During the production of Deadly Blessing (1981), Wes Craven asked Sharon Stone to do a scene with a large tarantula crawling on her arm. When Stone demurred, Craven made the acrophobic actress a deal: He would submit to having the spider crawl on his own arm if she would do the same. Stone reluctantly agreed and Craven allowed the tarantula, uneventfully, to crawl along his arm.
After seeing the spider on Craven's arm, Stone began to have some doubts. "What if it bites me?" she asked. Craven replied that it would be comparable to a wasp or hornet sting. "What about the fangs?" she asked. "Can you cut them off?" Craven explained that the fangs could be removed, but only at considerable expense to the spider, which, unable to eat, would slowly starve to death over several days. Stone's reply? "Clip 'em."
[Stone's high school aptitude tests recommended that she pursue a career as a chemical engineer.]
Sources
"The Directors"
