In a recent interview, Hollywood star Lucy Hale peeled back the curtain on the casting process for canine actors, as per her experience in her new Freeve movie Puppy Love.
Speaking to Collider, Hale offered insight into her unique journey of developing a genuine bond with her canine co-stars. “We did get to meet them beforehand. In particular, my dog, whose name is Channing Tatum in the film, is played by a dog named Fancy Pants, who is just a star,” Hale shared.
She went on to reveal, “Fancy is truly a star dog. I didn’t realize there are dog auditions, and there were audition tapes. I got to see Fancy’s audition, where she showed all the tricks that she could do. They decide who they will cast based on how many tricks the dog can do. And I did get to meet her. She plays a boy in the movie, but she’s actually a girl. She was so wonderful. We were like, ‘It’s gotta be her.'”
Going into the details of her rapport with the remarkable canine actor, Hale disclosed, “I got to spend a day with her before we started filming, and she took a liking to me when she knew that I had dried chicken in my pocket, at all times. There was a lot of motivation by treats, of course. And then, for Grant’s dog, there were two versions of the dog. They had a little more of a mind of their own. Sometimes they were like, ‘No, we’re not gonna film right now,’ and just walk off set.”
While the canine cast takes center stage in Puppy Love, Hale acknowledged the movie’s feline performers were a different story altogether. “And there was a hairless cat, which was different. I had never worked with a cat before, and a hairless cat just commands the space it’s in. They’re really powerful. The cat definitely did whatever it wanted to do. So, I did get to bond a little bit beforehand with Fancy Pants, and by the end, I was really attached to her.”
Puppy Love, starring Grant Gustin, Nicole Mathew, Hale, and others, is available on Amazon Freevee.
