The erotic thriller’s official snail wrangler reveals secrets from the set.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was your actual job on the movie?
MAX ANTON:I provided the snails.
One of Ben Affleck’s slick friends in Deep Water.20th Century Fox
I went out and I collected them, and I brought them to set.
Basically taking care of the animals, making sure that the actors were comfortable with them.
I was also tasked with building out the snail terrariums on set.
Ana de Armas didn’t have to fake it.20th Century Fox
The snail room that Vic has is that ideal way to keep snails or was that cinematic liberty?
I’d say it’s fairly accurate.
I actually don’t keep live snails at home very much.
I have a few, but not very many.
Vic’s setup is the prettiest way it should look with these big glass tanks.
Again, I don’t keep them because I don’t have good luck keeping these animals.
They’re very chemically sensitive.
What sort of snail-handling guidance did you give Ben Affleck?
I showed him how to pick up the snails.
There are certain ways you’ve got the option to pick them up without damaging them.
We didn’t want that.
Does a snail die if that happens?
For the most part, if a snail shell cracks it’ll repair itself.
I wanted to be very, very careful with that.
I showed Ben how to handle the snails.
I would put them directly on his hand.
There is one scene where Melinda inadvertently steps on a snail.
I assume that wasn’t real, but what went into the making of that scene?
She stepped on an empty shell.
The goal was to have it kind of bubble up a little bit after the shoe came up.
So we tried vinegar and baking soda and created our own slime.
It was kind of a last-minute thing.
That was just a creative workaround and no snails were harmed.
The author ofDeep Water,Patricia Highsmith, had a thing for snails.
She was known for carrying around a handbag with a head of lettuce and a hundred snails in it.
She would take it to parties and said because she needed some real company.
What do you think it is about snails?
There’s a simplicity to snails that I think appeals to people.
It’s not that they’re not complex in their biology, because they can be.
But they’re just a straightforward animal.
There’s no guile about them.
Yes, it is essential to purge snails before eating them.
Vic also tells Don (Tracy Letts) not to smoke because it’ll kill the snails.
Tobacco is definitely poisonous to snails.
It has been proven deadly to pond snails, which are pulmonates just like land snails.
Tobacco smoke would probably kill land snails the same way tobacco powder kills pond snails.
I’d say that if you blew tobacco smoke at a snail long enough, it would keel over.
When the snails are sort of twisting on Ben’s hand, are they mating?
Those are the Rosy Wolfsnails, and they’re fantastic creatures.
They do these two things pretty reliably.
So when [the production asked], “Can you make them mate?”
I said, “We’ll see what happens.”
These animals, you could’t train them.
They don’t really have brains as we know them.
And so before each scene, I’d step off for a minute and I’d pray about it.
And I’d say, “Look, Lord, these are your animals.”
I just kind of gave it up to Him and they performed better than I could have possibly predicted.
Snails are hermaphrodites, right?
One of them will stick the other with the love dart and that injects an enzyme.
And that enzyme triggers the activation of the female reproductive system.
So that’s not the act of fertilization.
And sometimes they can go at it for hours, and hours and hours.
How did the actors feel about the snails?
Ben was fantastic to work with.
He’s a great listener.
He understands them, and usually, he can nail it the first time.
He was exceptionally good with my animals.
We didn’t lose a single one.
She did not have to fake her look of revulsion.
I don’t know if she hated the snails, but she did not want to touch them.
And I was trying to put her at ease.
I said, “You know inKnives Out, you were working with Captain America.
He’s a lot scarier than these animals.”
She said, “I’m not scared of it, I just think they’re gross.”
Despite being not okay with the snails, she did a great job too.
And the director was just a delight to work with.
I think we all did the best we could.
