The dog actors and the relationship they have with their trainers is one of the most beautiful things I've ever watched happen in front of me.
It's just extremely difficult to shoot with five dogs. They're great, and the people who handle them are amazing. But they're animals.
The two things an actor dreads most are children and dogs.
It's not unlike the movies for human actors. Once a dog stars in a movie, they don't work very much anymore. It's kind of heartbreaking.
Why isn't the movie industry forced to open its shooting locations to an organization that is there to advocate for animal actors? The industry isn't allowed to pick and choose which movies using young children it will or won't allow to be monitored. The vulnerable should be protected.
We had a black bear on the 'Hunger Games' set, and that was a little scary.
I am informed that 5,000 cockroaches were used in the filming of Joe's Apartment. That depresses me, but not as much as the news that none of them were harmed during the production.
I have a lot of funny friends, though not everyone's funny all the time. Doon Mackichan's my funniest friend in the pub; Nina Conti's the funniest with a monkey.
Working with animals is always going to be tough because the animal doesn't know it's an actor.
But I've worked where they've had animals before, and animal wranglers, the people who raise animals and train animals for films and television, they're all very, very professional.
Some of my best leading men have been dogs and horses.
I'm one of the actors who really enjoys working with kids and animals, which is always a no go. There's something beautiful about it because you tend to forget yourself as an actor.
We had about seven real cats at any one time on the set, and two animatronic, (one that sits and one that lays down) and two stuffed animal type cats that we used for rehearsals or any sort of silly torture we had to instill on the poor guy.
My favorite movie out of the old movies was 'Escape to Witch Mountain.' We were working with horses and bears, and when you have a great friend like Ike and a great director... it was a great experience.
It's one of the oldest theatrical adages: never work with children or animals.
