DogMan, a new feature film by Luc Besson, was released in theaters on September 27. How did the filmmaker and his team manage working with the many dogs in the film?
Four years after Anna, Luc Besson is back behind the camera with DogMan, a thriller starring the revelation Caleb Landry Jones, winner of the Best Actor Award at Cannes in 2021 for Nitram. The latter plays Douglas, a child, bruised by life. The latter will find his salvation thanks to the love his dogs have for him.
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STARTING IDEA
After several years of legal setbacks for rape accusations resulting in a dismissal of the case, Luc Besson went back to work by developing the script for DogMan. It was while reading an article about a family having thrown their 5-year-old child into a cage that the artist had the idea for the film. The director of Le Grand Bleu wondered how a human being could go through such an ordeal, overcome this psychological and emotional trauma.
“This is what I wanted to explore in DogMan. We all have suffering in common and the only weapon to combat it is love and sharing. Human society brings a little comfort, but love can heal wounds.”
INTENSIVE PREPARATION
The shooting of the film was timed to the progression of the main character. This allowed Caleb Landry Jones to prepare as well as possible: “On some films, it’s a constant roller coaster. But Luc had planned the shoot in a very intelligent way which allowed me to be on my toes from start to finish”explains the 33-year-old actor.
After the first two weeks, the American actor was able to concentrate as much as possible on the scenes with Evelyn (Jojo T. Gibbs), which he feared the most. He would go back to the hotel, prepare for his scenes and work with another actor, Tonio, for 4 or 5 hours.
“It was only thanks to this preparatory work that I was able to memorize everything.” The actor spent a year with Luc Besson, “to make sure that we are comfortable with each other and that we appreciate each other on a human level”specifies the director.
Dogman owes a lot to Caleb Landry Jones, according to Luc Besson. “We needed an actor who could embody the desire, the power, the melancholy, the trials of this complex and fascinating character. I hope that the viewer will understand what Douglas endured and this pain which is so difficult to overcome. He suffered more than most people, but he keeps his dignity intact.”
HOW TO WORK WITH DOGS?
On the advice of Louis Leterrier (Fast X), Luc Besson collaborated with animal trainer Mathilde de Cagny. She notably worked on Back to the Future 2 and 3, For Worse and for Better and Marley & Me. Despite her experience, the trainer felt a certain apprehension about the magnitude of the task.
“I knew the film was going to feature a group of dogs, but not that there would be so many, with lots of different personalities”. Mathilde de Cagny favored dogs that already had a solid training base and did not require intense preparation.
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Mathilde de Cagny notably presented two or three dogs that she had in her company: “Luc Besson immediately liked them and they were immediately hired. Then, we had to find many others who didn’t have to make the trip. So I went to France to find the trainers and the dogs that could meet my criteria.”
The trainer then contacted Muriel Bec, manager of Animal Contact, a company which supplies animals for French television and cinema. “The facility had everything we needed for training, so I asked Muriel to take care of the majority of the dog recruitment and building a team of trainers.”
In total, around fifteen trainers were hired to find the numerous dogs needed for filming. “The hardest part was coordinating everything at once – the dogs, the trainers, the set, the actors – and getting up and running as quickly as possible. The dogs had to be trained and know what was expected of them. ‘them, while remaining natural’explains Mathilde de Cagny.
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Sofiane Tarefet, specialist in “bite training”, a technique allowing the dog to learn to control the strength of its jaw, and the stuntman Alain Figlarz also participated in DogMan. The latter was notably there to be bitten instead of the actors. Finally, Caleb Landry Jones spent three days with the dogs and trainers to become familiar with the animals.
“Caleb came for three days to spend time with the dogs and get used to the trainers working, talking, moving. He was curious and extremely eager to get involved.”confides the trainer. “It was, among other things, the fact that we were filming with real dogs that convinced me”says the young actor.
On the set, Sofiane Tarefet was very surprised by the availability of Caleb Landry Jones and by his interactions with the dogs. “He was incredibly calm and he spontaneously went towards the dogs. An investment that was all the more appreciable as certain sequences were particularly complex to shoot”indicates the stuntman.
DogMan was released in theaters on September 27.