Scott Wolter Answers: Swamp Mammoth

Since last week's episode and post were pretty intense, I'd like to keep it a bit lighter this week. I have to first say that both Dr's Rachel Wentz and Dennis Stanford were a joy to spend time with. They were intelligent, forthcoming, fun and I learned a lot from them. Candida was a class act too, but I had an absolute blast with James Kennedy. We hit it off immediately and it made the whole experience with him a ton of fun. The two highlights of our two days with James were impromptu moments; one while he and I were searching for fossils without the camera's rolling (Yes, we recreated the fossil tooth discovery, but it was so soon after we were both still jazzed up), and one with the camera's rolling.

While the crew was eating lunch and knowing how limited our time was, James and I used that time to go fossil hunting. We paddled up to this tiny beach on the island and as we beached our kayak's, we both saw the tooth about ten feet away. Instantly, we looked at each other and with sly smiles forming we both knew what the other was thinking. First one to grab it, get's it. We then scrambled out of the kayak's crawling through the water and sand, pushing and wrestling trying to get the advantage while laughing at the same time. Having gained an ever so slight lead, I reached to grab the tooth and was inches above it when to my horror, James knifed his hand under mine and grabbed it. "Shit", I thought, and just I would have done, he taunted me with the prize for a good ten minutes. He got there first and I said, "Good on you man." Just as we were about to leave, James tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Here, it's yours" and gave me the tooth. It now sits proudly on a shelf in my display case as a wonderful memento of that trip and of James.

The other moment happened the next day while filming at James's home. I was asking him questions in front of his garage at a point in the show coming out of a commercial. This is when I had to do a reset that so many find annoying. I'm not wild about the recaps either, but it's necessary to get people just joining the show, or those who weren't paying full attention before the commercial, to get caught up. I had all these bullets points of info crammed into my head ready to deliver and with camera's rolling I said, "OK, I'm ready." Josh said, "Action" and away I went. I looked at James and meaning to say, "Let me give you a rundown", I instead said, "Let me give you a rubdown." Needless to say the take was shot as everyone burst out laughing. Some were literally in tears and the only I could think of was how could I be so dumb…