225BatonRouge.com

The 269-pound Burmese python was the one that took 36-year-old Flex Alexander’s breath away. Seeing the giant reptile on set was the first time the New York-born actor realized what he’d gotten himself into.

“It puts two of people’s greatest fears together—flying and snakes,” he said on a recent trip to Baton Rouge to promote Louisiana Covering Kids & Families Coalition with his wife, R & B singer Shanice Wilson. “You’re stuck on a plane, can’t go anywhere, and you have to deal with the situation.”

Alexander initially passed on the project. Longtime friend Samuel L. Jackson had not yet committed, and the blunt title was off-putting. But once aboard as germ-phobic rapper Three Gs, Alexander had a blast writhing and yelling on the cabin-pressure set with Jackson and SNL star Keenan Thompson and spending downtime dueling on Vancouver’s vast golf courses.

“Sam and I went back and forth,” Alexander says of the friendly rivalry. “Honestly, when we left, he was one up on me.”

Alexander had a recurring role in the TV series Girlfriends and starred in the cult snowboarding comedy Out Cold, but Snakes is his first feature film to get significant buzz.

“I’m excited about the steps my career has taken and to work with the caliber of people I have so far,” he says. “Snakes on a Plane is what it is, and I want to continue mixing it up.”

Alexander will next be seen co-starring with Danny Glover in the boxing drama Poor Boy’s Game. snakesonaplane.com.