Not Just Any Dog Could Play a Transformed Amy Adams in ‘Nightbitch’

Marielle Heller knew precisely what type of dog she’d cast as Amy Adams’s canine counterpart in Nightbitch, her adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s best-selling novel, in theaters December 6. The ideal fit would be a reddish-colored husky with blue eyes—preferably a female dog, the director says.

As it turns out, that’s fairly rare coloring for that breed. (Dogs, apparently, aren’t overly concerned with matching Adams’s famous hair.) Worse, huskies are notoriously stubborn and not often trained as canine actors. But that didn’t deter Heller, who tasked the film’s animal trainer, Bettina Weld, with conducting the search.

“Dog casting was so fun and so hard, [because] that breed and dog just didn’t really exist within any of the casting circles for already trained dogs,” says Heller. “When I decided I wanted a red husky to play Amy, I had no idea they were tough to train. Our fabulous trainers told me that it was a long shot, and they started searching shelters. When they found Juno”—the dog destined to be the film’s titular Nightbitch—“they were so excited and called me saying, ‘she’s perfect.’”

Nightbitch is the story of Mother (Adams), who loses her entire sense of self and identity as an up-and-coming visual artist when she finds herself stuck at home caring full-time for her three-year-old son. The only way she can begin to regain some semblance of autonomy and self-worth is by turning into a dog at night, running wild and free, indulging in her animalistic instincts. Which, in an ironic turn, makes her a better mother (whatever “better” means, anyway).

Though Adams wasn’t involved in the casting of her costar, she was shown the canine options. “Weirdly enough, the dog that they got, her name was Amy,” says Adams. “And they had to give her a new name because they thought, ‘We can’t train her with the name Amy when everyone’s also talking to Amy” on set.

Juno, as the red husky became known, and Adams didn’t actually spend a lot of time together on set because, of course, Mother becomes Nightbitch. Still, Adams says she’s a true dog person.

“All I want to do is play with the dogs when they’re [on set],” she admits, as her own dog, as if on cue, jumps and barks by her side, interrupting the Zoom call. “But they’re there to work, and they’ll get distracted if you play with them. So, it took a lot of restraint.”

Juno’s trainer, Adriana “Andie” Echeverria, has been working for Weld for eight years. Though Weld’s team at her company, Hollywood Animals, had less than three weeks to cast Nightbitch, Echeverria knew right away that Juno was the one.

“I had just talked about Juno to my husband, and he was like, ‘This is the dog,’” says Echevarria, who first discovered the creature formerly known as Amy at Western Riverside County City Animal Shelter. “I’d already seen so many dogs that just had zero interest in me, and I didn’t want to get my hopes up. But immediately, when I met Juno, she ran to me and fell on her back. She was just all over me. She was so sweet.”

Juno had a similar connection with Adams when the dog met her future costar for the first time. “She literally fell on her back and both of them were on the floor,” says Echeverria. “Amy has this wonderful energy with [dogs], and she was giving all the scratches, and both were just enjoying each other’s company.”

According to Weld, Hollywood Animals puts a lot of effort into finding the right animals for the right job, always putting the animal’s welfare before the production or itself. Not just any dog can be trained to become an actor; the first step is figuring out whether a given animal seems to enjoy the experience. To do this, Weld’s team evaluates several things: Does the dog have the right temperament for being around a lot of people? Can it handle movie sets, with the equipment and noises that come with them? Does it have a good work ethic, and is the dog interested in taking direction?

“You’re looking for a pretty well-rounded dog,” says Weld. She and Echeverria found that in Juno, who was trained for the Nightbitch job in less than six weeks—a faster-than-normal turnaround for most acting dogs. Before a dog is cast, “you meet them and see their personality and find out if they like taking treats, if they’re people friendly, are they nervous of sounds. You do a temperament testing. And there are some dogs who are made for being on a movie set, and then there are others that are not.”

By everyone’s account, Juno was made for being on a set—on the Nightbitch set, in particular.

The last scene of the production was a night shoot in downtown Los Angeles. Juno was tasked with running in and out of traffic with her dog friends, in moments captured entirely by cameras—without any green screen or visual effects.

“It was really tricky to coordinate,” says Heller. “We didn’t want her in danger at all. Plus, we needed her to run, but also stop running, and not head out into the night like a real life nightbitch. We stationed trainers on each end of the course, and Juno did great.”

Echeverria said there were so many times during filming that Juno would amaze her with her understanding, her behavior, and her skills. “It was so rewarding to see how she trusted us and really committed to what she was doing.” During that final night shoot, “there was a camera car that had to come near her, and I could tell that she was aware. But she would look back at me and was like, ‘I trust you. This is what we’re doing, and I’m good.’ Juno probably has been the most difficult dog I’ve trained so far—but [also] the most rewarding.”

Echeverria fell so hard for Juno that she adopted her, welcoming the former stray into her fur family of two cats and four dogs. (Technically, Hollywood Animals owns Juno, but she’s living full-time with the Echeverrias.)

Now it seems as if Juno’s career is already taking off. She recently flew to Toronto to film scenes in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. She couldn’t comment on the role, though, as she had to paw-print an NDA before filming began