This article contains spoilers for The Friend. If you don’t want them, come back after you’ve seen the movie.
In The Friend, Walter (Bill Murray) dies by suicide, leaving his Great Dane, Apollo (Bing), in the care of his friend Iris (Naomi Watts). The movie revolves around the relationship between Iris and Apollo as they both grieve, and the performances feel natural. But making them look that way took a lot of work. Here’s how veteran animal trainer Bill Berloni, along with filmmakers David Siegel and Scott McGehee, did it.
The Friend opens in select theatres on March 28, and nationwide on April 4.
Searching for Bing
First, they had to find the dog. The Friend—which was adapted from a novel by Sigrid Nunez—involves a Great Dane with a particular appearance, and who behaves in very specific ways.
To cast the part, Berloni and the filmmakers needed an intact harlequin Great Dane who would be comfortable on a film set, and who would follow directions. This dog was not easy to find.
“We started here in Central Connecticut and through New England,” says Berloni. When they didn’t see dogs with the ideal combination of appearance and temperament, they expanded their search to Florida and California. Still, no dog seemed quite right for the role.
After months of searching, Berloni and the filmmakers found their star living in Iowa with Bev Klingensmith.
“Bing was friendly to us,” Berloni remembers of their first meeting. “Outgoing, like a normal dog. And then [Bev] started putting him through the paces. As someone who’s had dogs that have connected to my soul, I saw that bond [between Bing and Bev]. And he was relaxed and happy to work.”
Then, Berloni took the treat bag and found that Bing would also listen to him. “I was blown away by this dog’s behavior and the way he worked,” he says.
In the press notes for the movie, Siegel, one of the directors, said: “After Bill [Berloni] spent about half an hour with the dog, he said to us, ‘If you don’t hire this dog, I’m going to represent it.’”
Building the bond between Watts and Bing
To make Iris’s relationship with Apollo look real, Berloni brought Bing to Watts’s home for a series of training sessions that gave them a chance to get to know each other. Berloni, whose career started on Broadway—he trained the original Sandy in Annie—knows the value of rehearsal, because “in theatre there are no second takes.”
“He would teach me a few tricks, [and] we went on little walks around the block,” Watts said in the press notes for the film. “The approach made sense,” she continued, “because you do need time to build a massive amount of trust.”
Eventually, Berloni even helped Watts’s own tiny dog, Izzy—who had been afraid of bigger pups—become friends with Bing. When first presented with the challenge, Berloni says he thought: “If I can make this work, Naomi will know I’m a good trainer.” Through a patient application of desensitization and counterconditioning—letting Izzy set the pace and never forcing him to be closer to Bing than he wanted—they got it done. “By the third week,” Berloni says, “the doorbell would ring, Izzy would come running down, we’d tell Bing to lay down, and she would jump all around him.”
As a result of Bing’s rehearsals with Watts, Berloni says, “when we got to filming, he would look at me and he’d smile; he’d look at his owner and smile; and he’d look at Naomi. That bond was built in.”
Depicting Apollo’s emotions—without forcing Bing to feel them
“I keep reminding filmmakers, ‘dogs don’t act,’” says Berloni. “They feel things.”
This distinction is important (and not just because Kelsey Grammer would agree). The main reason is that, while there are many ways to get a dog to do what you want on film, it should never be at the expense of their well-being.
“In my world, if they’re not happy, I won’t do it,” Berloni says. “I walk off sets.” This can be risky in an industry where he’s sometimes seen animals treated like props. But he says it’s ultimately not a difficult choice. He puts it this way: “What can I live with? Not working with this director, or hurting my dog?”
One of Berloni’s responsibilities was capturing Apollo’s emotions without making Bing go through them in real life.
A key example is a scene in which Iris makes a big mistake: coming home to find that Apollo has destroyed some of her belongings due to his separation anxiety, she scolds him and calls him a “bad dog.” All the reasons you shouldn’t do this to your own dog apply to a dog “playing” a character. After all, he has no idea he’s in a movie. For this reason, the scene was spliced together; Bing was never in the room with Watts to hear the scolding. “He would have taken that to heart,” Berloni says, “and it would have destroyed him.”
To make Bing look sad, Berloni used positive reinforcement to get him to lower his head—something that appears sad, but does not require him to actually experience a negative emotion.
This is one of many examples of scenes that appear natural onscreen—but were, in fact, the result of precise planning and execution.
Sending the right message
There are lessons here for all dog people. In the end, Iris comes through for Apollo even though doing so is not convenient; her landlord threatens to kick her out of her rent-controlled apartment, for one thing. Apollo probably isn’t the dog she would have imagined for herself at first—but they help each other through one of the darkest periods of their lives, and she learns to care for him in a way that makes him feel happy and safe.
The filmmakers didn’t force Bing to do things he wasn’t suited to or comfortable with. Instead, Berloni says, they “[built] the movie around what he’s capable of and who he is.” And that’s something every dog person can apply to life with their own dogs—what’s right for them may not be what’s right for every other dog. Within the bounds of safety and reason, they should have choices and live a life that works for them.
Berloni does hope that the movie will encourage some people to adopt dogs of their own. But, wary of media’s influence, he and the filmmakers included a message at the end of the credits advising anyone interested in caring for a Great Dane to do their research before committing to life with one of these giant dogs. They can make outstanding companions—but, to put it mildly, the decision to bring one home should not be made on a whim.
And he hopes that the relationship between Iris and Apollo inspires dog people to appreciate their own companions even more. “You have the perfect dog,” he says. “You have a star.”
If you or anyone you know is having thoughts of suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or suicidepreventionlifeline.org
Header Image: Naomi Watts and Bing in Bleecker Street’s THE FRIEND. Courtesy, Bleecker Street
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