Linda Kozlowski’s star-making turn in 1986’s Crocodile Dundee gave us one of cinema’s wildest moments: the crocodile attack at the billabong. Sue Charlton, played by Kozlowski, strips to a black thong bodysuit to fetch water, only to be yanked toward the jaws of a croc—saved just in time by Paul Hogan’s Mick Dundee. Fans assumed it was all Hollywood fakery, a stunt with a prop beast. But the reality behind the scene was far wilder than anyone suspected.
The croc itself? An animatronic marvel—mechanical, not alive. Crafted for the film, it was so convincing that local hunters in Australia’s Kakadu National Park, where they shot, mistook it for the real deal. That’s where the twist kicks in: the set wasn’t some safe studio. Kakadu’s a legit crocodile haven, and Kozlowski was right in it. She told People her hut sat “on the edge of a billabong,” surrounded by huge, cocky crocs that roamed freely—protected and fearless. “Late at night, going to the mess hall, we’d be very careful,” she said. Hogan added that three or four croc-related deaths had hit the area that year alone.
So, while the attack was staged, the danger wasn’t. Those screams as the fake croc lunged? Kozlowski’s nerves were likely raw from knowing real ones lurked nearby. No one suspected that her poised performance masked a genuine brush with the wild—a Juilliard grad facing nature’s teeth, not just a script. It’s a layer of grit that made the scene iconic, sparking a thong craze and cementing her legacy. Ever wonder what else in Dundee blurred the line? This was no act—it was survival with a smile.