5 Celebs Who’ve Had Dangerous Animal Encounters

Running in to a wild animal, these 5 celebrities have come pretty close to danger but thankfully lived to tell their own personal scary tales. Some were filming with a wild animal, while others chose to put themselves in that danger by getting up close with a dangerous wild creature for themselves. Others accidentally happened across some dangerous wildlife and had to act quickly to make sure they were safe. Here are their own stories about their own frightening and very dangerous animal encounters.

Angelina Jolie

Angelina posed with a leopard for a photo shoot and commented on the experience: “I was very honoured when (the handlers) said she was so comfortable sitting at my feet. They said I have cat karma. It was actually refreshing, much easier than trying to put me in a dress and make me stand on a podium. I’d rather be with a leopard. Everybody was told not to be at crouching level next to them and not to surprise them. Maybe it’s being a woman, because as soon as you were around them, you almost wanted to start talking baby talk – it looks like it’s a little baby. I have so much respect for wild animals.”

Naomi Watts

Naomi was in Thailand with her family during filming for ‘The Impossible’ when she encountered a snake:  “We were staying in this little kind of villa and before you would go in, you would take off your shoes and lay them in a basket. I came out (one day) and there was a snake coiled up in my ballet slipper and I saw it and it had those bright colours that you know that are bad, poisonous… and I saw one of the housekeepers close by… and she came up and looked at it and screamed, ‘Go inside, lock the door…’ Frogs are also poisonous over there… and there was one in Liev’s shoe and he was going out running and you can’t really see in a sneaker can you…? You just put it on… For probably the most masculine man… I’ve never heard such a girly sound.”

Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo was almost eaten by a shark: ”I had a huge fear of sharks, and when I did ‘Blood Diamond’ in 2006 I actually got stuck in a cage with a great white, which was awesome. It was a gigantic great white … They actually said in 30 years this has never happened, but the tuna kind of got stuck on the top of the cage and the great white leapt out and tried to bite it and went into the cage with me. Half of its body was in and out, and I flattened down at the bottom, and it was this far away, and it chomped a few times but I survived it.”

Adam Sandler

Adam went on safari in Africa and had a close encounter with a cheetah: ”This is a true story. I went there, and they let me in with a cheetah…and said I could feed the cheetah water with my hands. So I did it, and it went a little bit wrong. They said you’re not supposed to bend down low with the water. I was very nervous…it was fast. When he jumped on me, all I was going to do was let him eat me. There was not one part of me that was going to fight back. I was like ‘alright, this is how I’m dying.’ ”

Brooke Shields

Brooke encountered a leopard who bit her: “My worst animal encounter was on a movie in South Africa, ‘Running Wild’, where I played a woman who raised baby leopards. At one point, I turned my back on a lioness and she tackled me to the ground. Actually, she was totally tame but she bit my butt. I’m sure for her it was like, ‘Yum, prime beef.’ That was pretty traumatic. I didn’t get a scar, and as for the lioness – she doesn’t write, she doesn’t call; nothing. It was a bite and run.”

Photos: PRPhotos