Do you ever just look across the way, make eye contact with a woofer and time just stops? What were you doing with your day again? Suddenly nothing matters, you just have to pet the dog in front of you. Now imagine that energy on the set of a movie.
It’s the ruff stuff Henry Lau and Kathryn Prescott had to deal with while working on A Dog’s Journey. When I recently interviewed the pair for CinemaBlend, they told me of this unique struggle. Here’s what Lau had to say:
That was actually the most difficult thing working with the dogs because they were just so adorable. We’d be acting, running through lines and a dog would just be looking up at you and we were just like ‘don’t pet him, don’t pet him, don’t pet him, focus, focus, don’t pet him.’
As far as workplace difficulties go, many of us would gladly trade this one for our own. This is an adorable insight into working with doggos on a movie from the 29-year-old actor. During the recent A Dog’s Journey press day, Henry Lau and Kathryn Prescott elaborated about the dynamic the dog actors brought to set. In their words:
Henry: There’s this big, big dog (called Duke in the movie) and he was just the king on set.Kathyrn: Yeah, he was very happy to be there and giant, so it was known when Gary was walking on set.
It looks like the cast established some connections to the canine talent! Kathryn Prescott, who plays the film’s central character CJ, continued to gush about them:
I loved Phil as well who played Big Dog. I thought he gave one of the standout dog performances of the film. He’s a rescue aswell and he’d only been trained I think eight days to do all his paw stuff and all the tricks that he did. I think he knocked it out of the park.
Does the Oscars have a Best Supporting Dog Actor award? Maybe it should! Phil could go head-to-head with the pair of Belgian Malinois that Halle Berry trained with for John Wick 3. You can watch the fresh faced actors from the Dog’s Purpose sequel vouch for them in our exclusive interview below:
Kathryn Prescott and Henry Lau play childhood besties CJ and Trent, who each adopt from a litter puppies as children. CJ’s pup is the dog who has been reincarnated for over 60 years in A Dog’s Purpose, namely as Bailey to Dennis Quaid’s Ethan. The film tracks their relationship as they grow up into teens and then adults and as Bailey lives different lifetimes as CJ’s sworn protector.
Both actors are relative newcomers to the big screen. Kathryn found her breakout role as the titular character in the MTV drama Finding Carter for two seasons. Henry is a former K-pop star from the group Super Junior-m, who has recently pursued a career in acting.
A Dog’s Journey opens this weekend alongside John Wick 3 and The Sun is Also A Star. Judging from Thursday night numbers, John Wick will be the top dog. The last film in the franchise based on W. Bruce Cameron’s doggo novels was a box office success, as it made $205 million worldwide on a $22 million budget. We’ll see how A Dog’s Journey does amidst May’s packed movie season.
