'The Last Letter From Your Lover' actors were running out of daylight while filming the sailing scene. They nailed it in just 3 takes.

• The 'Last Letter From Your Lover' director says the sailing scene was the most difficult to film.
• There was a windstorm the morning they were supposed to shoot, so they were left with one afternoon.
• Fortunately, actors Callum Turner and Shailene Woodley "nailed" the scene in only three takes.

Callum Turner and Shailene Woodley's trip to sea in "The Last Letter From Your Lover" is arguably the film's most breathtaking moment.

Two strangers temporarily removed from the realities waiting from them back on land, Jennifer Stirling, a young American woman played by Woodley, and Anthony O'Hare, a foreign correspondent portrayed by Turner, freely discuss love and regret against the backdrop of the open water.

But all of its beauty aside, the scene was a logistical nightmare to create.

"It was the most difficult," director Augustine Frizzell told Insider of the boat scene ahead of the film's Friday premiere on Netflix, emphasizing, "It was so hard."

The sailing scene marked a turning point for Jennifer and Anthony

In the adaptation of Jojo Moyes' novel of the same name, Anthony is assigned to profile Jennifer's arrogant husband Laurence Stirling (Joe Alwyn) during a trip to the French Riviera in the mid-'60s.

After Laurence abruptly leaves their annual summer holiday on business, Jennifer gravitates toward Anthony, eventually falling in love with the writer.

Their first in-depth conversation takes place in an almost comically romantic setting: a sunset sail overlooking the coast of Corsica.

Lounging on the hull, Jennifer reveals the story of how she and Laurence met, finding herself unable to answer Anthony's question about whether she's ever truly loved someone.

"I'm married," she replies instead.

He, on the other hand, divulges his past infidelity, sharing that his former wife divorced him and then forbid him from seeing their son.

The entire scene - from the setting to the actors to the overall pacing - comes across as serene, but Frizzell remembers the day leading up to filming it as anything but.

A windstorm hit Mallorca, their filming location, the day they were scheduled to shoot

Jennifer and Anthony's early scenes take place on the French coast, but the movie was actually shot in Mallorca in late 2019.

Going into production, Frizzell was conscious of the movie's "low budget" and aware that she was working with a limited number of days to shoot.

"It was all super tightly scheduled," she said.

Extreme weather upended their plans on the one day they had set aside to film Jennifer and Anthony's boat scene.

"There was this huge windstorm that came through, so much so that we couldn't even get out to the boat to shoot," she recalled. "Even if we would've been able to get out there, it would have been insane."

The team had no choice but to wait it out until the wind passed. By the time the weather cleared, they were left with just one afternoon to get the right take.

Woodley, Turner, and the camera crew nailed the scene in only 3 takes

From the moment the cast and crew were finally able to set sail, they were in a race against the setting sun.

"We had like three takes," Frizzell recalled.

Luckily, the director had previously worked on the scene with Woodley and Turner, recognizing its importance as the first time their characters connect on an emotional level.

The trio conversed about what, exactly, they wanted the audience to take away from the intimate conversation about Jennifer and Anthony's pasts. When it came time to perform the scene in front of the cameras, Turner and Woodley delivered.

"They just nailed it. They had a few takes to get it," Frizzell said, adding, "They just nailed it."