So when the bodyguard gets bit in the ass, what happens in the script is that right away they need to suck out the poison, but no one will do it. So he [Ken] says right away “I'll do it”. So it's things like that made people think he's gay. The same thing when one of the snakes dies and they're trying to figure out what color the snake is and Ken pops up and says “That's teal.”

AE: A couple of times you've said he was written as an effeminate flight attendant, but you knew he wasn't gay. At what point and who told you that he wasn't gay?
BJ: It was in the script, so I knew right away. That's the big ending to the movie. They land the plane and Ken's girlfriend goes “ Kenny, baby!” And we run toward each other and I pick her up twirling around. Everybody is standing around watching and they're like “Shut up!”

When we were shooting, some of the producers were a little worried Ken's ending was too big, that it was taking away from Sam's ending.

AE: Since the director or the writer never talked to you about the idea the flight attendant was going to be really effeminate, but revealed as straight at the end, you never knew what their thinking was, what they were going for, or why they did it? It seems strange because to a certain extent the studio has been acting as if it's a big, important deal.
BJ: No. Like I said, I had those asides [for] a few short scenes and then the end he was with his girlfriend. I got the gist was that they wanted people to automatically assume since he's a male fight attendant that he must be gay. They wanted this big reveal at the end where it was like “No, he's not”. Which is cool in and of itself. And all David [the director] said to me was “Don't play him gay. He's not gay. Remember that”.

AE: He told you not to play him gay? But the script said effeminate?
BJ: Yeah. The first time you see Ken, he is doing the flight demo and, of course, everyone else is doing it proper, but he's doing it differently, wailing the seatbelt around in the air. He's kind of a crazy person in that sense, high energy, having fun. But he gets himself in these situations. Like there is a kickboxer on the plane and he's really well-built. When he takes off his jacket, Ken turns around, sees him, and says “Wow!” But he's saying wow not because he's attracted to him, but because the guy looks cool. So people's perceptions of what he is doing are actually mixed up from what he is really doing.

AE: There is a scene in the book where the snakes are breaking through the barrier and you've got a pot of hot coffee and you throw it on them saying, “Take that, you bitches!” Is that in the movie?
BJ: That was in the script, and we went to shoot that. The day we went to shoot it, they had it all ready, and I had the coffee pot in hand and I looked at David and I said, “Are we really—are really doing this?” He said, “What do you mean? You don't want to do it?” I said, “No, I don't.”

I felt like it was too much, I thought. It felt like it was playing too much into a stereotype and I didn't think it was necessary.

AE: Were there any scenes you particularly liked?
BJ: My favorite moment is when David Koechner [the pilot] comes on the plane speakers [to talk] and they just wanted shots of our reaction to him because he says something about any of our gorgeous flight attendants will be happy to help you. It wasn't scripted or anything and the second unit director said to just react however we wanted.

So I thought how would Ken react? Well, Ken's gorgeous. So he has this big smile on his face. All he's doing is putting Chapstick on his lips [smacking lips] with this big grin on his face all happy as can be.

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