The John Wick franchise is likely known for 3 things by now; Keanu Reeves being back, Keanu Reeves’ Training Regime, and dogs. It’s strange to think that a series of action films that have done so well critically and financially are equally as popular with people that go nuts for high-octane tightly choreographed gun-fu action sequences, and lovers of canine companions.
Dogs have been so centric to the John Wick films that they’ve acted as motivation for Wick’s revenge, helped him in his recovery, and even kicked ass alongside their human co-stars. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that there are many dog-related factoids pertaining to Mr.Wick and his films, that many fans have yet to discover. Here are a few.
John’s Dog Almost Survived
Across three films John Wick has had two faithful four-legged companions, in both franchise sequels John Wick: Chapter 2 and John Wick: Chapter 3 Parabellum, John is joined by a yet to be named pitbull. Originally though, Wick owned a beagle named Daisy, left to him by his deceased wife who was tragically murdered spurring the events of the first film.
Arguably, the death of Wick’s pup was the thing that made John Wick’s unending revenge kill-streak relatable, but originally distributors at Thunder Road told the film’s directors “You kill the dog, you alienate the audience, and the movie’s done.” Obviously, Leitch and Stahelski disagreed.
Andy The Beagle
Speaking of Daisy, the dog who’s death inspired the line “Yeah, I’m thinking I’m back.” was played by an animal actor named Andy. It was actually his first role, at 8 months old, purchased from a breeder specifically for the film. According to Animal Actors International trainer Kim Krafsky, in an interview with New York Post, a beagle was picked because “There’s this thing about them, they’re just cute”.
Andy actually took to the press circuit with the rest of the cast, enjoying fans screaming for his autograph on the red carpet no doubt. Following his big-screen debut, Andy took some time out of the rat-race on the Animal Actors International farm in New Jersey.
The Pit-bulls
Unfortunately, we lost Daisy in the first ten minutes of the original installment of John Wick, but in the film’s final scenes John adopts a pit-bull to save it from being put down. This dog has actually been played by two different animals in both Chapter 2 and Parabellum. Chapter 2 saw the part played by Burton (who Keanu took to calling Bubba), and then Cha Cha in Parabellum.
John’s second furry sidekick has yet to be given a name in the franchise, likely because the assassin doesn’t want to get too attached until his gory journey is complete, but here’s betting the final film ends with a scene naming the canine.
Dog vs Horse
There’s a rule in Hollywood, “Never work with children or animals” often inferred that they will steal every scene they’re in, and often make shotting said scenes more difficult. This was definitely the case while filming the third John Wick in New York, when the animal actor Cha Cha who plays Wick’s pitbull, picked a fight with a horse.
Luckily Cha Cha came out of the altercation unharmed and likely caused the onset chaos due to the stress of shooting in such a loud and high-pressure environment. On the bright side, she was perfectly cast, only John Wick’s dog would be rowdy enough to take on a horse.
The Malinois Shepherds
In John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum John Wick calls in a favor from the manager of the Casablanca branch of the Continental Hotel, Sofia Al-Awar. Played by Halle Berry, the character constantly has two Belgian Malinois Shepherds by her side, but these dogs weren’t played by only two dogs.
They were in fact played by five separate stunt dogs so that different animal actors could be used for different stunts, and so that no individual dog became too stressed or fatigued. The dogs were named; Santana, Tai, Sam 7, Boyca, and Ikar, and each had a special relationship with their on and off-screen handler, Halle Berry.
Halle Berry Didn’t Need A Dog Trainer
They might not be John’s dogs, but we can all agree that Sofia’s Belgian Shepherds really steal the show in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum. They pull off some impressive stunts during the Casablanca shootout, so you’d expect an animal handler to be just off-camera or hiding in the scenery, right? Wrong, they were basically Halle Berry’s dogs.
Following her casting as Sofia, Berry had a sit-down chat with the directors, in which they discussed how hands-on the role would be. Not only did she take on combat and weapons training regimes as vigorous as Reaves, but she also spent time in between that training with and bonding with the dogs portraying Sofia’s companions. So next time you watch the film, know that that’s actually Halle Berry commanding those dogs.
Cats On Set!
Staying on the subject of Sofia’s pooches for a moment, during the filming of their big action set-piece in Parabellum, Halle Berry, and the filmmakers only really had one problem keeping the dogs well behaved. The scene was filmed in North African country Morroco, an area in which stray cats roam in large numbers and care little for Hollywood film sets.
According to Berry, the cats were, “everywhere and when my dogs saw cats they went ballistic.” In an interview included on the film’s Blu-ray, she goes on to explain that cats would stroll onto the set and the dogs would chase after them mid-scene, dogs will be dogs.
No CGI Dogs Here
Practical stunt work is a big part of the John Wick franchise with the vast majority of what’s seen on-screen actually being achieved by actors and stuntmen, what you might be surprised to hear is that this extends to actors of a four-legged variety as well. Obviously, we’ve already mentioned Halle Berry’s amazing dog handling, but there’s more.
In an appearance on the ReelBlend podcast, director Chad Stahelski weighed in on his use of dogs in the films, pointing out “There’s no such thing as a movie dog. It’s just a dog doing his thing on set.” As a result, some of the hardest action to film involved trained animals, “when a dog attacks, it’s actually trying to injure a person.” So when you see a dog attack a character, keep in mind it’s really going for the kill, not acting.
The Wall Climb
Following the release of Parabellum, Vulture reviewer David Edelstein described a stunt in which one of Sofia’s dogs leaps from her back and climbs up to a second-story balcony as “cartoonish” assuming CGI was involved. This prompted the film’s visual effects supervisor, Rob Nederhorst, pointed out on Twitter that all of the dog-related stunts were in fact completely real, especially the wall climb.
It’s actually well within the realms of reality, obviously, for a dog to clear a 5-foot jump with a running start or to scramble up a 15-foot wall, and that’s without the added benefit of a Halle Berry leg up.
Bacon In The Morning
Already having mentioned that Andy, the animal actor that played Wick’s first dog, Daisy, was only 8 months old when he took on the pivotal John Wick role, it’s not surprising that he wasn’t the most well trained of animal actors. In the opening scenes of the film, he is shown palling around the house with Keanu Reeves, but he often missed his mark.
In fact, the only way to entice Andy into jumping onto John’s bed and licking his face was to spread bacon grease on the actor’s cheeks. As far as scene motivation goes, Andy got one of the more delicious kinds.
