The 33-year-old actor, who stars as Dieter Dengler in new movie 'Rescue Dawn', agreed to the movie after being challenged to eat several live animals by the film's director Werner Herzog.
Christian said: "Werner said to me, 'How do you feel about swimming through a snake-infested river?' so I said, 'How do you feel about it Werner?' He said, 'I will do this if you will.' Then he asked, 'How you feel about eating a live snake?'
"It was a curious conversation, with more and more crazy questions. I thought, 'This sounds like and interesting endeavor.'"
In one scene, Christian - who lost 55lbs for the role - also had to eat live maggots, after the director insisted he wanted the scene to look real.