Creepy, Crawly, Slimy and Slick
Hollywood is known as a town full of snakes. But it’s the real ones Jules Sylvester has to deal with.
He’s been called an “insect and reptile wrangler†and “the reptile master.†They’re tongue-in-cheek, not-so-technical job descriptions of a guy who works on movie sets with snakes, lizards and bugs.
His business card for his company, Reptile Rentals in Agoura, says he “specializes in handling venomous snakes, spiders, scorpions, crocodiles, alligators, turtles and frogs for every occasion.â€
Like a lot of people in show business, he deals with temperamental, coldblooded talent. The difference is, what he deals with has four legs, flies, crawls on its belly or can administer a painful bite in a moment.
He handled a python in “From Dusk Until Dawn.†In “Wild Wild West†it was spiders. For “Men in Black,†it was cockroaches. He even sometimes handles big animals, such as the time he held out a piece of chicken to get a lion to charge the camera in “Out of Africa.†All told, Sylvester has worked on some 250 films including “Godzilla,†“Arachnophobia,†“Jungle to Jungle†and “Congo.â€
Need a tarantula to crawl across the terror-filled face of an actress? For Sylvester, that’s a relatively easy one. He might blow through a straw to urge it along, or use a hair dryer because tarantulas move away from the hot air being blown on them.
“ ‘Management skills’ is what I call it,†he said.
More difficult are pythons, which because of their weight and size are more unwieldy.
“Directors want snakes to come up out of drain pipes or to come out of a toilet, so I have to be underneath or under the floor. Snakes don’t want to go up, they want to go down,†Sylvester said.
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The 48-year-old low-key native of Kenya developed an expertise handling reptiles when he caught snakes as a child. In 1974, he got a job helping catch snakes and control lions on the short-lived TV version of “Born Free†that was shot on his father’s farm.
In the mid-1970s, Sylvester moved to the United States, where he eventually became an apprentice chimpanzee trainer on the television show “B.J. and the Bear.â€
Sylvester mostly works off camera, save for briefly hosting a UPN show last year called “America’s Greatest Pets†and appearing in a Los Angeles Times movie trailer that once ran in theaters and showed him coaxing a rattlesnake to bite a fake leg and manipulating a butterfly tied to a string.
An AT&T; commercial got him the additional nickname of “fly wrangler.†The commercial starred actor David Arquette, and featured a fly landing on Arquette’s face before a woman slaps him while trying to swat it. For that scene, Sylvester chilled the fly to slow it down, then tied a one-pound fishing line just behind its wings to maneuver the fly until the scene was over.
“Then I cut him loose and sang ‘Born Free.’ Everybody looked at me like I was nuts,†he said.
Sylvester’s casting calls are unusual. To attract flies he needs, he may put out a piece of rotten meat. His stars also don’t rate enough clout to get their own trailers. In fact, they all share a single one near Westlake Village. Inside are about 150 snakes, including 50 rattlers and a 16-foot Burmese python, a jar of leeches, hundreds of spiders and other delights.
Squeamish actors are one problem he has to deal with. To relax stars, Sylvester usually gives the bug or reptile a name such as Fred to make it seem friendly.
Despite the dangers, Sylvester has few scars to show for his work.
“I haven’t been bitten by a nasty snake yet. Been bitten by some nonvenomous ones, but that doesn’t count,†he said.
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Sylvester wouldn’t hurt a fly, and it’s his job to make sure nobody else does either.
He has to protect bugs and reptiles from occupational hazards such as getting swatted or squished so the film credits can earn the American Humane Society sentence at the end of the film that says no critters--even flies--were hurt or killed during the filming of the movie.
“Everybody goes home alive. That goes for the elephants, all the way down to the ants and slugs,†Sylvester said.
Sylvester is undoubtedly one of the more unusual members of the Teamsters Union. He’s part of Local 399, which is mostly for animal trainers. So he’s clearly in a niche business.
“I do snakes and insects. You can put me in the insane category. They’re not sure what to do with me,†he said.
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