The ‘Bridgerton’ Cast, Channing Tatum and More Stars Reveal What It’s Like Working With Pets on Set

Credit: Disney/Kobal/Shutterstock

The 'Bridgerton' Cast, Channing Tatum and More Stars Reveal What It's Like Working With Pets on Set

VIP costars! While many human actors get top billing on most TV shows and movie sets, it’s often their four-legged counterparts who end up stealing the show.

“Newton is beloved, and I always wanted to include him in this season,” Bridgerton showrunner Chris Van Dusen told Entertainment Weekly in a February 2022 interview about the second season of the Netflix drama. “There’s a little arc for him that audiences can look forward to.”

Season 2 of the period series, which debuted in March 2022 on the streaming platform, follows Julia Quinn’s The Viscount Who Loved Me novel and eldest brother Anthony’s journey to find love. As Jonathan Bailey’s Anthony crosses paths with Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley), he also comes toe-to-toe with her faithful canine companion: a corgi named Newton.

“I’m really good with dogs, so he responded to me well,” the Sex Education alum told EW that February of the pooch. “He was a little bit sass and goes off and does his own thing, but I like to think when we were together, he listened to me. Whenever we would do a line run and Newton was there, he would just get in the middle of the circle and roll on his back and be like, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ That was quite cute.”

Ashley continued: “One of the buildings we filmed at, there was pebbles on the driveway. I’d have him on the leash and he’d just be eating the stones and pooping out stones in between takes.”

Channing Tatum, for his part, worked closely with a Belgian Malinois pup in his directorial debut, Dog. The Step Up actor starred as Army Ranger Briggs who took a long road trip with the military canine to attend his late friend’s memorial service. (The dog, Lulu, was the veteran’s former partner.)

“Dogs, especially those kinds of dogs, they’re just so intense,” Tatum said during an appearance on the Kelly Clarkson Show in February 2022. “They’re a lot of energy. … We thought it was a simple movie, [just] me and a dog, but at the end of the day, I probably won’t direct again if I’m going to be in the movie. I’m in every frame of the film.”

The Alabama native joked to Clarkson that a dog “doesn’t care about the story” but instead prefers eating treats, explaining that he could really only have the pup accomplish one task at a time.

Scroll below to learn what it was like for your favorite stars to work with pets on set:

Credit: Disney/Kobal/Shutterstock

‘George of the Jungle’

Brendan Fraser played the title character in the 1997 film — opposite a real-life monkey.

“It was that bitch!” the Whale star exclaimed during a January 2023 appearance on the Graham Norton Show after learning his four-legged companion later acted in Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans. “I knew it was her! She had a boyfriend called Mr. Binx, who was who I normally worked with. Mr. Binx would throw a fit and disappear into the rafters if he didn’t get the take he wanted.”

Fraser added: “Because Mr. Binx was a boy monkey, he had to wear a boy bikini, and he would get frustrated occasionally and rip it off, disappear into the ceiling and start [throwing] it. … He didn’t give a flying f—k. He didn’t care.”

Credit: Apple TV+

‘Roar’

Merritt Wever stars in Apple TV+’s Roar anthology series, playing Elise in the episode, “The Woman Fed by a Duck.” Her character enters into a relationship with a waterfowl called Larry.

“I don't know if the animal is going to start squawking, I don't know if the animal is going to walk away, if it's going to say I don't want to do this anymore,” Wever told E! News in April 2022 of working with a live duck for the Apple TV+ series. “So it did feel like having a scene partner that was very alive and that's always helpful as an actor.”

Credit: Liam Daniel/Netflix

‘Bridgerton’

“Austin played Newton and it’s a sterling, stunning performance, but do you know what? We didn’t get on,” Bailey told EW in February 2022. “He just loved sausage, and there’s nothing wrong with loving sausage, but it was more the way we had to hold little crumbs of sausage in my hand to try and get him to jump in my lap. … It’s amazing that I got to work with him because he’s obviously going places, but we didn’t really click.”

Credit: Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/SMPSP

‘Dog’

The Magic Mike star’s bond with his late pooch Lulu inspired the 2022 film.

“We thought about [calling the movie] Lulu, but there was already a movie with that title,” Tatum explained during a W magazine interview that February. “But my character specifically tries to not say the dog’s name for so long — he’s just like ‘Dog! Dog! What’s up, dog?’ because he’s trying not to personalize the animal. But he obviously starts to have a connection with her and in the end, she becomes something to him.”

Credit: Disney+

‘Black Beauty’

Mackenzie Foy learned how to ride horses while filming the Disney+ equestrian movie, telling The Hollywood Reporter of her bareback training.

"It was probably like two weeks of training, but I knew that I was going to do this film a couple months earlier,” the Nutcracker and the Four Realms actress told the outlet in November 2020. “I actually wanted to start riding anyway once I finished high school, so this movie encouraged me to do it. I probably got ten lessons in on my own before I started filming. Once I got to South Africa, I worked with FilmEquus and they taught me everything I needed to know to do the film.”

Credit: D Gregory/20th Century Fox/Kobal/Shutterstock

‘The Art of Racing in the Rain’

“I’m kinda f—ing crazy. I’m not one to be afraid of a role, and actually when roles are a bit frightening, that’s where you can find the most truth in the character and the story because we’re pushing ourselves,” Milo Ventimiglia told EW in August 2019 of taking on the lead role in the dog movie. “We’re pushing our boundaries. It was a very human story, kind of like This Is Us, where you have real-life stakes that were happening to this guy — his career as a race-car driver, his life with his family. It’s so deeply human, and the angle where you have a dog who happens to be an elevated soul and is watching his owner go through the trials of life, it felt like a unique story. It had magic without it feeling like it was trying to push the magic.”

He added at the time: “I spent a lot of time with the [two golden retrievers that played Enzo] before we started filming. When we were on set, I was the only one who was allowed to give affection and play with the dogs aside from the trainers because we needed that familiarity.

Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock

‘Marley and Me’

The emotionally charged Marley & Me is perhaps considered one of the most memorable pet movies.

“There were times when he'd perform the best in the scene, but you'd feel like you haven't gotten it. But that's what you get for working with a dog,” star Jennifer Aniston joked to MTV in December 2008, noting that sometimes her canine costar would break character at inopportune times.

Credit: Disney+

‘Turner and Hooch’

“Dogs force you to get out of your plan and out of your comfort zone, which is really great for a guy like me, who likes to run his scenes in the shower the night before,” Josh Peck opened up to Variety in July 2021 about his experience working with five French Mastiffs on the Disney+ revival. “The dogs would certainly pass gas sometimes in the middle of a scene, and usually I could power through it, but I’m not that professional. I’d be like, ‘I’m sorry, can we just take a moment and let the air literally clear?'”

Credit: Mike Yarish ​/ NETFLIX

‘Full House’

The ABC sitcom brought an assortment of pets to the set for various episodes, which kickstarted Candace Cameron Bure’s own affinity for animals.

“Being on Full House and being around so many animals, more than just dogs, we had a chimpanzee on the show and a donkey and a ferret and so much more,” the Fuller House alum told Today in December 2018. “So, I’m sure all of that contributed to my love of animals."

Credit: Nbc-Tv/Kobal/Shutterstock

‘Frasier’

“[Eddie] was recast during the run of the show,” Kelsey Grammer recalled of working with a Jack Russell terrier on Frasier during a July 2017 interview with TV Guide. “So, the last appearance of Moose — the original Eddie — they actually did makeup on him because he got so … and gray that they sort of painted his markings back on him. [Production also] let him sit on the couch because he couldn’t really do tricks anymore.”

Grammer added that the pup used to bite costar John Mahoney whenever he was perched on Mahoney’s lap. The late actor, unlike his character, “hated" the dog, Grammer revealed.