OK. We get it.
We know there’s a lot of scaffolding and plenty of people ringing the perimeter of moviemaking: the guys and gals mentioned in the endless credit roll, the gaffers, the best boys, even the animal trainers.
It’s the magic of the movies.
Then we forget it. We sit in the theater ready to be spellbound.
So forgive us our confusion when we went to interview animal trainer James Warren and the dog Brody after seeing “Marley & Me,” expecting to have a real conversation with a canine.
Brody is one of the yellow Labrador retrievers who portrays “the worst dog in the world” in the film version of John Grogan’s best seller. It opens on Christmas and stars Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Clyde, Brody and Rudy. …
A 15-year-veteran of the film-animal training business, Warren was in charge of the “old dog team” of two that played Marley ages 10 to 13.
On the day of our visit, Brody had been up and on treat alert since 4:30 a.m. He’d done a round of early-morning TV appearances, where he was reportedly in fine Marley form. Meaning, he rolled about and acted a lot like he wasn’t going to listen to anyone. Now, he flopped down at Warren’s feet.
Not long into the interview, it became clear if we were looking for any Brody stories in the vein of Grogan’s sweet observations about “St. Marley,” we were barking up the wrong tree.
After all, Brody’s parents, owners, friends (pick your moniker) live in Monument. They are the rightful keepers of the handsome guy’s 11 years of anecdotes. So instead, we asked Warren a litter of questions.
Q: Is Brody’s nose pinker than Marley’s?
A: You noticed that. We had to darken a lot of the older dogs’ noses. And he’s darker. We had to send him to a colorist because Rudy (the other team dog) was lighter.
Q: How often are you asked about the Dog Whisperer?
A: Cesar Millan? Quite a bit. Quite a bit. What’s great about him, whether you agree or disagree with him (and I’m not going to get into that) is that he’s brought out dog behavior, that it can be changed, that it can be corrected. And that’s great.
Q: One of the things that’s amusing about the dogs in “Marley” is that you’re training them to do bad things. Once you do that, can you untrain them?
A: The greatest example in “Marley” was teaching the dog to pull up linoleum. They had to teach him that. But once he got into it, there was no training after that. But to a certain extent, if it’s not training you keep up, they will forget it.
Q: What question do you get most?
A: “How do I get my animal into the films?” The other one is “Does he really like it?” Because you get people who are genuinely concerned about the animal’s welfare.
Q: What’s the coolest performance you’ve gotten from an animal? (We can close Brody’s ears.)
A: The ones I think about are the ones I didn’t expect to happen. We were working on “George of the Jungle” and we had to have a bunch of birds fly through, basically going from point A to point B. We ended up with this shot where a cockatoo got scared off and it flew all the way around a tree in a gorgeous flight and landed right on its spot. The producer was standing next to me and said “We’ll never get that again.” And I said, “You’re right.”
Q: Do you have dogs at home in Idaho?
A: I have three. Two are 12 and 10. One’s 14 years old. I think she’s days away… (he trails off). Lacey. I’ve had her since she was 10 weeks old. She’s a Lab-pit bull mix. I got her when I was working on “The Scarlet Letter.” I was bored. We only had canaries to work with. You can only train canaries so long. She’s the dog in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”
Q: Are your dogs well trained?
A: My other two? Not really.
Film critic Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567 or lkennedy@ . Also on blogs .denverpostcom/madmoviegoer
