From Broadway to the small screen, to the big screen… when it comes to animal training, who you gonna call??? Bill Berloni of course!!!. And he did it to perfection again, training the mega star Great Dane in the new film, The Friend.
EPISODE NOTES: Animal Trainer Extraordinaire Bill Berloni is the Man Behind the Movie, The Friend
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rappaport-to-the-rescue-on-pet-life-radio-petliferadio-com--6667849/support.
EPISODE NOTES: Animal Trainer Extraordinaire Bill Berloni is the Man Behind the Movie, The Friend
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rappaport-to-the-rescue-on-pet-life-radio-petliferadio-com--6667849/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Live Baby. This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Rapaport to the Rescue with award winning animal advocate, best
selling author, journalist, and pet product creator Jill Rappaport.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Hi, Welcome to.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
This edition of Rapaport to the Rescue. I am Jill Rapaport.
I just literally got home last night, very late, after
driving back from Michigan, my hometown. I went to spend
my birthday there with my wonderful mother, who's going to
be ninety seven years young. She is truly my role model, brilliant, beautiful,
(00:43):
a mind as sharp as attack. She doesn't miss a beat.
The minute I walk in the door, she'll say, hmm,
I think you could have worn a better color sweater
with those pants. And she is so much fun and
I had such a wonderful time spending my birthday with her.
And you know birthdays each year you get a little older,
as we all know, and I always want to do
(01:03):
something very special to celebrate my birthday, to really make
it a day to remember. And this year there was
only one thing I wanted to do, and that was
to go see the movie The Friend and I had
two reasons for wanting to do that. First and foremost,
it's about a rescue dog, so of course I had
to go see this movie starring Naomi Watts. But more important,
(01:26):
it was about the person behind the movie, the person
that actually trained the rescue dog, and that is our
dear friend, and of course you know him from this show,
the wonderful, incredible trainer, Bill Burloni. He is the reason
this movie happened. He is the man behind the dog.
So I am so excited to catch up with Bill
(01:50):
because if you remember, he was a regular on the show.
But the last year between the movie and all his
Broadway shows where he's cast all these incredible rescue animal
in these shows like Gypsy Left on tenth, Bill has
been one busy boy. But today he is our main guest.
We are going to talk all about the movie The
(02:11):
Friend with him and see what he has been up to.
And I am so thrilled and honored to have him on.
What an incredible job he did.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
With this movie.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I was crying and when you go see it, if
you haven't already, you will too. So when we come back,
Bill Burloni, stay tuned.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Take a bite out of your competition advertiser business with
an ad in pet Life radio podcasts and radio shows.
There is no other pet related media that is as
large and reaches more pet parents and pet lovers than
pet Life Radio with over seven million monthly listeners. Pet
Life Radio podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms,
(02:53):
and our live radio stream goes out to over two
hundred and fifty million subscribers on Iheartrate, Thank You, Odyssey,
tune In, and other streaming apps. For more information on
how you can advertise on the number one pet podcast
and radio network, visit Petlife Radio dot com slash advertised today,
Let's talk past Let's radio Petline Radio petlfradio dot com.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Hi, welcome back to rap Report to the Rescue. I'm
Joel Rapaport. You're heard in the open, the one, the only,
my dear friend, the most incredible animal trainer there is.
Bill Burloni. You're back on the show. It's been way
too long.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Bill, It's been way too long. Jill, Yes, I agree.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, you've been so busy. It's not like you wanted
to be away from the podcast. It's because you have
been working NonStop on movies, on Broadway shows, TV shows.
This is like a big deal to get you to
be even a guest today, So we're very grateful you're here.
Tell us about what you've been up to the last year,
(04:04):
all of your projects and of course the friend.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Oh my goodness, we've been blessed with a lot of
wonderful projects. So much filming has come back to the
East Coast, which is part of the reason there's a
renaissance of movie and independent films and television shows. But
just to start off the top of the list, we
did two Broadway shows this season. First was a play
by Dilly Echns all left on tenth and we have
(04:28):
two dogs in that with Juliana Marghley's and Peter Gallagher.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
And you know, I did an ABC special based on
the show Thanks to You, featuring you.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah, and talked about the rescue dogs in that show.
And a revival and a claim revival of Gypsy with
Augre McDonald playing the lead role and our little dog
playing her dog, Chousey. So you know, a Broadway show
just to set up is read a six months right
there of preparation and then the running of it. But
we've also been doing some great TV series, the Sex
(04:58):
and the City sequel, and just like that wrapped filming
and we had not only a bulldog character that was
a recurring character, but now Sarah Jessica Parker's character has
a cat in every episode. So we were working every
week on that. Last year we did season three of
only Murders in the Building, two great characters, a dog
character that played a cadaver dog and a pig that's
(05:19):
loosed in the building. You know, So again being available
for shows that are shooting episodes, you know, you have
to be ready at any moment to come in and
things like Super Bowl commercials and small you know, independent films.
So it's been again very busy this year.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Okay, so now you're excuse. That explains why you haven't
been on the podcast all this time. But meanwhile, all
of the top shows you talk about murders in the Building.
I just want to know, aside from the dogs, did
you witness the blossoming romance between Meryl Streep and Martin Short.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
I unfortunately did not. I don't believe there was one
scene with Meryl Street. I mean, I've worked with her
before and I would have said a load of work
if I saw her on the set. But I don't
think the animals were any of her scenes.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Oh well, we'll have to see if you get them
in in the next few episodes, and you'll have to
keep us updated about that, because what an incredible cast
and a great show for you to be a part of.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Oh yeah, I didn't work on season one and two
and for whatever reason, they weren't satisfied with the animal trainers,
and we came into season three. So in fact, we
shot an episode for season four three days ago. So
you know, our dog is back walking the streets of
the Arconia.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Oh how wonderful and in the series. And just like that,
your bulldog is Kristin Davis's character's bulldog in the show.
And also with this cat, Sarah Jessica Parker, is that
the cat that she actually adopted.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Named sho I wish in season one, at the end
of it last episode, Sarah decided she wanted to have
a kitten or character you have a cat. So we
had a kitten audition and we picked this beautiful, little
great kitten, which as soon as we started shooting with it,
she started falling in love with it and saying, Bill,
my husband's going to kill me. My kids want this cat.
(07:00):
I can't I have two cats? You know, well, show
wraps and she takes the cat home and I helped
intrigate it into her home. So that was great, Oh wonderful.
Season two, the kitten's coming back. Well, now the kitten
is a full grown cat, which means we have to
find two matching kittens that we could work with to
play the kitten from season one. So we did that,
we got through season two, and by then those kittens
(07:23):
have become very large. Unfortunately, they decided in season three
to write them as adult cats. So the two cats
we had in season two came back and doubled their
role for season three.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Well, that's such an interesting conundrum because if you are
dealing with puppies and kittens and they have a reoccurring role,
you know, God willing, they have to come back as
dogs and cats.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Well, yeah, and you know, we have these wonderful two
cats living in an apartment in my apartment in New York, unemployed,
so we don't know when they're going to go back
to work. But that's magic of filmma, you know, it's
making those impossible things happen a little more difficult with animals,
but not impossible.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Well, it's so interesting that you say, we have these
two wonderful cats living in Manhattan. People should know that
when you literally rescue these animals off the streets, many
in very dire situations, and they go on to become
stars in their own right. You give them a home
for life, don't you.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Yes, unless someone in my family wants it, you know.
So when Sarah Jessica asked if she could have a kitten,
I thought, well, she'll keep it in the family in
case we needed for season two. But it didn't happen.
It didn't happen that way.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
And how many animals are you and Dorothy, your wonderful wife,
how many do you have in what I call the
Berloni arc? Right now?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Right now, we have twenty six dogs, four cats, three donkeys,
and a macaw.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
And how many of this menagerie are actually employed?
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Like I said, the two of the cats are on hold,
they're waiting for their show to start back up. The
dogs are going in and out of shows. There's a
lot of theorist shows happening now on the country, so
I'd say probably ten dogs are employed and two cats
are on hold.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
It's just such an incredible life and our listeners should
understand what this entails, not only the full time training.
Bill is the pet parent to all of these animals,
and their welfare comes first and foremost With Bill, Bill,
I don't need to speak for you by saying you
don't care what kind of a production it is, how
(09:25):
much money, how famous. All that matters is that they're
taken care of and safe. That's the bottom line with you,
always has been, and I witnessed it firsthand. We've done
so many projects together. But the most recent ABC special
I did going behind the scenes of Left on tenth
with Julianna Margalli's It was so incredible because the two
(09:45):
rescue dogs are on stage for a limited time, going
in and out. They clearly were the stars of the show.
The audience went nuts. But Bill was there every single day,
bringing them on the stage, taking them off the stage,
the typical stage mother, being nervous, looking out, making sure
everything was okay. This is every single day. You just
(10:07):
don't send them off to work and then you wait
for them to come home. You are with them twenty four.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
To seven, correct, And I think in a human world
they're working. In the animal world, they just have to
have a good time, because if they're not happy, if
they're not healthy, they're not going to want to do anything.
So it's really controlling an environment where yeah, somebody's paying
me money to make something happen, but for the animals,
I have to keep them in their happiest, safest, most
(10:35):
forward self as I possibly.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Can, and not always hitting it out of the park.
The first time, even with left On tenth, one of
the dogs had to be replaced due to a situation
that wasn't the best for them.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Yep, you know, when I pick a dog to adopt,
I look for an outgoing, friendly dog that I think
would enjoy the work, and we do a very slow
sort of testing. We do the training, we start desensitizing
them to a lot of stuff, and if any point
in that process, if they decide they don't like what
we're doing, then we rehoned them pretty much immediately and
put a replacement in well. In Leftown tenth we had
(11:09):
a male Hobinie and a female Hobbedice, and the female
Hominies came from a puppy no, so she was somewhat sheltered,
but she was outgoing and loving. She loved the rehearsal,
she loved all the attention she got from the stars.
We got to the theater, big empty space. You know,
this set was like a living room, so she was
happy with that, hanging out with the actors. And then
during our first previews, when the audience filled up and
(11:30):
it was reaction, she got very nervous, as any dog would.
We had taken her to some other theaters and had
her in the back and let her hear everything, but
she was in my arms. So by the third preview
I noticed she was looking out, her tail was a
little bit low, she wasn't running as fast, and I
knew that was a sign she wasn't having a good time.
So I went out to the director, famous Susan Strowman,
(11:50):
and our producer Dale row during a tech rehearsal, I said,
we have to replace the dog, very calmly, and they went,
what what we were open the you know we got there, Sonny,
how could you do that? And I said, we have to.
She's becoming more and more distressed and in three shows
she's not going to walk out on stage. So I
have another dog at home that's an old pro We'll
(12:10):
bring her in and which is what we did. And
at the time, all the marketing, all the publicity had
been all the photos had been taken of this little
white dog, and you know, they wanted to keep it quiet,
and I said, I think you should go public with it.
I think the audience should know that when an animal
isn't having a good time, we don't eid it. We
fix it. And in this case, it was bringing another
(12:31):
actor in and I think that's admirable as opposed to
looking at it as a failure.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
You know, well, you are only about the well being
first and foremost. And now I want to talk about
the movie that literally made me cry, The Bond, This
dog in the Friend. It was so unbelievable. Bill, I
think I texted you even before the movie was over.
(12:57):
I called you this second I saw your credit up
on the screen. I was so proud of you. I
have never seen a dog so incredibly trained in so
many intense situations, from sadness to happiness, to aggressiveness to
every sort of emotion. That dog displayed to perfection. Thanks
(13:20):
to you.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
First off is the film of my dreams. I had
always wanted to be able to collaborate on a film
like this and tell a story that was very important
about the human animal bond. And six years ago the
writers directors. They're a production team that have done many
independent films. David Siegel and Scott McGehee got a cold
call saying, we're doing this film, you know, stars a
Great Day. Can we send you the script? And I
(13:42):
said sure, So they sent me the script. I read
it was beautiful, based on the book by Singren Nunez
about this relationship a woman has with a dog. And
I called them back and said, I'm sorry, you can't
shoot this and so I can't help you, and they
were a little taken backway really. I said, yeah, you know,
great Danes are not the easiest breed to train, and
(14:02):
I don't think you're going to find one that can
do it, and he went okay. So a few weeks
later they called me back and they had talked to
a couple other trainers who said, oh no, this is easy,
Oh we could do this. And it got them thinking
to maybe we should call that guy back and find
out why he turned us out. And when they did,
I explained to them that they can give the nature
of this film and the nature of the breed. First,
we'd have to find this harlequin Great Day with cropt
(14:24):
ears and testicles somewhere in the country, train it and
prepare it to be in a movie because there is
no already trained dog to do it. And secondly, I
know you have a story to tell and I'll help
you tell it with what the dog can do. So
we're going to go in together as a collaboration. You know, again,
it's your story, but there may be ways we have
to shoot it, set it up so that the dog
(14:45):
will do what you needed to do. And they very
gratefully brought me as a collaborator. So search the you know,
it took us eight or nine months to find and
we saw probably fifty or sixty Great Danes across the country.
I mean, we'd call people say come look at the
We look at them. They try to bite us. It
was not working. And then we were in Iowa on
a trip. We went to Minneapolis, Saint Louis and Iowa
(15:07):
to a small breeder and her name is Bev Clington Smith.
She works at Wells Fargo. She has two kids, and
she breathes Great Danes once a year and she also trained.
She volunteered trains at the local training center at night.
So she had a year and a half the old
dog and she said, well, Okay. Actually she got the
email and she put it in the trash and she
tells us, you know, a couple of days later, she
(15:27):
pulled it out and thought, well, maybe this is real.
And she called and so I spoke with her and
she knew who I was and agreed for us to
meet her. And when I met her and her dog
within five minutes, I turned to the two filmmakers and
I said, if we don't hire this dog, I'm going
to bring it to New York and make a fortune
off of it, because this is a great day, like
anything I've never seen. And again, and I've said this
(15:49):
to beb, I said, you know, she had the relationship
and the balance with this dog that I have with
my dogs, and that's rare to find. So she agreed
to participate in the film. And originally this was back
in twenty nineteen. My thought was, well, I'll take him,
I'll train him, and she agreed to that. So that
because if she were on the set and there was Naomi,
(16:12):
me and her, he'd be focused on the owner, on
his mama.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
We're talking about Naomi Watts and also Bill Murray.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yes, I had the dog. He was living with me
and three weeks before we started shooting in February twenty twenty,
COVID hit, so I returned him back to Iowa and
between COVID and when movies sort of lose steam, it's
hard to get them going again, as you know, and
they got it going, then there was the SAgs, right,
so then there was another pause. So by the time
(16:39):
I got the call in the fall of twenty four
they said, we're going to start shooting in three months
and Naomi Watts is on Bill Murray's Now we got
to go quick. I said to them, you know, I
can't take a six year old dog away from its
owner and train it. He's just going to be depressed.
He's going to miss his family.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Especially since Great Danes have a life of expectancy of
eight years old. I mean, he's a senior at this point.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
And I remember saying to them, so we have to
bring the owner with us, and I'll have to figure
out a way to make this happen. They said, well,
but isn't it going to be distracting. We don't have
a choice, and it's going to cost you twice as
much now because we have to have two people on set.
Actually we had four of us. So she came out
and we started shooting the film and again from the beginning,
every scene, every shot, every angle, every prop, everything that
(17:25):
was in that script was collaborated to deal with a
great Dane. And as we were prepping for it, in
one of our meetings, I said, you know, in theater,
we work with the actors, hey learned how to be trainers,
the dogs interact with them on a live stage. I
would love to do that in this film. And they
were like, but stars don't do that. You know, you
can't ask them to work before the first day of shooting.
(17:46):
And I said, well, can we ask at least and
they did. And Naomi Watts, the consummate professional that she
is and dog lover who does she does her research
for every role that she does. You know, she just
doesn't sit back. So when we approached and said can
we come and train with you and the dog? She
was promoting the series about the Swans, so she was
flying all over the country and she said, if you
(18:07):
can come to my house, I'll work with you. I
have a big workout area we could work in. So
right there, a star who would invite strangers into her
home to work with an animal said to me, she's
a real dog lover. So a month before we started
shooting three days a week, twice a day in the morning.
The afternoon we'd come and we worked with her and
taught her how to handle not just the great day
(18:28):
because he's a sweet dog, but also to bond them
so she felt save, he felt safe, so that the
first day of shooting, when we started, it was like
they were a real working pair. So when we started shooting,
the relationship you saw on camera was not dog looking
a trainer off camera doing something, and he was really
interacting with her, and she could modulate how much he
(18:50):
listened or didn't listen, just by the way she gave
the commands. And so it created this I think, a
way of filmmaking for animal training that isn't often done.
I can't imagine outside of the Lassie films or the
Benji films exactly that you know in modern day we
don't go this far. But we were able to do it.
It was a beautiful experience and as was happening, I'm
(19:11):
launching the monitor saying to myself, this is really good.
I've never seen anything like that. And again, when we
pulled every trick I stole from the best. I stole
from myself, every trick that I've used over the last
forty five years. I put it all of this film.
And the last day of shooting, we were on the
train and we were coming back to the city, and
I remember Naomi was seeing up front, and I said
(19:34):
to the dogs on her bed, I said, we should
go say sit with her. This will be the last
time she'll get to spend any time with him. And
we did, and she was very brave but full. We
talked and laughed about the good times. And they dropped
us off in Harlem one hundred and twenty fifth Street
train station on the street there, and there was a
limo waiting for Naomi, and so we all get down
in the street and we say goodbye, and she walks away.
(19:56):
And we had taught him how to howl, and every
time some he left, we would have him howl. And
so she's walking away. This is a movie and itself.
She's walking away, he howls, she turns, she runs down
one hundred and twenty fifth Street, hugs him and oh,
that's what you see in this production.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Because it was real, it was authentic. She fell in
love with Apollo, that was his name in the movie.
And you can see on screen how incredibly intense that
bond was. This was not acting, this was real, yep.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
And in Hollywood they would never do that. And so
my experience in theater, all those things that I thought
would work in a film arena I was allowed to
do and try. And I think it's maaid off.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Just to see the bond makes us feel so good
to know that there's now a story on the big
screen that really exemplifies that connection that we have to
our animals, and it was because of you. And then
there's a scene on a boat where Bill Berloni is
an extraw. Obviously you needed to be there, and they
(21:03):
actually incorporated you into the film so you could continue
your incredible training with Apollo.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yep. Again, Safety with a great Dane on the streets
of New York City or on a boat in the
East River first and foremost. And I remember saying to them,
we always have to be within six to ten feet
of the dog at all time wherever we are. And
so when they set up the boat shot, they said, well,
we're doing a drone and I said, well, where can
I hide? Well, you can't really be on deck. I said, well,
then you don't have a dog in a shot. I mean,
(21:30):
it was that cut and dry, So okay, put me
in a costume. I'll stand there, and there was another
training with me. The gentleman standing next to me was
also my trainer, so there were two of us there
for safety, and there was a lot of He loved Naomi.
There's a scene where he's and we don't want to
give too much away, he's gotten upset and destroyed some
things in the apartment. Yeah, and she comes in and
(21:50):
discovers it, and she screams, bad dog, and we set
up the shot, and you know, before she entered, I said,
we have to take the dog off. They were like why.
I said, because if Naomi comes in and calls him
a bad dog, it's going to break his heart. He
will really think and he'll be off for two days.
He'll be just But a lot of trainers, a lot
of directors don't think of that stuff. Well, when you
see it, yeah, it looks like she's yelling at him,
(22:12):
but he really wasn't there because you knew.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
It would affect him so deeply. And that's what I
mean about always worrying about the animal, and Naomi is
a very petite person, and the dog is walking so
beautifully with her and plays with her and engages with her,
and all of these things that this dog had to learn.
And I think on one of the shows, Bill Murray
was very upfront about saying, Hey, the star of this
(22:36):
film is Bing who plays Apollo.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Yes, it's a beautifully written character in the book, it's
a beautifully written character on film. What I have to
remind the audience and everybody is that dogs don't act.
They don't fake emotions. So wherever they are, whether they're
on a stage on Broadway or in a scene, they're
really feeling what they feel. So on a film set,
it's okay to t happiness. You can make a dog happy, Well,
(23:02):
what happens when you have to make them frightened? What
happens when you have to make them aggressive? What happens
when you have to make them depressed? You can't put
them in that state of mind for real, because that
would be cruel. So again, having some secrets on how
to portray that, I'll give one of them away. You know,
when we wanted him to look a little bit concerned,
we'd set him into the shot on the bat or
(23:23):
wherever he was. They'd roll the camera and I'd say
to his owner, leave the room, and she'd leave the room,
and he'd get that big eye like, what's going on? Look?
Speaker 1 (23:31):
You know?
Speaker 3 (23:31):
And you put that in a moment in which the
story sort of calling for that, and it works perfectly.
So everything he feels when he's depressed, he's really happily
doing something that looks like he's depressed.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Unbelievable. For almost a year, you actually rented a house,
you moved away from your home. You literally lived with
the other trainer, the owner, and the dog, day in
and day out. It is a labor of love and
such an incredible testament to you and your training. And
on a final note, we've talked about this before. There
(24:05):
really should be OSCAR nominations for animals, because bing would
be getting a Best Actor on Four Legs award next year,
don't you agree? I do.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
But it stems from the industry itself. I mean, animals
are props. I report to the head of the property
to part they're put in the props department. So already
we're categorized as inanimate things that we just use on
the set. So when they do start going above that title. Yeah,
they'll take it, but they won't acknowledge it. So within
(24:36):
the industry they keep us sort of contained. And then
I just feel like if there were if we pointed
out that animals are sentient and that they could work
and they can entertain us, it might get people to
thinking about their pets or how they treat other animals,
you know. I mean, if if we could be role
models and say, look at these wonderful creatures, they deserve accolades,
they deserve to be treated, well, that just says to
(24:58):
the rest of society, well maybe we should do that
real life. That's what I see an award saying you
know more than anything else.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
And it's so important to get that message across. Bill,
you are truly doing God's work and we're so happy
you're here with us today.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Well, if we're doing God's worth, your reporting it. So
that's the important thing that people know about it. Incredible
Jill Rapaport to the Rescue.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Everyone, please go out see the friend, bring some tissues
with you and thank you all for joining us today
for wrapp Report to the Rescue.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on Petlife Radio.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Dot com
Live Baby. This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Rapaport to the Rescue with award winning animal advocate, best
selling author, journalist, and pet product creator Jill Rappaport.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Hi, Welcome to.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
This edition of Rapaport to the Rescue. I am Jill Rapaport.
I just literally got home last night, very late, after
driving back from Michigan, my hometown. I went to spend
my birthday there with my wonderful mother, who's going to
be ninety seven years young. She is truly my role model, brilliant, beautiful,
(00:43):
a mind as sharp as attack. She doesn't miss a beat.
The minute I walk in the door, she'll say, hmm,
I think you could have worn a better color sweater
with those pants. And she is so much fun and
I had such a wonderful time spending my birthday with her.
And you know birthdays each year you get a little older,
as we all know, and I always want to do
(01:03):
something very special to celebrate my birthday, to really make
it a day to remember. And this year there was
only one thing I wanted to do, and that was
to go see the movie The Friend and I had
two reasons for wanting to do that. First and foremost,
it's about a rescue dog, so of course I had
to go see this movie starring Naomi Watts. But more important,
(01:26):
it was about the person behind the movie, the person
that actually trained the rescue dog, and that is our
dear friend, and of course you know him from this show,
the wonderful, incredible trainer, Bill Burloni. He is the reason
this movie happened. He is the man behind the dog.
So I am so excited to catch up with Bill
(01:50):
because if you remember, he was a regular on the show.
But the last year between the movie and all his
Broadway shows where he's cast all these incredible rescue animal
in these shows like Gypsy Left on tenth, Bill has
been one busy boy. But today he is our main guest.
We are going to talk all about the movie The
(02:11):
Friend with him and see what he has been up to.
And I am so thrilled and honored to have him on.
What an incredible job he did.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
With this movie.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I was crying and when you go see it, if
you haven't already, you will too. So when we come back,
Bill Burloni, stay tuned.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Take a bite out of your competition advertiser business with
an ad in pet Life radio podcasts and radio shows.
There is no other pet related media that is as
large and reaches more pet parents and pet lovers than
pet Life Radio with over seven million monthly listeners. Pet
Life Radio podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms,
(02:53):
and our live radio stream goes out to over two
hundred and fifty million subscribers on Iheartrate, Thank You, Odyssey,
tune In, and other streaming apps. For more information on
how you can advertise on the number one pet podcast
and radio network, visit Petlife Radio dot com slash advertised today,
Let's talk past Let's radio Petline Radio petlfradio dot com.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Hi, welcome back to rap Report to the Rescue. I'm
Joel Rapaport. You're heard in the open, the one, the only,
my dear friend, the most incredible animal trainer there is.
Bill Burloni. You're back on the show. It's been way
too long.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Bill, It's been way too long. Jill, Yes, I agree.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Well, you've been so busy. It's not like you wanted
to be away from the podcast. It's because you have
been working NonStop on movies, on Broadway shows, TV shows.
This is like a big deal to get you to
be even a guest today, So we're very grateful you're here.
Tell us about what you've been up to the last year,
(04:04):
all of your projects and of course the friend.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Oh my goodness, we've been blessed with a lot of
wonderful projects. So much filming has come back to the
East Coast, which is part of the reason there's a
renaissance of movie and independent films and television shows. But
just to start off the top of the list, we
did two Broadway shows this season. First was a play
by Dilly Echns all left on tenth and we have
(04:28):
two dogs in that with Juliana Marghley's and Peter Gallagher.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
And you know, I did an ABC special based on
the show Thanks to You, featuring you.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah, and talked about the rescue dogs in that show.
And a revival and a claim revival of Gypsy with
Augre McDonald playing the lead role and our little dog
playing her dog, Chousey. So you know, a Broadway show
just to set up is read a six months right
there of preparation and then the running of it. But
we've also been doing some great TV series, the Sex
(04:58):
and the City sequel, and just like that wrapped filming
and we had not only a bulldog character that was
a recurring character, but now Sarah Jessica Parker's character has
a cat in every episode. So we were working every
week on that. Last year we did season three of
only Murders in the Building, two great characters, a dog
character that played a cadaver dog and a pig that's
(05:19):
loosed in the building. You know, So again being available
for shows that are shooting episodes, you know, you have
to be ready at any moment to come in and
things like Super Bowl commercials and small you know, independent films.
So it's been again very busy this year.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Okay, so now you're excuse. That explains why you haven't
been on the podcast all this time. But meanwhile, all
of the top shows you talk about murders in the Building.
I just want to know, aside from the dogs, did
you witness the blossoming romance between Meryl Streep and Martin Short.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
I unfortunately did not. I don't believe there was one
scene with Meryl Street. I mean, I've worked with her
before and I would have said a load of work
if I saw her on the set. But I don't
think the animals were any of her scenes.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Oh well, we'll have to see if you get them
in in the next few episodes, and you'll have to
keep us updated about that, because what an incredible cast
and a great show for you to be a part of.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Oh yeah, I didn't work on season one and two
and for whatever reason, they weren't satisfied with the animal trainers,
and we came into season three. So in fact, we
shot an episode for season four three days ago. So
you know, our dog is back walking the streets of
the Arconia.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Oh how wonderful and in the series. And just like that,
your bulldog is Kristin Davis's character's bulldog in the show.
And also with this cat, Sarah Jessica Parker, is that
the cat that she actually adopted.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Named sho I wish in season one, at the end
of it last episode, Sarah decided she wanted to have
a kitten or character you have a cat. So we
had a kitten audition and we picked this beautiful, little
great kitten, which as soon as we started shooting with it,
she started falling in love with it and saying, Bill,
my husband's going to kill me. My kids want this cat.
(07:00):
I can't I have two cats? You know, well, show
wraps and she takes the cat home and I helped
intrigate it into her home. So that was great, Oh wonderful.
Season two, the kitten's coming back. Well, now the kitten
is a full grown cat, which means we have to
find two matching kittens that we could work with to
play the kitten from season one. So we did that,
we got through season two, and by then those kittens
(07:23):
have become very large. Unfortunately, they decided in season three
to write them as adult cats. So the two cats
we had in season two came back and doubled their
role for season three.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Well, that's such an interesting conundrum because if you are
dealing with puppies and kittens and they have a reoccurring role,
you know, God willing, they have to come back as
dogs and cats.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Well, yeah, and you know, we have these wonderful two
cats living in an apartment in my apartment in New York, unemployed,
so we don't know when they're going to go back
to work. But that's magic of filmma, you know, it's
making those impossible things happen a little more difficult with animals,
but not impossible.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Well, it's so interesting that you say, we have these
two wonderful cats living in Manhattan. People should know that
when you literally rescue these animals off the streets, many
in very dire situations, and they go on to become
stars in their own right. You give them a home
for life, don't you.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Yes, unless someone in my family wants it, you know.
So when Sarah Jessica asked if she could have a kitten,
I thought, well, she'll keep it in the family in
case we needed for season two. But it didn't happen.
It didn't happen that way.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
And how many animals are you and Dorothy, your wonderful wife,
how many do you have in what I call the
Berloni arc? Right now?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Right now, we have twenty six dogs, four cats, three donkeys,
and a macaw.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
And how many of this menagerie are actually employed?
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Like I said, the two of the cats are on hold,
they're waiting for their show to start back up. The
dogs are going in and out of shows. There's a
lot of theorist shows happening now on the country, so
I'd say probably ten dogs are employed and two cats
are on hold.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
It's just such an incredible life and our listeners should
understand what this entails, not only the full time training.
Bill is the pet parent to all of these animals,
and their welfare comes first and foremost With Bill, Bill,
I don't need to speak for you by saying you
don't care what kind of a production it is, how
(09:25):
much money, how famous. All that matters is that they're
taken care of and safe. That's the bottom line with you,
always has been, and I witnessed it firsthand. We've done
so many projects together. But the most recent ABC special
I did going behind the scenes of Left on tenth
with Julianna Margalli's It was so incredible because the two
(09:45):
rescue dogs are on stage for a limited time, going
in and out. They clearly were the stars of the show.
The audience went nuts. But Bill was there every single day,
bringing them on the stage, taking them off the stage,
the typical stage mother, being nervous, looking out, making sure
everything was okay. This is every single day. You just
(10:07):
don't send them off to work and then you wait
for them to come home. You are with them twenty four.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
To seven, correct, And I think in a human world
they're working. In the animal world, they just have to
have a good time, because if they're not happy, if
they're not healthy, they're not going to want to do anything.
So it's really controlling an environment where yeah, somebody's paying
me money to make something happen, but for the animals,
I have to keep them in their happiest, safest, most
(10:35):
forward self as I possibly.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Can, and not always hitting it out of the park.
The first time, even with left On tenth, one of
the dogs had to be replaced due to a situation
that wasn't the best for them.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Yep, you know, when I pick a dog to adopt,
I look for an outgoing, friendly dog that I think
would enjoy the work, and we do a very slow
sort of testing. We do the training, we start desensitizing
them to a lot of stuff, and if any point
in that process, if they decide they don't like what
we're doing, then we rehoned them pretty much immediately and
put a replacement in well. In Leftown tenth we had
(11:09):
a male Hobinie and a female Hobbedice, and the female
Hominies came from a puppy no, so she was somewhat sheltered,
but she was outgoing and loving. She loved the rehearsal,
she loved all the attention she got from the stars.
We got to the theater, big empty space. You know,
this set was like a living room, so she was
happy with that, hanging out with the actors. And then
during our first previews, when the audience filled up and
(11:30):
it was reaction, she got very nervous, as any dog would.
We had taken her to some other theaters and had
her in the back and let her hear everything, but
she was in my arms. So by the third preview
I noticed she was looking out, her tail was a
little bit low, she wasn't running as fast, and I
knew that was a sign she wasn't having a good time.
So I went out to the director, famous Susan Strowman,
(11:50):
and our producer Dale row during a tech rehearsal, I said,
we have to replace the dog, very calmly, and they went,
what what we were open the you know we got there, Sonny,
how could you do that? And I said, we have to.
She's becoming more and more distressed and in three shows
she's not going to walk out on stage. So I
have another dog at home that's an old pro We'll
(12:10):
bring her in and which is what we did. And
at the time, all the marketing, all the publicity had
been all the photos had been taken of this little
white dog, and you know, they wanted to keep it quiet,
and I said, I think you should go public with it.
I think the audience should know that when an animal
isn't having a good time, we don't eid it. We
fix it. And in this case, it was bringing another
(12:31):
actor in and I think that's admirable as opposed to
looking at it as a failure.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
You know, well, you are only about the well being
first and foremost. And now I want to talk about
the movie that literally made me cry, The Bond, This
dog in the Friend. It was so unbelievable. Bill, I
think I texted you even before the movie was over.
(12:57):
I called you this second I saw your credit up
on the screen. I was so proud of you. I
have never seen a dog so incredibly trained in so
many intense situations, from sadness to happiness, to aggressiveness to
every sort of emotion. That dog displayed to perfection. Thanks
(13:20):
to you.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
First off is the film of my dreams. I had
always wanted to be able to collaborate on a film
like this and tell a story that was very important
about the human animal bond. And six years ago the
writers directors. They're a production team that have done many
independent films. David Siegel and Scott McGehee got a cold
call saying, we're doing this film, you know, stars a
Great Day. Can we send you the script? And I
(13:42):
said sure, So they sent me the script. I read
it was beautiful, based on the book by Singren Nunez
about this relationship a woman has with a dog. And
I called them back and said, I'm sorry, you can't
shoot this and so I can't help you, and they
were a little taken backway really. I said, yeah, you know,
great Danes are not the easiest breed to train, and
(14:02):
I don't think you're going to find one that can
do it, and he went okay. So a few weeks
later they called me back and they had talked to
a couple other trainers who said, oh no, this is easy,
Oh we could do this. And it got them thinking
to maybe we should call that guy back and find
out why he turned us out. And when they did,
I explained to them that they can give the nature
of this film and the nature of the breed. First,
we'd have to find this harlequin Great Day with cropt
(14:24):
ears and testicles somewhere in the country, train it and
prepare it to be in a movie because there is
no already trained dog to do it. And secondly, I
know you have a story to tell and I'll help
you tell it with what the dog can do. So
we're going to go in together as a collaboration. You know, again,
it's your story, but there may be ways we have
to shoot it, set it up so that the dog
(14:45):
will do what you needed to do. And they very
gratefully brought me as a collaborator. So search the you know,
it took us eight or nine months to find and
we saw probably fifty or sixty Great Danes across the country.
I mean, we'd call people say come look at the
We look at them. They try to bite us. It
was not working. And then we were in Iowa on
a trip. We went to Minneapolis, Saint Louis and Iowa
(15:07):
to a small breeder and her name is Bev Clington Smith.
She works at Wells Fargo. She has two kids, and
she breathes Great Danes once a year and she also trained.
She volunteered trains at the local training center at night.
So she had a year and a half the old
dog and she said, well, Okay. Actually she got the
email and she put it in the trash and she
tells us, you know, a couple of days later, she
(15:27):
pulled it out and thought, well, maybe this is real.
And she called and so I spoke with her and
she knew who I was and agreed for us to
meet her. And when I met her and her dog
within five minutes, I turned to the two filmmakers and
I said, if we don't hire this dog, I'm going
to bring it to New York and make a fortune
off of it, because this is a great day, like
anything I've never seen. And again, and I've said this
(15:49):
to beb, I said, you know, she had the relationship
and the balance with this dog that I have with
my dogs, and that's rare to find. So she agreed
to participate in the film. And originally this was back
in twenty nineteen. My thought was, well, I'll take him,
I'll train him, and she agreed to that. So that
because if she were on the set and there was Naomi,
(16:12):
me and her, he'd be focused on the owner, on
his mama.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
We're talking about Naomi Watts and also Bill Murray.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yes, I had the dog. He was living with me
and three weeks before we started shooting in February twenty twenty,
COVID hit, so I returned him back to Iowa and
between COVID and when movies sort of lose steam, it's
hard to get them going again, as you know, and
they got it going, then there was the SAgs, right,
so then there was another pause. So by the time
(16:39):
I got the call in the fall of twenty four
they said, we're going to start shooting in three months
and Naomi Watts is on Bill Murray's Now we got
to go quick. I said to them, you know, I
can't take a six year old dog away from its
owner and train it. He's just going to be depressed.
He's going to miss his family.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Especially since Great Danes have a life of expectancy of
eight years old. I mean, he's a senior at this point.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
And I remember saying to them, so we have to
bring the owner with us, and I'll have to figure
out a way to make this happen. They said, well,
but isn't it going to be distracting. We don't have
a choice, and it's going to cost you twice as
much now because we have to have two people on set.
Actually we had four of us. So she came out
and we started shooting the film and again from the beginning,
every scene, every shot, every angle, every prop, everything that
(17:25):
was in that script was collaborated to deal with a
great Dane. And as we were prepping for it, in
one of our meetings, I said, you know, in theater,
we work with the actors, hey learned how to be trainers,
the dogs interact with them on a live stage. I
would love to do that in this film. And they
were like, but stars don't do that. You know, you
can't ask them to work before the first day of shooting.
(17:46):
And I said, well, can we ask at least and
they did. And Naomi Watts, the consummate professional that she
is and dog lover who does she does her research
for every role that she does. You know, she just
doesn't sit back. So when we approached and said can
we come and train with you and the dog? She
was promoting the series about the Swans, so she was
flying all over the country and she said, if you
(18:07):
can come to my house, I'll work with you. I
have a big workout area we could work in. So
right there, a star who would invite strangers into her
home to work with an animal said to me, she's
a real dog lover. So a month before we started
shooting three days a week, twice a day in the morning.
The afternoon we'd come and we worked with her and
taught her how to handle not just the great day
(18:28):
because he's a sweet dog, but also to bond them
so she felt save, he felt safe, so that the
first day of shooting, when we started, it was like
they were a real working pair. So when we started shooting,
the relationship you saw on camera was not dog looking
a trainer off camera doing something, and he was really
interacting with her, and she could modulate how much he
(18:50):
listened or didn't listen, just by the way she gave
the commands. And so it created this I think, a
way of filmmaking for animal training that isn't often done.
I can't imagine outside of the Lassie films or the
Benji films exactly that you know in modern day we
don't go this far. But we were able to do it.
It was a beautiful experience and as was happening, I'm
(19:11):
launching the monitor saying to myself, this is really good.
I've never seen anything like that. And again, when we
pulled every trick I stole from the best. I stole
from myself, every trick that I've used over the last
forty five years. I put it all of this film.
And the last day of shooting, we were on the
train and we were coming back to the city, and
I remember Naomi was seeing up front, and I said
(19:34):
to the dogs on her bed, I said, we should
go say sit with her. This will be the last
time she'll get to spend any time with him. And
we did, and she was very brave but full. We
talked and laughed about the good times. And they dropped
us off in Harlem one hundred and twenty fifth Street
train station on the street there, and there was a
limo waiting for Naomi, and so we all get down
in the street and we say goodbye, and she walks away.
(19:56):
And we had taught him how to howl, and every
time some he left, we would have him howl. And
so she's walking away. This is a movie and itself.
She's walking away, he howls, she turns, she runs down
one hundred and twenty fifth Street, hugs him and oh,
that's what you see in this production.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Because it was real, it was authentic. She fell in
love with Apollo, that was his name in the movie.
And you can see on screen how incredibly intense that
bond was. This was not acting, this was real, yep.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
And in Hollywood they would never do that. And so
my experience in theater, all those things that I thought
would work in a film arena I was allowed to
do and try. And I think it's maaid off.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Just to see the bond makes us feel so good
to know that there's now a story on the big
screen that really exemplifies that connection that we have to
our animals, and it was because of you. And then
there's a scene on a boat where Bill Berloni is
an extraw. Obviously you needed to be there, and they
(21:03):
actually incorporated you into the film so you could continue
your incredible training with Apollo.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yep. Again, Safety with a great Dane on the streets
of New York City or on a boat in the
East River first and foremost. And I remember saying to them,
we always have to be within six to ten feet
of the dog at all time wherever we are. And
so when they set up the boat shot, they said, well,
we're doing a drone and I said, well, where can
I hide? Well, you can't really be on deck. I said, well,
then you don't have a dog in a shot. I mean,
(21:30):
it was that cut and dry, So okay, put me
in a costume. I'll stand there, and there was another
training with me. The gentleman standing next to me was
also my trainer, so there were two of us there
for safety, and there was a lot of He loved Naomi.
There's a scene where he's and we don't want to
give too much away, he's gotten upset and destroyed some
things in the apartment. Yeah, and she comes in and
(21:50):
discovers it, and she screams, bad dog, and we set
up the shot, and you know, before she entered, I said,
we have to take the dog off. They were like why.
I said, because if Naomi comes in and calls him
a bad dog, it's going to break his heart. He
will really think and he'll be off for two days.
He'll be just But a lot of trainers, a lot
of directors don't think of that stuff. Well, when you
see it, yeah, it looks like she's yelling at him,
(22:12):
but he really wasn't there because you knew.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
It would affect him so deeply. And that's what I
mean about always worrying about the animal, and Naomi is
a very petite person, and the dog is walking so
beautifully with her and plays with her and engages with her,
and all of these things that this dog had to learn.
And I think on one of the shows, Bill Murray
was very upfront about saying, Hey, the star of this
(22:36):
film is Bing who plays Apollo.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Yes, it's a beautifully written character in the book, it's
a beautifully written character on film. What I have to
remind the audience and everybody is that dogs don't act.
They don't fake emotions. So wherever they are, whether they're
on a stage on Broadway or in a scene, they're
really feeling what they feel. So on a film set,
it's okay to t happiness. You can make a dog happy, Well,
(23:02):
what happens when you have to make them frightened? What
happens when you have to make them aggressive? What happens
when you have to make them depressed? You can't put
them in that state of mind for real, because that
would be cruel. So again, having some secrets on how
to portray that, I'll give one of them away. You know,
when we wanted him to look a little bit concerned,
we'd set him into the shot on the bat or
(23:23):
wherever he was. They'd roll the camera and I'd say
to his owner, leave the room, and she'd leave the room,
and he'd get that big eye like, what's going on? Look?
Speaker 1 (23:31):
You know?
Speaker 3 (23:31):
And you put that in a moment in which the
story sort of calling for that, and it works perfectly.
So everything he feels when he's depressed, he's really happily
doing something that looks like he's depressed.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Unbelievable. For almost a year, you actually rented a house,
you moved away from your home. You literally lived with
the other trainer, the owner, and the dog, day in
and day out. It is a labor of love and
such an incredible testament to you and your training. And
on a final note, we've talked about this before. There
(24:05):
really should be OSCAR nominations for animals, because bing would
be getting a Best Actor on Four Legs award next year,
don't you agree? I do.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
But it stems from the industry itself. I mean, animals
are props. I report to the head of the property
to part they're put in the props department. So already
we're categorized as inanimate things that we just use on
the set. So when they do start going above that title. Yeah,
they'll take it, but they won't acknowledge it. So within
(24:36):
the industry they keep us sort of contained. And then
I just feel like if there were if we pointed
out that animals are sentient and that they could work
and they can entertain us, it might get people to
thinking about their pets or how they treat other animals,
you know. I mean, if if we could be role
models and say, look at these wonderful creatures, they deserve accolades,
they deserve to be treated, well, that just says to
(24:58):
the rest of society, well maybe we should do that
real life. That's what I see an award saying you
know more than anything else.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
And it's so important to get that message across. Bill,
you are truly doing God's work and we're so happy
you're here with us today.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Well, if we're doing God's worth, your reporting it. So
that's the important thing that people know about it. Incredible
Jill Rapaport to the Rescue.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Everyone, please go out see the friend, bring some tissues
with you and thank you all for joining us today
for wrapp Report to the Rescue.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on Petlife Radio.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
Dot com
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.