Oh, this is going to be really fun and easy', because we just got along really well," added the 28-year-old daughter of actress Goldie Hawn.
So, is McConaughey's impending fatherhood his Brazilian model girlfriend Camila Alves, is the mum-to-be making him mellow like motherhood did to Hudson when her son with ex-husband and Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson was born four years ago?
Far from it, he said, because even that is yet another adventure for him.
"Oh, it's been a great adventure. I've always wanted to be a father and was just waiting for the right time. I'm with the right woman, and now it is. So, I'm excited about the new adventure," said McConaughey.
And Hudson thinks becoming a dad would only go on to make the one-time World's Sexiest Man Alive even sexier.
"Don't you think women are more attracted to men with babies? I mean, when you see a little cute dad with his baby, you're like, 'Ooh, cute'."
Guess McConaughey will soon be elbow-deep in new adventures this time, in diaper-changing.
Fool's Gold opens in cinemas today. - TODAY/ar
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