Deep Water's snail wrangler has nothing but good things to say about Ben Affleck

If you watched Adrian Lynne’s new erotic thriller, Deep Water, when it made its debut on Hulu this weekend, you probably came away with one burning question about its complicated interplay of sex, violence, and infidelity in the waning days of a once passionate marriage: Was Ben Affleck nice to the snails?

He was!

That’s per a genuinely fascinating interview Entertainment Weekly ran with Deep Water’s official snail wrangler, Max Anton, this weekend. (If you haven’t seen the movie: Affleck’s character, Vic, keeps snails. He has a lot of snails.) You will probably not be completely shocked to learn that a person with that particular job title both knows a lot, and really likes, snails, and is thus very happy to provide lots of information about their care and handling, and how that care and handling can be imparted to one of the biggest movie stars on the planet.

Who was, again, just a treat, snail-wise, we guess. Here’s Anton, describing Affleck’s treatment of the animals:

Ben was fantastic to work with. He’s a great listener. And you can tell that when he does his scenes, he will take instructions. He understands them, and usually, he can nail it the first time. He was exceptionally good with my animals. We didn’t lose a single one.

Affleck’s co-star Ana De Armas was also “great” with the gastropods, although definitely not as jazzed about the whole experience:

She did not have to fake her look of revulsion. I don’t know if she hated the snails, but she did not want to touch them. And I was trying to put her at ease. I said, “You know in Knives Out, you were working with Captain America. He’s a lot scarier than these animals.” She said, “I’m not scared of it, I just think they’re gross.”

Anton also provides as much information as you were probably hoping to pick up about snail reproduction today—the phrase “love dart” features prominently, as does his devout prayer to God that his snails would deploy such sexual weaponry on camera. “And so before each scene, I’d step off for a minute and I’d pray about it. And I’d say, ‘Look, Lord, these are your animals.’ I just kind of gave it up to Him and they performed better than I could have possibly predicted.” Thanks, God, for the snail fucking!

And, hey, here’s a line that’s going to haunt us for days; “Those are the Rosy Wolfsnails, and they’re fantastic creatures. Anytime I get two or three together and put them in the same jar, first they eat every smaller snail in there, and then they mate.”

“They do these two things pretty reliably.”