SCREEN DIVAS WITH BITE
Meet the reptiles supplied by a Gold Coast snake catcher for starring roles in movies and TV series.
AT any one time, Tony Harrison has about 70 reptiles ready to star in films, commercials and TV shows.
A snake catcher by trade, Mr Harrison said his trained reptiles – snakes, lizards, frogs, turtles and crocodiles – took years to get used to handling.
“We work them all the time,” he said, saying it took five years to train a goanna.
“It takes about two years for it not to want to tear your face off. It’s not trained like a dog.”
His reptiles have starred in shows such as Sea Patrol, Animal Planet, Terra Nova, Totally Wild and Nim’s Island in the past eight years. They have also landed cameos in TV advertisements and even a Harry Potter film, where one of his snakes was used as an animatronics model to base movement off.
Mr Harrison said it was his favourite part of working with reptiles and he was keen to do more work in the entertainment industry, with his reptiles usually landing roles once a year.
His reptiles starring in movies happened by chance after he was called by a big producer to see if he had snakes available for an episode of Sea Patrol.
“As a snake catcher I have had a few calls from Movie World (to remove snakes),” he said. “One day, a big producer had hired Taronga Zoo ... but they backed out at the last minute. They called me.” He used more than 20 snakes in the Sea Patrol episode, including two king browns.