‘Mowgli’ cast shares their jungle experience

Andy Serkis, director and star "Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle," says he's well-suited to life in the wild. "I'm not a bad sort of boy scout," he said at a special London screening recently for his new adaption of Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book." "I do a lot of mountaineering and climbing and backpacking and all the rest of it so I can probably look after myself." Serkis recalled an excurision he and the film's composer Nitin Sawhney made into the jungle. "He hated it actually, he absolutely hated it, and we, the light went and it was pitch black and he really freaked out. And I was like, 'Yeah, we're alright, we'll be fine.' And he's like, 'Get me home. Get me home'"

"Mowgli" explores the darker side of Kipling's tales and stars Serkis as Baloo the bear. The all-star cast also features Benedict Cumberbatch as Shere Khan the tiger, Christian Bale as Bagheera the panther and Cate Blanchett as Kaa the python. Young star Rohan Chand stars as the titular boy cub Mowgli.

Unlike Serkis, Chand said he's not well-suited to jungle life.

"No, definitely not because I didn't grow up with wolves."

British actors Eddie Marsan and Naomie Harris, who play Mowgli's lupine parents, agreed.

"Oh my gosh, I think I'd need to bring someone with me who'd know how to survive because I'd be absolutely useless and I'd be terrified of all the spiders," laughed Harris. "Jungle living is not for me."

And Marsan?

"I'd just climb a tree and stay up there. And eat prunes or something."

"Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle" premieres on Netflix Friday 7 December.