Bill Murray and Naomi Watts star together in 'The Friend,' a film about a woman who cares for a very large dog after his owner passes. The pair discuss what it's like behind the scenes filming with animals, including their previous experience with elephants and birds.
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00:00It must have been like a child actor dog or something like that, really obnoxious with a stage mom. Brutal.
00:13I have worked with birds. I did a movie about a magpie.
00:17But the bird would interchange, the bird would get annoyed and tired and you know, so we would have to have backups.
00:24We did have a backup for Bing, but we never used him. I think maybe once for a big old wide shot or something.
00:32So this was definitely the closest I've had in terms of connecting with an animal one on one.
00:41I worked with an elephant once who had done a few movies.
00:46So she had experience and was a very seasoned professional, but was incredibly professional.
00:54You would say, you know, the assistant director would say, that's a wrap for the day, meaning the end of the day.
01:01She would already be on her way. She'd move before anyone.
01:05She knew when it was over before anyone. It was halfway to her trailer.
01:09She already had her martini in hand.
01:11She had a martini ready in her trailer, but it was also, it was a great experience.
01:17One of the best experiences I've ever had in the movies working with this elephant.
01:20She was beautiful, intelligent and emotionally supreme.
01:25Well, it's famously more difficult and I've definitely run into trouble with animals before where, you know, the old saying is absolutely true.
01:35More time, more money, you know, and going into this, when I read it, I was incredibly moved by the story, the conceit of the story.
01:44But how would it possibly be? How could we do this?
01:48It doesn't, I just can't imagine that they can get everything out of the animal that's on the page.
01:55But then we were, we were told that the animal had been found and they was absolutely going to be able to rise to all of these challenges.
02:05And he did in, you know, exactly what was on the page.
02:09And then even more, we had some really wonderful surprises along the way too.
02:13Yeah, I've never had any of the trouble, although there was a, the second dog in the movie was trouble.
02:19The lead, the lead actor was great, but the second dog was uncontrollable.
02:24It was like a mad dog. It was, it was one 50th of the size of the other dog and couldn't have been more of a pain.
02:31Must've been like a show, like a child actor dog or something like that.
02:35Really obnoxious with a stage mom. Brutal, just brutal.
02:39Go ahead, you think about this more than I do.
02:42No.
02:43An actor, I think I would leave a turtle.
02:46It's easy to, or a fish.
02:49The people I know are kind of slow moving, quiet, forget to eat meals every once in a while and can sleep, go dormant for long periods of time and kind of put their head inside of their shelf for long periods.
03:04I think that's what I would leave to my people.