Considering its title and premise,
Life is Wild certainly conjures images of nature at its rawest and most untouched. Revolving around a New York city family that's uprooted to the savage land of South Africa, is it any wonder that animals would play a huge part in the new CW series set to take flight tonight?
Based on the British series,
Wild at Heart,
Life is Wild stars
Leah Pipes as a disconcerted teenager, upset with her veterinarian father's (
D.W. Moffett) decision to move their brood halfway across the globe to an untamed, unforgiving territory. To achieve the authenticity of life in the African setting,
Life is Wild is shot on a 1,500-acre farm complete with lions, elephants, hippos, giraffes, impalas, wildebeests and zebras among other beasts. As such, cast and crew constantly have to work up close and personal with various species of exotic four-legged creatures.
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"It's this amazing - you walk from the set to lunch and you pass zebra or wildebeest," Michael Rauch, executive producer on the show enthused. "It's just an incredible experience. And we basically put the animal in the script that we want; find out if that animal would work in a scene. And if it's scheduled to be the giraffe in the yard at 4 o'clock on Thursday, at about 3:55 the giraffe walks up, waits for the scene to be ready. We call action. The giraffe walks in the background, and we do it again. It's really amazing."
For the actors, scenes with the wildlife offer exciting surprises as they never know when the animals might be feeling friendly or grumpy.
"The cheetah is particularly friendly," Moffett pointed out. "That was the first animal I met in the animal orientation. And he purrs. And he's just like a big cat. A lot more relaxed than [the lion cub] can be sometimes."
The actor certainly knows firsthand just how rambunctious the cub gets, considering a rather sticky incident between it and co-star
Calvin Goldspink.
"I had my shorts pulled down by this tiger thing over there (meaning the lion cub) whilst we were sort of having orientation," Goldspink revealed. "I was wearing kind of, like, loose Nike shorts, and it clawed me and pulled my pants down. It's not life-threatening, though, so it's OK," he added jokingly.
And although their animal co-stars are trained and always managed by professional wranglers, Moffett knows the need to still exercise caution and give the creatures the respect they deserve.
"I went by a zebra the other day and he kicked another zebra so hard the thing fell over,” the actor described. “And I'm just like - OK, staying away from the zebras."
Executive producer Rauch assures that they enforce the necessary safeguards to protect both
Life is Wild's human and animal actors.
"Whenever we shoot with animals, the animal wranglers are right there and they are on top of it,” Rauch stressed. "We protect the actors from the animals and the animals from the work."
-Rosario Santiago, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Deseret Morning News
(Image Courtesy of The CW)