Casting

Sian’s notes on Casting Dog Eat Dog:

When it came to casting, I started out ahead, because Zach and I are old friends and this was his story.  Zach is a fantastic actor who is also brilliant with comedy and hasn’t had a lot of opportunity as of late to show his chops in this department.  I thought this was a great way to showcase another side of him as a performer.  And mostly we just wanted to make something together, because we knew it would be fun.

We did have some debate in the beginning about whether Zach should actually play himself in the film.  When the events of this story actually happened, we were in our early twenties and somehow the character seemed more desperate and lonelier if he were older.  We debated this and ultimately decided that his current age made it more interesting.  We were making a fable – a universal story about loneliness and a man searching for love and it was actually fun to have that character be in his thirties.  It added real stakes.

However, we wanted to make sure that Oliver was not Zach.  We talked a lot with our costume designer, Darragh Marmorstein about creating a look for Oliver that would help Zach get inside the skin of this character.   We wanted bold patterns, that would heighten the reality of the film, but still felt grounded.

When we began searching for the “Old Man”, it was really important to find a fantastic actor to play the part.  Though he has very few lines, as Oliver’s chief rival in the story, he needed to be a strong presence and feel both sympathetic and like a convincing threat.

We were incredibly lucky when our casting director friend, Sara Isaacson, jumped onboard to help.  When she mentioned the possibility of getting Philip Baker Hall, I figured it was a long shot.  I was a huge fan of his work and thought if Sara could swing that one, it would be a miracle.  Two phone calls later, she had him.  Philip has such an expressive face, he didn’t even need to say anything to deliver a totally heartbreaking and brilliantly funny performance.  He is in his eighties and was a total trooper during two very long days of shooting.  I adore this man.

I had originally imagined the character of Ruth, the shelter worker, as a tiny older woman.  I had Linda Hunt in my head.  But when Sara sent me Sharon Wilkins’ reel I immediately saw the role differently.  It’s exciting when this happens, when an actor completely transforms the way you view a character.  Sharon was much younger and more beautiful than I had ever pictured Ruth.  But her ball-busting energy and hilarious over-it-all attitude was exactly right for a jaded pound lady.  We were so lucky to have her.  Because besides being a fantastic actress, Sharon is a lovely person and was fun to have around.

When it came to casting Zach’s group of friends, we both thought it would be fun to use our real friends, who are all trained, funny actors in their own right.  Brigid Ryan, Fay Wolf, James Babson and well,  me.  Brigid was bold enough to bring her baby Owen into the scene, who was only three weeks old at the time.

The cutest peanut in the world.  And second cutest might have been Dan Fogler, who was a last minute stroke of genius on the part of Sara Isaacson.

All of the gorgeous people at the dog park are our friends, all of the extras walking through shots are members of our crew and every dog not behind bars is one of ours.  And some that started behind bars, were brought home with us.  The Colonel, Reggie, Noah, Dash, Bella, Steve, Fichi and Zach’s newly adopted “Little Sister”.  This film was really a labor of love on the parts of everyone involved, and in turn, became a love letter to all of our friends and their animals.