The Scrapped Indiana Jones Scene That Had Kate Capshaw In A Full Blown Panic Attack
Snakes can be really cool, in a controlled environment. According to a pair of interviews in ‘The Making of the Temple of Doom,’ Capshaw suffers from a severe case of ophidiophobia. So, when it came time to shoot a scene where her showgirl character Willie finds a snake coiling around her, she balked. Producer Frank Marshall, eager to get the shot off with a minimum of fuss, attempted to assuage Capshaw’s fears by introducing her to the reptile with whom she’d be sharing a very brief scene. It didn’t go well.
“I went over and looked at it, and looking at it, I get tears in my eyes and I’m having a hard time breathing and I’m looking… I can almost work myself up right now. And I went over and I put my hand on the snake, and I lost it.” “She was shaking, and she was all white, and you could see right through her makeup. She had lost all of her color. And I said, ‘I’m not gonna put you through this. Let’s cut it out.’ And I cut the whole scene out of the movie. I think she probably years and years later, married me for that!”
Photo Credit REUTERS/Eric Gaillard
