The WFE Onscreen Chemistry: Man, Woman & Lovable Mammal

Punch trunk love

The on-screen chemistry in ‘Water for Elephants’ was wild and fierce — between lady, man and giant, lovable mammal

By SARA STEWART

There’s a ton of buzz about Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson’s chemistry in their new film, “Water for Elephants,” out Friday.

But if you’re under the impression this is “The Notebook” under the Big Top, think again: For both actors, the sizzle is between them and Tai the elephant.

“You know how there are just some people that people are attracted to? She’s like that with people and other elephants,” says Kari Johnson, co-trainer of Tai, the pachyderm who plays the movie’s eponymous star. And she had some big shoes to fill, even for an elephant: Rosie, the character in Sara Gruen’s Depression-era novel upon which the movie is based, is a scene-stealer with a nose for mischief who likes to swipe hats, drain lemonade tanks and indulge in the occasional bucket of gin and ginger ale.

In Pattinson’s first scene with the elephant in the film, she gropes and nuzzles the “Twilight” star with her trunk. “Is this the way elephants flirt?” Pattinson asks Tai, as Witherspoon giggles in the background.

Pattinson’s character, Jacob Jankowski, becomes a circus vet after his parents’ death leaves him penniless. As the protector of the scrappy Benzini Bros. menagerie of performing animals, many of his scenes take place with the elephant rather than the rest of the cast.

And for an actor who’s been dogged nonstop by hordes of screaming girls and women since he got famous in 2008, Pattinson seems to have found it a tremendous relief to spend three months in the company of this giant, silent, nonhuman co-star.