Netflix gives SA elephants starring roles

● Sex and the City star Kristin Davis spent time cosying up to elephants at a five-star safari lodge in Limpopo before filming began of the Netflix festive season romcom Holiday in the Wild.

The movie, set in Zambia, also stars Rob Lowe. It was shot at the Jabulani Safari Lodge and other locations in SA and Zambia.

Davis plays Kate, a jilted wife who travels to Zambia where she meets an elephant conservationist, played by Lowe.

Jabulani’s Sue Howells said the movie’s scouting teams sought locations that “embraced ethical standards in elephant conservation”.

“Kristin Davis stayed with us prior to the official film shoot for us to also monitor the reaction with the elephants to her and to ensure that we were comfortable with the scenes they would need, and that it would be a comfortable process for the herd.”

Two elephants in the herd feature prominently in a few scenes.

“It was not invasive at all for the elephants, as we had strict guidelines in place, which the film crew agreed to.”

Davis, a well-known elephant conservationist, told a US publication that the movie was her “dream gig for sure”.

“It’s basically my love letter to all of the people who spend their lives trying to save elephants and raise them and re-release them into the wild,” Davis said in an interview with the publication.

“I spent two weeks with them to get to know the elephants so that they could hear my voice, smell me, so that I wouldn’t be a foreign element in their world when we came to film.”

Holiday in the Wild is being screened globally on Netflix.