麻豆社

Some of the most memorable moments during the filming of 麻豆社 Dynasties were when the lions came really close. We would always park up at a respectful distance from the lions so we didn’t disturb them or influence their behaviour, but sometimes they would walk up to and past our cars, usually just because we were on the shortest route to where they wanted to go. They also liked to try to use the car for shade, which we had to discourage.

The lions would amble over and start to settle down in our shadow, and we’d have to start the car up and gently move away. They’d then give you a very disgruntled look as you took away their shade. On one of these occasions, one lioness very nearly put her head through into the open side of the filming car. She was a very inquisitive lioness, not aggressive – she just seemed to be really interested in what we were doing, but again we had to make sure she didn’t make a habit of it so the filming car had to move and make sure she didn’t get quite that close again!

On another occasion, about nine months in, one of the adolescent males walked round the back of the land rover I was sitting in, and just appeared right beside me – if I’d wanted to I could have reached out and stroked his mane as he walked past. I was on the radio at the time, which had quite limited range so I was sitting right at the edge of the seat and hadn’t seen him coming. I jumped out of my skin when he suddenly emerged on the open side of the car – it’s easy to forget how big they are until you are up that close.

This was particularly true for this young male (his name was Tatu, he was Charm’s eldest son). When we started the filming he was a gangly youth, but by this point he had really grown – both up and out – and was huge. I’ve never jumped more in my life. The moments when they came close were really special and just reminded you how big and powerful the lions are.