Kristin Davis stars in a new holiday film, Holiday in the Wild. It’s currently on Netflix and also stars Rob Lowe and his son, John Lowe (above). The story takes place in Zambia, or at least it starts there, I haven’t seen it yet and most promotional information just says “Africa.” It follows a New York woman, recently dumped, on a safari trip only to be derailed by love. But I’m not talking about Kristin and Rob’s characters. I mean, of course they fall for each other, but the important love story is that Kristin’s Kate character falls for – elephants! What’s even cooler than centering a love story around elephants is that Kristin, who is a huge elephant advocate, got Netflix to agree to humane conditions for filming the elephants, the first being: no “broken” elephants were to be used.
Here’s the People Live video. Kristin discussed not using trained elephants at the start, about the :30 mark, but I’ll transcribe below:
And you were very adamant about not using trained elephants. So why was that so important to you?
Because trained elephants have been “broken,” unfortunately, it’s the sad truth. You know, the history of animals and the entertainment industry is not a great one. So, we’re trying to change that and my feeling was that this film was my love letter to all the people I’ve met for the last decade, who are trying to save elephants from extinction, by raising the orphans of the elephants killed for their ivory, poached for their ivory. So I wanted it to be a love letter to them. They devote their lives to it, and there was no way we could do that with trained elephants. It would be the opposite, in fact. So, we really worked with Netflix for years, I mean, I worked for a few years before we got together with Netflix, and I researched the two places we filmed for years, to make sure they were ethically correct – and they were amazing. And then I had to go down there and convince them to let us film. I had to do it because I was the elephant person.
“So I wanted it to be a love letter to them. They devote their lives to it, and there was no way we could do that with trained elephants,” that is truly so beautiful. Kristin has always loved elephants but has been actively fighting for them since 2009. I’m awed by the efforts she went to to get this film made. Kristin credited Netflix for agreeing to her terms. I’ve heard the animal horror stories from circuses (including being permanently traumatized by reading Water for Elephants) and have pledged not to support those. But this puts some light on those elephant and camel rides at some zoos and animal ‘protection’ facilities.
I’m sure the folks that read CB don’t need any more reason to fall for elephants, but if you watch the rest of Kristin’s interview, you’ll be love-struck. She describes how an elephant “reads your soul” when it meets you and said if you were anxious, they might do something silly to put you at ease. I think both those things were on my checklist for a perfect mate when I was single. She also talked about vibrations elephants use to communicate with each other and that humans don’t hear it, but they absorb it, which leads to something akin to a meditative state. Kristin said they call it, eledrunk and as far as I’m concerned, the only drunk I ever want to be again is eledrunk. That sounds amazing.
There are many ways to help elephants. The first is always through information like Kristin shared in this interview. If you have the means to do more, she suggests Game Rangers International, where you can donate, fundraise or even volunteer. Plus, the they have an adoption program. The holidays are upon us, folks. Don’t tell my mother, but she’s getting an adopted elephant for Christmas *dusts off favorite kid trophy*.
Photo credit: Netflix
