STEVE ZAHN SURVIVES THE JUNGLE

Steve Zahn put his survival skills to the test playing a prisoner of war in the unforgiving Laotian jungle in Rescue Dawn.

Where most actors are given a three month boot camp to train their bodies and minds for the task ahead, Zahn was given no such luxury.

“Training? What training? We didn’t have jungle training. We didn’t have boot camp. We just went and did it. That’s what was difficult about it actually. We prepared in our own way losing weight and all that at home, but then when we got there we just knew when we got the script what we had to do and from day one hit the ground running and it was a blast. It was very difficult, very hard and very taxing. On set there were no trailers or even chairs or food. It was anything like that which was very interesting actually to really have nothing. Don’t go far. And I’ll go, ‘OK, I’m not gonna go far. I’ll sit right here in the rice paddy.”

The comedic actor was ill prepared for what lay ahead in the unknown terrain of the jungles in Thailand.

“I think the hardest was just being consistent. There were days of going down the rapids or the days where you’re eating something disgusting or leeches all over you. But those were actually kind of fun days. It was like field trip day. Hey something different. The days that were hard were just over and over again barefoot trying to get through this wall of vines and leaves and trees with spiders. It was over and over again. It was hard going into the prison hut and being chained together all afternoon in like 100 degrees and doing these scenes. That’s what’s hard.”

Steve says if left on his own in the jungle he could survive being the outdoorsy type that he is. Rescue Dawn is currently playing in theaters.rn