Elisha Cuthbert recently shared details of a mountain lion attack she experienced while working on the set of her television series 24. Cuthbert starred as Kim Bauer, daughter of Kiefer Sutherland's Agent Jack Bauer, on the hit show, which centered on Jack and the Counter-Terrorist Unit's efforts to track down and eliminate threats to the United States over the course of a 24-hour period. The series ran for eight seasons, spawning two spin-off series and a television movie.
Cuthbert starred in 24's first three seasons and then returned on a recurring basis for seasons 5, 7, and 8. Other than Sutherland, she is the only actor to appear in both the first and final seasons of the show. In the first two seasons of the series, Kim was used as a distraction for Jack, causing the agent to deviate from his mission to protect his daughter. Coincidentally, Kim's predicament would sometimes be intertwined with Jack's original case.
In a recent interview with The Daily Beast, actor Elisha Cuthbert shared details about the time she was attacked by a mountain lion while on the set of the hit television series 24. Following a discussion about the actor gluing her mouth shut in the horror film House of Wax, Cuthbert was asked if that was the craziest thing she has ever done. In response, the actor explained that she was actually attacked by a real mountain lion in a scene during season 2 of 24. Read how Cuthbert describes the incident below.
"I think on 24 I was trapped in the trunk of a car and shot at. I got attacked by a mountain lion on that show—like, for real—so I think that might be up there. We had a mountain lion that was in the scene and I was running on the outskirts of Los Angeles in the mountains, and the actual mountain lion that was on set ended up jumping me and attacking me, and I ended up getting bit in the hand and going to the hospital. So, I got attacked by a mountain lion. That was probably the craziest."
While lost in the wilderness of Angeles National Forest during 24 season 2, Kim is suddenly stalked by a mountain lion. She attempts to escape but ends up getting snagged by an animal trap. Although the scene is brief and does not amount to much in the way of the story, due to the fact that Kim is rescued moments later by a conniving survivalist, the injury occurred when the cameras were off. While Cuthbert's wound was extensive enough to warrant a trip to the emergency room, it could have been much worse.
Cuthbert's injury is a terrible reminder of the dangers of working with wild animals in film. Scream star Neve Campbell recently recounted a moment early in her career when she was bitten and dragged through the forest by a bear. The Birds star Tippi Hedren was famously bucked by an elephant in the 1981 film Roar, which resulted in a fractured leg. On the same film, the actor, along with cinematographer Jan de Bont and daughter Melanie Griffith, suffered near-fatal lion attacks while on set. Elisha Cuthbert was fortuitous with only receiving a bite wound to the hand from such a dangerous animal. If circumstances were different, the outcome could have been much worse.
Source: The Daily Beast