Bing is a movie star!
We have been having the wildest ride with this experience! In early 2020, Bing was selected to star in the movie, The Friend, with Naomi Watts and Bill Murray.
Covid put an initial halt on things and then we experienced additional delays due to schedules and the actor/writer strikes. We finally filmed the movie in early 2024. The nationwide theater release date is April 4, 2025.
Bing and I lived in New York City for three months (Jan-March 2024) for the training and filming. The first three weeks we spent working with Naomi in her home, to allow her and Bing to develop a bond and for her to become comfortable handling Bing on screen. Most of the filming was done at various locations around Manhattan.
I am proudly Bing’s trainer/handler and he never left my care throughout the filming. Bing and I were brand new to the world of filming movies so we were teamed with long time theater/movie animal trainer, Bill Berloni (William Berloni Theatrical Animals).
This experience has been beyond amazing. Bing did a fantastic job during the entire filming process and thoroughly enjoyed the work. His favorite scenes were ones requiring active behaviors. A lot of the behaviors needed were general obedience related, but he did have to learn a few new behaviors, like scratching a door and holding something in his mouth.
One question I have seen asked several times online is if it was all just one dog playing the role of Apollo. The answer – yes! We did have a backup dog (Wilder, owner Steph Kelley) but he wasn’t used on camera. There are also a few split second scenes where Bing has a double. Old Apollo is Adam (owner Emily Handschumaker) and in a dog park scene there is a female harl, Lorelai (owner Matthew Bozievich). Both are pretty short clips but we were very appreciative of their owners’ time and these sweet dogs! Bing is also in the dog park scenes, but because he is an intact male, we did not want to risk having him run with a pack of unknown (and mostly male) dogs. For the dog park scenes, in which Bing is running with other dogs, we used known dogs.
To see movie related pics and content, click here.
