Sydney Sweeney was instructed to agitate the spider that bit her on “Anyone but You”

"Jostle it a little bit."

The tale around Sydney Sweeney's Anyone but You spider bite is becoming an ever more tangled web.

Sweeney revealed earlier this month that she was bitten by a trained Huntsman spider while filming the romantic comedy — but it turns out, she was encouraged to move her arm in a way that provoked it.

"The Huntsman spider, when she brings it out on her hand, it's motionless," her costar Glen Powell tells EW. "And they're like, 'It looks fake, so jostle it a little bit.' And I'm like, 'Jostle it?' And they're like, 'Yeah, you have to shake it to make it move.'"

He continues, "So, she's having to do this insert shot where she's shaking this spider and agitating it," he continues. "And I was like, 'Why are we agitating this real Huntsman spider?' So that's how it happened — they coached her into agitating this spider. I'm like, 'Of course that's going to happen.'"

Sweeney told Jimmy Fallon that Powell was the only one to realize her screams were not merely acting. “So, we're filming, and then the thing just starts biting me,” said the actress. “But we're in the middle of the scene, and I'm supposed to be screaming, but then my screaming got a little serious. They thought I was making really serious dramatic choices in a rom-com. This is a disaster to any actor out there. It was terrible. So no one cut. So I'm just standing there with this spider on my arm, biting me, and I'm screaming, and just everyone's watching. Glen was the only one who was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. I think this is a little real’ and we had to cut."

Though filming Anyone but You brought Powell into contact with a stingray and both actors had to wear ankle bracelets while filming in open water to fend off sharks, Sweeney's run-in with the spider was the only wildlife incident to leave a mark. "Sydney still has marks on her wrist from that Huntsman spider," Powell says. "That was a legitimately scary moment for her on that set."

Luckily, the rest of making Anyone but You was mostly fun and games, particularly ones organized by Sweeney. We caught up with the actress and talked about being the movie's "camp counselor," filming love scenes while being airlifted, and what she thinks her character, Bea, and Powell's Ben are up to after the credits roll.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You have to do a lot of athletic stuff in this movie. Did you expect to have to train for a rom-com as if it were a superhero movie or something? 

SYDNEY SWEENEY: Well, we wanted to bring back big rom-coms, and so to be able to do that, we needed to have big set pieces that took you into the Sydney Harbor and getting picked up by helicopters. I was definitely prepared for it because I helped develop it, but it was fun.

Tell me more about filming the scene where your jacket gets stuck in Ben's airplane seat. It seems like it would require precise choreography.

It was one of the most difficult scenes to film. To get my jacket stuck without hitting Glen, it was a dance that we had to work out and choreograph. The best part was his dad and his mom were the extras sleeping in the seats next to us filming it. So while I'm doing this absolutely ridiculous choreographed escape on top of Glen, his dad is lying next to him and then his mom is the one who lifts her blindfold and sees me trying to pull the jacket out of the chair.

This movie really works off its ensemble energy. What were some activities you all did to build that rapport with each other? 

We all hit it off right off the bat, and we knew that we had something very special because a group that loved each other as we all did is very rare. I became camp counselor and organized as many activities as possible. We went to the movies multiple times. We went to the amusement park. We went on a double-decker bus tour around Sydney. We went and rented a house for Easter, and we all made dinner and camped out. We went laser tagging. We literally camped on the beach.

Was there something super unexpected or particularly crazy that happened?

Glen and I are both very competitive, athletic people, and we got beat by Darren [Barnet] at laser tag, and we were completely shocked.

Did you challenge him to a rematch?

No. When I say we did the longest laser tag competition you can imagine, we were all drenched in sweat. We had to change our clothes before we went to the movies. But Darren didn't even break a sweat. It was crazy.

I'm impressed by how romantic you both make being airlifted look. I assume it was actually very uncomfortable. 

It actually wasn't the most uncomfortable thing that I have done. It wasn't as terrible as you think it is because the harness is behind your armpits and under your ribcage. It definitely hurts your ribs after a while, but it wasn't too terrible.

Were you guys really filming that in the air? How long were you up there?

It was half and half. We filmed all of the wide-shot practical, and then when they needed to come in for the closeups to get the dialogue, we did it on a stage. We were getting hung by a crane and they had to do it for sound so that they could get the dialogue clean.

There's a running bit with Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten." Was that in the script or did you guys play around with other songs? How did that happen?

It was all [director] Will [Gluck's] idea. He added the whole concept into the film. At first, I was a little nervous because I get nervous singing in front of people, and I was trying to figure out how we were going to tie this in, but Will was like, "Trust me," and I'm so glad that I did. It speaks volumes to all of us as people and how much fun we had and the love that we all shared. I hope that the audience feels it. When we were filming it, we all had little earwigs in our ears that played the song so that we could sing along to it.

You all sing it in the credits. Did you have to do a shot of it after every scene you filmed?

We would film all the scenes and then once we got the scene, Will was like, "All right, let's do it." Almost every single scene in the movie there is a cut of Glen or I or whoever's in the scene singing the song.

On Euphoria, you play this girl who is villainized for her sexuality and judged, and Bea is the opposite. She really uses hers to her advantage. Was it refreshing getting to own that in that way? 

Both characters use their femininity and their sexuality in different ways, and however it's best for the storyline is what is best for me as well. So I don't really look at it that way.

Do you see any parallels between Cassie and Bea?

They're both girls trying to figure out their lives in this crazy world.

Do you think Ben and Bea are going to live happily ever after?

Every day we're like, "Let's do another one of these movies and see what happens with Ben and Bea," so I guess we'll see.

So what you're saying is that you want to make an Anyone but You sequel?

You never know.

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Related content:

• How Anyone but You navigated shark-infested waters and rom-com tropes

• Sydney Sweeney reveals she was bitten by ‘trained’ spider on movie set: ‘I thought I was gonna die’

• Will Gluck blames himself for poorly received Anyone But You teaser
  

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