Amy Adams let her canine acting skills off the leash on the set of Nightbitch.
The Oscar-nominated actress and writer-director Marielle Heller revealed Saturday at the film’s world-premiere screening at the Toronto International Film Festival that making the film with 12 dogs didn’t always make for the cuddliest atmosphere on set.
“Of course, Amy is acting when she does it, so she’s doing this weird looking at the dogs [thing], and the dogs freaked out and started lunging at her.”
Adams laughed as she remembered the incident as well, noting that “one dog was like, that’s not okay, that’s not cool” in her estimation.
“So, yeah, I freaked the dogs out on the set,” Adams added.
We took one off, the one that was still not going to be okay no matter what I did because he didn’t trust me after that.
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“We couldn’t find one, so they ended up adopting [one] they found in a shelter in California and trained her for many months before we shot the film.
She was just the most gorgeous, incredible dog,” Heller said.
Outside of its wilder dressings, the film also explores issues of repressed female rage and “the isolation that comes” for some women after motherhood, Adams observed.
On the Nightbitch set, Amy Adams unleashed her full range of acting abilities.
At the movie’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, Oscar-nominated actress and writer-director Marielle Heller disclosed that filming the picture with 12 dogs didn’t always make for the cutest environment on set.
“There’s a scene where Amy descends the steps to greet every dog in the yard. We had repeatedly rehearsed this scene with the trainers: She will walk on this step and descend, and you will all swarm around her. Recounting a scene from the movie in which Adams, the new mother, starts to transform into a ravenous dog, Heller told the Princess of Wales theater audience, “We did it over and over and over again.”. “The dogs freaked out and started lunging at Amy because, of course, she is acting when she does this, so she’s looking at them weirdly. “. .
When Adams recalled the incident, she laughed too, saying that “one dog was like, that’s not okay, that’s not cool.”. Heller chimed in, “It almost ruined the whole shoot.”. It seemed to the trainers that they believed she was following them. Her strange behavior caused them to flip. It was insane. “. .
Adams continued, “So, yeah, I scared the dogs off on the set.”. “It was under control.”. After that, he lost faith in me, so we removed the one who would never get better, no matter what I did. He spent the remainder of the night sleeping. “.”.
Heller noted that there were also more endearing moments between the human and canine members of the film’s crew. The movie is an adaptation of writer Rachel Yoder’s well-known novel of the same name, and in a few fantastical scenes, the team searches for a red-haired husky to play Adams in the shape of a dog.
Since we were unable to locate one, they adopted one that they discovered in a California shelter and trained her for several months prior to the film’s filming. She was the most amazing, gorgeous dog ever, according to Heller.
Beyond its more outrageous embellishments, the movie delves into topics such as suppressed feminine fury and “the isolation that comes” for certain women following parenthood, as noted by Adams.
Heller joked that her husband was scared when he read the movie, which she wrote while she was at home raising their kids and her husband, Jorma Taccone of The Lonely Island, was away filming a TV show. Heller described the process of making the film as “cathartic” for her.
