AceShowbiz - Salma Hayek has defended her on-camera panic during a recent junket interview - explaining she has a morbid fear of snakes. The actress and co-stars Maria Bello and Maya Rudolph were sitting lakeside for the Extra TV interview to promote new movie "Grown Ups" when a snake slithered onto the set and started hissing.

Hayek and Bello leaped into Rudolph's lap and the Mexican actress was so shaken by the incident she refused to continue the chat. She says, "The footage is on YouTube.com now... I have a phobia for snakes, but the worst part was... everybody ran and they left us alone."

"It was heading straight to us, hissing. I knew we were in trouble. A long time goes by... it seemed like a year, and no one comes to our rescue - there were bodyguards, there were cameramen... greased electricians. No one (came). Finally Maya's hairdresser... built up the courage to take his brush bag and started shoo-ing the snake back into the woods. That was our hero."

The actress admits that wasn't the only snake encounter she had connected to new film "Grown Ups" - one also appeared in a scene. She recalls, "Kevin James is also scared of snakes and he was like my twin when we saw it."