Filming in Australia Led to Terrifying Snake & Spider Encounters for ‘Anaconda’ Cast [Interview]
Art imitated life on the set of Anaconda, a meta-comedy reimagining of the 1997 creature feature. Whereas the plot sees four friends set off to the Amazon to remake their all-time favorite movie, director Tom Gormican‘s (The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent) reimagining was filmed on location in Australia. That meant that the cast and crew […]
Art imitated life on the set of Anaconda, a meta-comedy reimagining of the 1997 creature feature.
Whereas the plot sees four friends set off to the Amazon to remake their all-time favorite movie, director Tom Gormican‘s (The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent) reimagining was filmed on location in Australia.
That meant that the cast and crew also had to look out for the local flora and fauna.
Bloody Disgusting spoke with stars Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Thandiwe Newton, and Steven Zahn ahead of the film’s opening in theaters on December 25, where they discussed what it was like on set. Humor was in spades, of course, but also a few moments of genuine fear thanks to some unexpected spiders and insects.
Oh, and a fear of snakes.
Paul Rudd plays Griff, the best friend to Jack Black’s Doug and the inspiration behind the foursome’s movie-making pursuits. It turns out that Rudd shares one key trait in common with his character: a fear of snakes. That’s not so bad when your giant snake co-star is made up of VFX, but less so when an early scene requires wading into the swamp at night to collect specimens.
“That scene was one of the very first scenes we shot in a whole movie,” Rudd said. “It was about 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, and it was in a swamp in water up to here. And I knew that there was tons of things swimming around in that. I was not excited to film that scene at all. Even the drivers were like, ‘Whoa, you’re going in that?’ Because in Australia, yes, you said it, everything can kill you. But that sucked. It was terrible. Thankfully, I made it out unscathed, but it was not a pleasant experience.”
Filming on location in Australia also required an actual snake handler who would clear the natural set of any dangerous critters.
Thandiwe Newton explained, “They’d always go before we turned up. They’d go a couple of hours before and just clear the area. And then we’d always turn up and go, ‘What’d you find? What’d you find today?'”
Steve Zahn adds, “He would say, like, ‘I found a brown snake that was really poisonous.'”
It wasn’t the snakes that terrified Newton, though, but an Australian specialty- the Huntsman spider.
“I actually saw the biggest spider I’ve ever seen in my life on the set, and no one was with me,” Newton recounts. “We were shooting by the river, okay? So it was like an old boatyard, a disused boatyard. And they had this restroom there just for the staff. Okay? So it was outside, but inside at the same time. So I just go because I wanted to use a proper loo and not the porta loos because I’m a princess. So I go in there, and I do what I need to do, my wee wees. Come out, and I’m washing my hands. I put the soap on my hands. And I’ve seen everything. In Mexico, I’ve seen tarantulas and wolf spiders in LA. The biggest spider that was literally, literally the size of my hand. It looked like a Thanksgiving turkey. It was massive. I’m literally going to put water on my hands, covered in soap. This thing comes up over the side of the sink.”
Watch the full story below and get ready for a meta-comedy adventure on Christmas Day.
