The behind-the-scenes production of Beverly Hills Dog

Two actors playing Pappi: The one who plays Pappi on the screen is a Chihuahua named Rusco. This Chihuahua was trained by the film’s animal director and trainer Mike. Discovered by Mike Alexander, his big ears and rich expression on his face made him “love at first sight”. “When I saw Rusco’s photo online, I knew he was the Papi we were looking for. ”

The first time George Lopez, who voices Papi, met this star dog was at a Disney promotional meeting. "Three months ago, Rusco and I met for the first time. We shot a lot of promotional videos. From the first cooperation, we had a tacit understanding. I have to say, Rusco is an amazing dog. A good dog. Sometimes, he even performs better on the set than me," Lopez said with a smile. "He is more attentive and serious than me. I jump up and down on the set from time to time, but he is very good, the staff. When doing nail care for it, it would wash its hands in water. During the process, I couldn't help but talk to it. It seemed that it could really understand what I was talking about. We put cucumber on his eyes together. You know, the kind of cucumber that is commonly used during breaks on set. But after a while, when the photographer set up the camera and prepared to shoot, we couldn't find the cucumber on his eyes. It turns out that he has already eaten the cucumber... He is really a funny 'good guy'"

"In this Disney's usual 'warmthism' style film, style and tone are nothing. It’s different, it’s just more romantic than I expected.” George Lopez added, “Even when I started recording in the studio, I never imagined that this film would be so romantic and captivating. Because when I read the script, I only had a rough idea of ??it, and then I started dubbing it, and I kept thinking about the dialogue on the pages that I participated in. But when I saw the trailer of the movie, I was completely attracted to Drew Barry. Moore's voice is captivating. Her voice is sweet, bright and full of sunshine, and it's all so 'Disney'. The fact is that this movie has a great trailer, despite the large headshot of the Chihuahua. This large-scale promotional film has been criticized, but the publicity effect speaks for itself. Many people who have seen the promotional film said that they can't wait for the release of this blockbuster."

"Recorded from the beginning. "At that time, I was in better shape and recorded for an hour and a half at a time." George Lopez continued, "But after the crew came back from Mexico to shoot a lot of footage, I found that I could actually do better. So I went to the director and told him if I could record it from scratch. Because I had no reference points before, I didn’t know how much room there was to play. Now after watching the footage they shot, I know that I should at least raise my voice a minor octave. . And since the director shared my desire to do better, he agreed," Lopez said with a laugh.

Playing with dogs challenges your patience

The movie "Beverly Dogs" is a complete dog world, and humans are only supporting supporting roles. It's really difficult for the No. 1 hero and No. 1 heroine to act with dogs, but they still performed very hard. Piper Perabo, who plays Rachel, and Manolo Cardona, who plays Sam, both claim to be animal lovers, even though they don't own pets of their own. "I really don't have enough time to take care of it, so even though I like small animals very much, I still won't keep one as my own pet. At least now it seems that my decision is correct." Perabo explained. road. Although they don't have any children at home, those little guys on the screen really make them feel good. "I didn't realize before that each animal character would be played by several puppies. Therefore, the number of dog characters you see on the screen is actually much less than that on the set."

You must be alert enough when acting with animals and children. This golden rule of acting has been fully verified in this film. “When you’re filming with a dog, you have to be very, very patient because you never know what he’s going to do next,” Cardona said. “You have to be careful and stay alert. , and cooperated with them very friendly, because they are the protagonists, we are just here to accompany them and assist them.”

The scene of feeding the dog Chloe also made Perabo. It took a lot of effort, "The scene was me feeding Chloe on my shoes. But because dogs like Chihuahuas can't use their mouths to pick up food, and they can't use their mouths to move anything, Therefore, you don’t want to throw a ball to them and let them pick it up. Therefore, if you want to feed them, you must take them to a place they think is suitable, not just find a place."

The dogs on the set are well taken care of, and sometimes they are even treated better than the actors. For example, the "dog houses" used to house them are all air-conditioned. Because they will be moved around frequently, high-quality performances cannot be guaranteed without a good rest, and a comfortable environment is an important guarantee for a good rest.

In order to match the Mexican style, this film uses a large number of Latin American voice actors.

Angel the Chihuahua plays the main role of Chloe in the film, but she cannot do everything, so different stand-ins were used when filming swimming, jumping and other scenes. There were 5 of them. The dog plays Chloe.

Today, Rusco, the Chihuahua who plays Papi, lives with dog trainer Mike Alexander on his 7-acre ranch.

The release of this film has led to an increase in the number of people planning to raise Chihuahuas, but it also makes people worry that this will repeat the tragedy of Dalmatians. In 1996, "101 Dalmatians" became a hit. Dalmatians that were not suitable as pets were bought home by many people. As a result, they were kicked out of their homes because of their manic personality and became stray dogs.

Director Raja Gosnell has 7 films, all of which are family comedy films, so we can regard him as the director most compatible with Disney Pictures. An editor by training, he became famous in 2000 with his third directorial work, "Baby". This comedy starring Martin Lawrence became a box office blockbuster that year. In 2002, "Scooby-Doo" directed by Raja was also a box office hit. Because of this movie, Raja also began to develop a relationship with dogs. In 2004, he filmed "Scooby-Doo 2", including this "Beverly" movie. Including "Golden Dog", he has made three movies with dogs as the protagonists.

Therefore, when making this film, Raja was already experienced in working with dogs. When casting for this film, what Raja worried about was not how to find suitable male and female stars, but how to find spiritual animal stars. To this end, Raja "interviewed" more than 200 animals, including Chihuahuas, snakes, pigeons, mountain dogs, pumas, rats and lizards. Choose among these animal stars with "character." Producer John Jacobs said it was interesting when they were choosing actors, not only looking at the habits of the animal stars, but also the personalities of the human actors. "When casting Papi as a puppy, we had to consider that Papi is a very funny and cool street puppy. He must have a complementary personality relationship with his owner Sam. So we asked the actor who played Sam to also It’s Manolo Cardona. The puppy who plays Papi must have the enthusiasm of Canado, and Canado must have the coolness of a puppy.”

After a rigorous selection process, the dog was selected. The stars were finally all in place, and it was now time for Raja to begin the work of a human star. First he had to choose actors to voice the canine stars. Drew Barrymore was the first star that came to mind. Raja, who has collaborated with Barrymore on "Charlie's Angels" and "50 First Dates," said frankly that when he saw the script, he determined that Barrymore was the one to voice the character of Chloe. Screenwriter Bushear said frankly that when he wrote the role of Chloe, he had Barrymore's voice in mind. "Barrymore's naturally sweet personality and infectious voice are very suitable for Chloe. She She is one of the few actresses who can use her voice to portray a character that is both sharp and cute.”

Raja handed the script to Barrymore, but she didn’t expect that she would read it quickly. Agree to play this role. Barrymore took the role for two reasons. One was that she loved the script, and the other was that she was a dog lover herself.

Subsequently, Raja began to look for an actor to voice Papi. He knew that he must find an actor who was willing to stay in Mexico for a long time for this role. George Lopez, one of television's biggest comedy stars and a Hispanic, happily took on the role. However, Lopez confirmed that Papi is nothing like himself, "Papi is a romantic dog, and he has a bit of street style. I am very street style, but I am really not romantic at all, so sometimes I am very I envy Papi the dog."

Another actor who voices a dog is Andy Garcia, who voices a police dog in the film. Before dubbing, Andy asked him to take the dog actor home for a while. Andy said that he had a great time playing with the dog. He also took a lot of photos of dog actors playing to find out the feeling of dubbing the dog.

Jamie Lee Curtis is one of the few actors in the film who can appear as a real person. The scream queen of the 1970s, the heroine of "True Lies" and a Golden Globe Award-winning actress, plays Aunt Vivian, Chloe's owner, in this film. Curtis said she was also attracted by the script and wanted to make a movie suitable for the whole family, so she accepted the role without hesitation.