Strays director on working with dogs, adopting his lead actor – and being inspired by Stand By Me

There’s a saying in showbusiness: don’t work with kids and definitely don’t work with animals. Director Josh Greenbaum, then, has committed a cardinal Hollywood sin with Strays, an R-rated comedy that sees neglected Border Terrier Reggie (voiced by Will Ferrell) team up with a motley – and cute – crew of good boys and girls to get back at his owner Doug (Will Forte).

For Greenbaum, everything – from humping couches to pooping on command – not only had to look real, it had to be real. Which is why Strays recruited a willing team of puppers to star in front of the camera. 

"I made the choice to strive to make the whole film with real dogs as opposed to going down the path of full CGI for the whole film. I wanted it to feel as real and as organic as possible," Greenbaum explains on the Inside Total Film podcast.

Before the ‘cast’ – Reggie, Bug (Jamie Foxx), Maggie (Isla Fisher), and Hunter (Randall Park) – were let off their leash, however, Greenbaum went back to the surprisingly deep history of live-action dog movies for inspiration – and a certain pig in the city.

"I grew up watching Homeward Bound and [The Adventures of Milo and Otis], that was sort of my era. I remember being home sick and one of my go-tos on VHS was Homeward Bound. I look to those films as what was done and what can be done."

"Another big inspiration, in terms of technique, was Babe. It’s a wonderful film in and of itself but the technical side of it was incredible. There’s no overly anthropomorphised performances from the animals, which was important to me." 

"But in terms of story and storytelling, I really also thought about and looked at films like Stand By Me. There’s an old film I love called Breaking Away – that story is about four friends going on a journey and each growing along the way."

Greenbaum continues, "I was thinking about movies like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Ted, and Bridesmaids. That’s the film I want to tell, but it just so happens that my actors are dogs – as opposed to making a dog movie, this is a comedy. It’s just that the actors you’re watching are on all fours."

Animal control

The director ran into several basic technical challenges – something that (usually) isn’t the case when stood across from square-jawed, six-foot actors.

"Weirdly, the hardest thing I discovered by the end of the film was getting two dogs to walk side by side in a traditional walk-and-talk," Greenbaum admits.

"That’s a very normal tool in a director’s arsenal. We’re blocking the scene and I just want you to walk side by side and have a conversation. That’s very easy for humans. Well, dogs don’t walk next to each other. If one dog is bigger than the other, they don’t line up. They don’t look at each other."

To help, Greenbaum worked with his director of photography Tim Orr to "get a sense of what the world looks like six inches off the ground." That, when coupled with the audition process to find the 16 dogs (four for each main character), marks Strays out as perhaps one of the more unique directing experiences in recent years.

"Casting the dogs was a process," Greenbaum explains. "I really looked at the characters I needed to convey. Because I knew I was using real dogs, I wanted the breeds to convey the general vibe or character straight away without any dialogue."

Greenbaum adds: "There was a lot of give and take of me selecting the dog that I love the look of, but knowing which dog can really give me a great performance. Three of those four lead dogs had no prior training. Only [Australian Sheperd] Maggie was a Hollywood dog. The other three didn’t know sit, stay, or a single command when we started the movie, which was very scary at times."

Given their inexperience under the bright lights of Hollywood, perhaps it was inevitable that some of the dogs-turned-movie-stars wouldn’t play ball.

"I wish I could say they were all perfect, but I would say the diva award – and all the trainers know this – would go to Benny, who plays Jamie Foxx’s dog Bug," Greenbaum says.

"The reason I say that is he’s supposed to be the street dog who is tough and doesn’t care about anything but he was the most sensitive. He always had to be held in between takes by his trainer, he always had his sweater on. He would get very cold… If it was below 70 degrees fahrenheit, we had to bring in a little heating pad because he didn’t like his paws on wet grass."

Greenbaum jokes, "But his performance is great. So whatever he needs for his process."

Dog days

Like all good dog movies – Marley and Me aside, apologies for bringing that up – Strays has a feel-good ending, at least for its director.

After filming wrapped, Greenbaum ended up taking home the ultimate memento from set: one of the Border Terriers who played Reggie.

"As a filmmaker, you often look at set design and go, ‘What do you want to take home? This sign? Or this piece of set design?’ I brought home an adorable puppy to my wife and my daughters to their delight," Greenbaum reveals.  "I now have Will Ferrell running through my living room at all times."

It’s easy to forget, as paws pitter-patter across the screen, that Strays is an R-rated comedy – with plenty of bite. Despite several close to the bone jokes including an eye-popping prison scene that we daren’t spoil here, Greenbaum took an anything-goes approach – with a caveat.

"Anything goes with one goal: is it funny?" Greenbaum says. "One of the traps in making an R-rated comedy is trying to be outrageous. That’s not my goal. My goal is to try and be funny. If being outrageous in the right ways is funny then, yes, there are no rules. But as outrageous as you want."

It seems, then, that R-rated comedies are undergoing a slight revival. The likes of Bridesmaids and The Hangover promised a golden era for the foul-mouthed, lewd and crude comedy, but the genre perpetually feels like a hard sell for moviegoers. Game Night and No Hard Feelings have, in recent years, proved they’re not a dying breed and Strays aims to follow suit.

"I don’t know exactly why. Sometimes it’s reminding them of a flavor they forgot existed," Greenbaum says of the increased popularity in R-rated comedies.

"Some of it is us on the filmmaking side putting more out there again. Universal – the greatest studio doing R-rated comedies – is doing this film. They’ve made most of my favorite R-rated comedies and the ones that were really popular 5-10 years ago. Now they’re putting more back out in the world like this one."

Strays is out in UK cinemas on August 17 and US cinemas on August 18. For more on what else is out in 2023, check out our movie release dates calendar.