Steve Irwin: Croc 'n' Roll!

By: MICHAEL TUNISON
Date: Tuesday, July 16, 2002

It's 3:45 a.m. where Steve Irwin is atop the mountainous Great Dividing Range that runs along Australia's eastern coast - but the self-styled environmental crusader, TV documentary host and now movie star is already up and running around with his usual irrepressible energy. He's getting ready to film a TV doc segment on saving an endangered species of rock wallaby in the area, but first he's taking a few minutes for a satellite phone call from CINESCAPE.

"My world is wildlife," Irwin says. "That's what I eat, sleep and live for. I'd actually die protecting wildlife. My parents raised me to be a wildlife warrior, and that's what I am."

The interview is part of Irwin's characteristically vigorous efforts to promote his big-screen debut, CROCODILE HUNTER: COLLISION COURSE, which melds his trademark antics with reptiles, spiders and other wild critters into a fictional storyline about a pair of CIA agents searching for a downed spy satellite in the Australian bush. Never shy about tooting his own horn, Irwin enthuses about the MGM release with his usual gusto.



"The MGM people are using words like 'history in the making,'" he says. "In 77 years of MGM history nothing's been done like this, so it's very exciting."


As happy as he is with the final product, however, Irwin has to laugh at how different shooting a feature film can be from the fast-and-loose documentary style he's used to from his TV work.

"With the documentaries, mate, we're just living out there, like I am right now, out in the scrub, with the swag my wife and my daughter are curled up right now," he says. "But with the film aw, mate, they got trailers and Winnebagos and all this flash stuff! And the food! Crikey, it's hard not getting fat on the shoot, mate, because they've got all this nice food. As much food as you can jam in your beak!"

Not that Irwin had to change his act too much for the film, which was directed and co-written by his longtime TV documentary collaborator John Stainton. While Stainton developed a script for the plot-driven sequences featuring the supporting characters, most of the scenes with Irwin and his wife Terri were shot on the fly in the manner of their documentaries.

"There's the genius of John Stainton," Steve Irwin says. "I don't have to act, I didn't have to change. I just go through the movie like I've done all my life. I had no script. Of course, John had to get a script up and running [for the supporting characters], but I have never, ever seen a script. John would just say to me on set, 'Look, you're taking us from here to there, just do it in your standard Steve-O style. The croc's doing this, you're doing this, the poachers are doing this, and there you go.'"

As much as Stainton tailored the film to the Crocodile Hunter's inimitable style, however, the project did require the Irwins to shoot a certain number of standard movie scenes to link the various wildlife sequences together "in-between stuff, driving trucks and running and jumping," as Irwin puts it. His least favorite aspect of this part of the production was having to repeat certain lines as Stainton changed camera setups (something that sounds suspiciously like acting to us!).



"It feels a lot different, because when I'm doing documentary filming for television, it's dead easy," Irwin says. "You just run around and the cameras follow me around and it's a one-take wonder what you see is what you get. Now, with the movie, even if I get it down perfect I say my lines or whatever I want to say I have to say it again."

The experience gave Irwin new respect for the work of full-time movie stars.

"I'm sincerely glad that I'm not Bruce Willis or Harrison Ford or Arnold Schwarzenegger, because, by crikey, their job is tough," he says. "It's really tough to do things over 10 times exactly the same."

Of course, luxuries such as multiple takes aren't always an option when your co-stars are biting, clawing wild animals.

"When you're working with crocs, you can't do 10 takes," Irwin points out. "You can't say, 'OK, that was good let's do it again.' It's one take, mate. It's like, whatever you get, that's what you're getting, and you can't be worried about light or anything like that. You've just got to shoot it."

Not surprisingly, Irwin is at his most animated discussing the various wild creatures featured in the film, including a couple of fearsome-looking Australian serpents.

"There's a King Brown Snake, and a Fierce Snake [the Fierce Snake is] actually the most venomous snake in the world," he says. "They're all real animals, and by crikey, I love 'em. Just love 'em."

Irwin may feel nothing but affection for his wild co-stars, but they don't necessarily share his sentiments. And there's nothing fake, he reminds us, about the danger he and Terri face in scenes such as one in which they wrestle an enormous saltwater croc into their boat.



"They're trying to kill us," Irwin says. "There's no ifs, buts, mights or maybes. The fear on Terri's face, that sweat, is real. There's a 12-foot croc trying to get in our boat and tear us apart, which is very awesome, very scary and very real."

While COLLISION COURSE clearly plays with reality at certain points to tell its fictional story, Irwin confirms that all of the animals he handles in the film are the real thing.

"I will never and have never worked with animatronics," he says. "I just don't believe in it. I was born with a gift, and my dad nurtured my instincts with wildlife. I can do stuff with animals that people never even thought was achievable. I absolutely live for and love my wildlife, and I apply that to my work, whether I'm rescuing crocs or venomous snakes or diving with sharks."

The film's message for viewers is that "no matter where it is or what country you live in, there's wildlife around the world that needs our help," Irwin says. "[And] every single person in the world can contribute to the conservation of wildlife, by simply not purchasing wildlife products."

Now that Irwin has tried his hand at movie stardom, is he entertaining offers to appear in other roles apart from the Crocodile Hunter franchise?

"No, mate - I'm not an actor," he replies. "I'm a wildlife warrior and I'll just do wildlife warrior films. That's what I am and what I do. I certainly have no vision or aspirations to be an actor. I don't think I could do it. In actual fact, I don't want to do it."

Working with wildlife is certainly what Irwin knows best, though he reports that even he was at a loss when it came to handling one particularly dangerous variety of predator during the making of COLLISION COURSE.

"I'm still having trouble with the sharks that are coming out of Hollywood," he cracks. "They are a handful and I don't know how to deal with them. Mind you, they don't know how to deal with me either they've got a big problem there as well."

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