From teasing True Detective fans about a possible third season return by Rust Cohle to donning his darkest colors for The Dark Tower‘s “Man in Black,” Matthew McConaughey sure does enjoy the fire of the spotlight. Maybe that’s why the star of the new film Gold decided to balance out the 47 pounds he gained for the role with a friendly oh-my-God-he’s-squatting-in-a-pit-with-cobras story. “Maybe you should explain it a little bit before I show it,” said talk show host Jimmy Kimmel by way of explanation. “Because it’s crazy.”
Turns out McConaughey was in need of a bit of excitement between bouts of filming Gold in Thailand. So he “[took] midnight walks through the jungle” and saw “the many different wild animals they had.” That, and a carpeted pit of cobras into which brave tourists could hop — without shoes, no less — and test their resolve against the venomous serpents. Of course there were expert handlers on site to make sure nothing when wrong, but that didn’t matter as McConaughey was “looking for a buzz” and thought “it seemed like a great idea at the time.”
He claimed he “felt pretty secure when I was in there,” but “didn’t feel as secure was once I got out” after noticing several prominent scars on the handlers’ hands and arms. When McConaughey asked them about it, they said the scars were from snake bites. What’s more, another worker at the snake pit gave the actor some sound, snake-handling advice once he’d left the ring and its three cobras: “If you get bit, breath slowly. The blood moves slower.”
