The Snake Whisperer
Meet Jules Sylvester, trainer to animal actors -- and the real star of Snakes On A Plane
By KEVIN WILLIAMSON, SUN MEDIA
SAN DIEGO -- Animal trainer Jules Sylvester entered what can only be described as the Olympics of snake wrangling when he signed on as the creature coach for Snakes On A Plane, which opens today.
Sylvester -- whose oeuvre includes spiders, and insects and other shiver-inducing species -- says even he was a little dumbstruck when he saw the film's title.
"My manager called me and said there's a script I was born to do," he recalls. "I laughed. It's a great title but I thought they'll never keep it because it gives it away. Who knew?"
Who knew, indeed. Based on the name alone -- and thanks to the enthusiasm of online and genre fans who have readily embraced the ridiculousness of it -- Snakes On A Plane has generated the sort of publicity studios drool over, turning a blogging blockbuster into this summer's most unexpected surefire hit.
Samuel L. Jackson, as an FBI agent trying to protect a federal witness on the doomed flight, may get first billing in the credits, but it is Sylvester who is arguably the film's most valuable player.
His job? Make the slithering villains sufficiently scary for audiences without frightening -- or endangering -- the cast members unlucky enough to have to tangle with the big-screen serpents. "The biggest challenge was that on an aircraft there are so many hidden places," explains Sylvester, who cheerfully demonstrated his affection for the reptiles by bringing a red-and-black milk snake to this interview.
"If you can get your pinky finger in the inner skin of the aircraft, a snake can get in there. So piece by piece, we had to plug all the holes, although we lost a few in the cushions."
Not that the cast -- particularly ER's Julianna Margulies, who apparently had the toughest time coping with the snakes -- had much to fear on set. The majority of scenes of live-action panic were filmed by the production's second unit, utilizing extras, not actors, who had the right temperament. In other words, people who wouldn't scream or, worse, stomp on the characteristically docile animals.
"They picked great people. After the first day, you could be, like, 'Can I have that
corn snake under your ankle? Thank you.' They got along great with them. There's no need to terrify the actors. Even when we work with actors, no one can know you're bitten -- (the actors) don't need to see that. Besides, if you get bitten, it's your fault. You made a mistake."
About 450 snakes -- 60 or so species altogether -- were used on Snakes On A Plane's Vancouver set.
"We didn't use 400 snakes at the same time, thank God, because that would've been chaos. One time we had 65 snakes at the base of the stairs and we had to board it up with plywood and plexiglass so we could contain them. You can't train a snake -- it's more about management."
That said, some are better actors than others. "Rat snakes are just idiots. As soon as you put them down, they're gone out the door ... They're very fast. They chase rats and lizards for a living."
For his purposes, forest dwellers are preferable. "They're slow-moving, darkly-coloured and dangerous looking."
Sylvester has been working on movies for more than two decades. His first -- of 337 so far -- was Never Cry Wolf in the early 1980s. His credits include Bram Stoker's Dracula, Arachnophobia and Out Of Africa, where he worked with lions.
But he says he's never been seriously bitten in 39 years of dealing with the animals.
"I've never sustained a venomous bite. I've been hit 15 or 16 times -- on my fingernail or my wallet. I've had a cobra attached to my shoelaces."
Sylvester, who admits to a personal fear of and aversion to black mambas, says cobras as the second-most effective movie snake there is to work with because they look so terrifying.
His top pick is featured on Snakes On A Plane's poster -- an image of two rattlesnakes ensnaring an aircraft. "That's the snake you want! Western diamondbacks -- they are the best movie snake you've ever worked with. They have a really bad attitude."
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