The other day I stumbled across a brief interview with Lin Shaye who plays a stewardess in the Snakes on a Plane on About.com. I bookmarked it, but when I came back the interview was missing. The best I can come up with now is this Google Cached version which probably won’t last forever, so I’m going to reproduce it in its entirety below:
Are there snakes on that plane? Oh, there are snakes. There’s MFin’ snakes on the MFin’ plane.
Did you have to reshoot anything for Snakes on a Plane? No. They actually originally asked me to and then they said they had what they needed. They were doing stuff from the snakes point of view which I think is pretty funny and they turned it into a hard R. It’s gotten such pre-press online that the fans have actually told the studio what they need to do. So they went back and made it a hard R, made it much scarier and gorier and they actually had Sam come back to vocalize, “Get the motherf***in’ snakes off the motherf***in’ plane” because fans have been going crazy with that idea.
Does he yell at you? No, but if he did he’d be scary. He is a wonderful, amazing guy and actor. He’s really what you see is what you get. He’s got huge integrity and he’s smart and funny and scary. He’s really wonderful. I think it’s going to be a fantastic film.
What kind of snakes do you deal with? A rattlesnake and I play the sort of senior stewardess on the plane and I save a baby and get bit by a rattlesnake and it’s really going to be fun. And we’re here for 2001 Maniacs which just came out on DVD and which is fabulous.
Did you do DVD extras? I’m pretty sure there is some EPK that I did. I think I did some interviews but nothing extra other than outtakes from the film and what we had already shot.
Samuel L. Jackson says he did Snakes on a Plane because the title says it all. Why did you choose it? Sort of the same reason and also I knew that the character was kind of a heroine and she’s kind of a bit of humanity in the middle of all this madness. I have a great death scene so that was really fun for an actress.
Are there more CGI or real snakes? Both. They used a lot of CGI but they did use real snakes. They had a 600 pound Burmese Cobra on set that was extraordinary. It took 10 people to hold her. It was the most beautiful creature you ever saw. I’m not afraid of snakes. I really find them fascinating and what’s interesting is they’re afraid of falling, so when you handle them, that’s kind of what that’s all about. It’s almost like doing Tai Chi. You have to move with them. They’ll make a move and you find yourself moving very gracefully and very carefully. It’s really quite an experience. They have a bad rap like sharks but they’re really amazing creatures.
And here’s the picture (by some guy named Fred Topel) that accompanied the story:
If the snakes are afraid of falling, how can they drop from the ceiling instead of the air masks? And if the snakes really do have a bad rap, are they going to have a King Kong thing going on? Maybe the snakes are missunderstood and just want to love…