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Prince William Goes Dragon Boating in Singapore Ahead of Earthshot Prize Ceremony 

Britain's Prince William (C) takes part in a dragon boat practice with members of The British Dragons club at the Kallang River in Singapore, 06 November 2023. (EPA)
Britain's Prince William (C) takes part in a dragon boat practice with members of The British Dragons club at the Kallang River in Singapore, 06 November 2023. (EPA)
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Prince William Goes Dragon Boating in Singapore Ahead of Earthshot Prize Ceremony 

Britain's Prince William (C) takes part in a dragon boat practice with members of The British Dragons club at the Kallang River in Singapore, 06 November 2023. (EPA)
Britain's Prince William (C) takes part in a dragon boat practice with members of The British Dragons club at the Kallang River in Singapore, 06 November 2023. (EPA)

Britain’s Prince William took to the waters in Singapore for a morning of dragon boating Monday, ahead of activities for the annual Earthshot Prize awards aimed at promoting solutions for the planet’s environmental threats.

Donning a life vest and a black cap, the Prince of Wales sat in a long narrow boat as he paddled with athletes from the British Dragons club on the Kallang river. Working in pairs, William and the other 19 paddlers rowed vigorously to the steady beat of a drummer standing in the bow.

His boat triumphed in a brief race with another boat captained by British High Commissioner Kara Owen. It was not the first time for William, an avid sportsman who tried his hand at dragon boating with his wife, Kate, the Princess of Wales, during a tour of Canada in 2011.

Dragon boat racing, originating from China, can be traced back nearly 2,000 years before it became a modern international sport in 1976.

“I was lucky enough to be sitting next to him, and he is just a really nice guy,” said Laura Greenwood, a British expat who is a member of the British Dragons. “He has dragon boated before, so he felt kind of confident in what he was doing ... It was quite fast pace, so he kept up really well.”

William, 41, arrived Sunday ahead of the annual Earthshot Prize awards ceremony, the first to be held in Asia. William and his Royal Foundation charity launched the global environment competition in 2020 to promote innovative solutions and technologies to combat global warming and repair the planet.

William is to address a star-studded award ceremony Tuesday, where winners will be named in five categories: nature protection, clean air, ocean revival, waste elimination, and climate change.

Each winner will get 1 million pounds ($1.2 million) to help them scale up their projects for wider global reach. All 15 finalists, representing six continents and selected from 1,300 nominees this year, will receive help in expanding their projects.

Actors Hannah Waddingham and Sterling K. Brown will co-host the event, which will also be attended by wildlife conservationist Robert Irwin and celebrities including Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett and actors Lana Condor and Nomzamo Mbatha.

The prize’s name refers to the late President John F. Kennedy’s 1962 “moonshot” speech, which challenged Americans to reach the moon by the end of that decade. That inspired the prince and his partners to set a similar goal for finding solutions to environmental problems by 2030.

The inaugural ceremony was held in London in 2021 and the second in Boston last year.

William’s office at Kensington Palace has said Singapore was chosen to host this year’s ceremony because of its role as a “hub for innovation” in Southeast Asia.

During his four-day visit, his first to the city-state since 2012, William will also call on Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and meet with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

William also plans to attend the United for Wildlife summit, featuring representatives of law enforcement agencies, conservation groups and corporations working to combat trade in illegal wildlife products, estimated at $20 billion annually.

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The ‘Juror #2’ Cast Still Can’t Believe They Got to Work with Clint Eastwood

(L-R) Cedric Yarbrough, Zoey Deutch, Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, Leslie Bibb, Gabriel Basso and Francesca Eastwood attend the closing night gala premiere of "Juror #2" during the 2024 AFI Fest at TCL Chinese Theatre on October 27, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
(L-R) Cedric Yarbrough, Zoey Deutch, Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, Leslie Bibb, Gabriel Basso and Francesca Eastwood attend the closing night gala premiere of "Juror #2" during the 2024 AFI Fest at TCL Chinese Theatre on October 27, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
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The ‘Juror #2’ Cast Still Can’t Believe They Got to Work with Clint Eastwood

(L-R) Cedric Yarbrough, Zoey Deutch, Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, Leslie Bibb, Gabriel Basso and Francesca Eastwood attend the closing night gala premiere of "Juror #2" during the 2024 AFI Fest at TCL Chinese Theatre on October 27, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Getty Images/AFP)
(L-R) Cedric Yarbrough, Zoey Deutch, Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, Leslie Bibb, Gabriel Basso and Francesca Eastwood attend the closing night gala premiere of "Juror #2" during the 2024 AFI Fest at TCL Chinese Theatre on October 27, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Getty Images/AFP)

Nicholas Hoult was certain someone had made a mistake.

Clint Eastwood wanted to talk to him about starring in his new film, a slow burn legal thriller about a normal guy faced with an extraordinary moral dilemma. Surely Eastwood meant someone else, he thought. But soon enough they were chatting on the phone about "Juror #2," opening in theaters Friday.

"I was so nervous," the British actor said. "I remember saying to him, ‘I really like the script.’ I was so eager to please."

For Eastwood’s comeback, Hoult slipped into a pitch-perfect impersonation of his gravelly voice: "If you like it so much, I guess I’ll have to read it."

Suddenly Hoult was laughing. The tension was broken.

"I was like, wow this guy’s cool," he said. "He’s got a great sense of humor and we’re going to get along."

Though there may be a healthy amount of English self-deprecation in the story, the spirit of it isn’t unique to Hoult. Eastwood, 94, is the kind of living legend that has even the most seasoned veterans a little starstruck. "Juror #2," his 42nd film behind the camera, is getting strong reviews for being a smart, original courtroom thriller about an impossible conundrum.

In the original script by Jonathan Abrams, Hoult’s character, a recovering alcoholic with his first child about to be born, gets selected for jury duty on a murder case. But when the facts start to emerge, so do his memories and he’s forced to confront the possibility that he might have been unknowingly responsible.

"After the first read it had me," Eastwood wrote in an email. "It made me think about what would you do if you were put in this situation? What is right? What is wrong? Who would you protect? A true moral dilemma. That’s something I’d want to watch."

And he started rounding out his cast, led by Hoult who he called a true "movie star," with supporting turns from Toni Collette as the ambitious prosecutor, Chris Messina as the public defender, J.K. Simmons as a fellow juror, as well as Zoey Deutch and Kiefer Sutherland, who wrote a letter asking if there might be a role for him.

Sutherland had long imagined he’d cross paths with Eastwood. A lifelong Western fan, Sutherland’s late father Donald Sutherland had even worked with Eastwood a few times ("Kelly’s Heroes,Space Cowboys"). But when he read about the plans for "Juror #2" he felt a new sense of urgency.

"I always thought one day I would arrive at Mr. Eastwood’s doorstep. Then I realized that that time was maybe kind of going away," said Sutherland. "I just said, ‘I’ve always dreamed of working with you and if there is a part, any part, I would just like to be able to have the experience of watching you direct."

He was ultimately cast to play a lawyer and an AA sponsor to Hoult’s character. The screentime was relatively small, but the experience was exactly what he hoped: A masterclass in the truest sense.

"I’ve worked with people that shout and get angry and they’re very demonstrative," Sutherland said. "He was so amazingly quiet and calm and soft spoken. That’s someone who has power, when they can be that and get everything they need."

On one of his first days, an assistant director was explaining to Sutherland how to navigate a doorway in a scene. Eastwood stepped in to stop the tutorial, telling the AD, "He knows what he’s doing." Despite his 40-plus years in the business, Sutherland said he walked a little taller that day.

"It made my life," Sutherland said. "I’m very glad I didn’t work with him when I was 18 years old, because I would have tied myself in knots."

Collette similarly said she’s never felt so trusted.

"He’s so confident as a director, but not in a negative way. He’s just so present and allows it all to unfold," she said. "I’ve never worked with anyone who’s so easygoing, to be honest."

The film would also be the first time she and Hoult would share the screen since they played mother and son in "About a Boy" 23 years ago, when he was only 11. They’d texted a bit prior, but Collette was not prepared for the swell of emotion seeing Hoult, now 34, again. Then came their first scene together and it wasn’t going to be an easy one: In fact, it’s the last shot of the film.

But that’s the Eastwood way. His efficiency on set is the stuff of legend. Sometimes you get two takes, but three is almost unheard of. Hoult said he and the actors on the jury even rehearsed in secret to make sure they would nail the lengthier scenes. No one wanted to be the squeaky wheel.

"He’s not efficient for the sake of being efficient," Sutherland said. "I think Sydney Pollack, for instance, was really efficient and kind of when he became known for being efficient, started trying to show off his efficiency. ... I think Mr. Eastwood just kind of looks at a set and looks at a scene and just finds the straightest way to shoot it."

Much has been made about whether "Juror #2" is going to be Eastwood’s last film. But he’s not saying that, publicly or privately. In fact, when production went on hiatus during the actors strike, he didn’t even use that time as a break.

"I remember when we did come back from the strike, I was like, ’What did you do? And he was like, ‘Well, I was looking for new material,’" Collette said. "It’s nobody’s position to say this is his last movie."

Sutherland added: "His parking spot at the Warner Bros. lot isn’t going anywhere."