You’ve probably seen his cute face and big noggin on billboards, TV, or while scrolling your social media feed — a black-and-white-speckled Great Dane named Bing, with a disarmingly droopy face and a pair of heartbreakingly handsome eyes of different colors, accompanying Naomi Watts in the streets of New York City. Obviously a very good boy, Bing is the canine star of David Siegel and Scott McGehee’s big-hearted urban drama “The Friend,” a tender tearjerker on grief, love, and friendship (between both two and four-legged beings), and one of the most classically New York movies in recent memory.
It makes all the sense in the world that a movie called “The Friend” would be the work of two lifelong friends and creative partners like Siegel and McGehee, co-writers and co-directors of intimate human dramas like “The Deep End” and “Montana Story,” who poured their organic synergy and shared life experiences into their thoughtful adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s 2018 novel with the same name. The duo, who are proudly self-proclaimed “dog people,” have been making movies together for over three decades now — their earliest IMDb credit dates back to 1989 for a short called “Birds Past” — and jointly experienced many a life event with ups and downs.
Those relatable human arcs are at the heart of “The Friend,” which follows Naomi Watts’ NYC-based writer Iris, reeling from the recent unexpected death of her good friend and creative mentor, Walter (Bill Murray). What complicates Iris’s life even further is Apollo (played by Bing in a stunning performance). Turns out, Walter has left his pony-sized soulmate in Iris’ care, even though Iris lives in a small downtown apartment she can’t afford to lose (the place isn’t dog-friendly), and identifies as a cat person.
It’s no spoiler to reveal that Iris and Apollo would rise above the hurdles, and eventually form an enviable bond. But what matters in “The Friend” is the journey they take to get there, an excursion Siegel and McGehee embarked on with the blessing of Nunez, who encouragingly left all adaptation decisions to the co-writers, and became a good friend of and a reliable sounding-board to the filmmakers in the years that took to make the film. In the process of transposing the book to the big screen, Siegel and McGehee navigated a number of familiar terrains from their own lives and losses: dogs they loved, periods of grief they experienced, and New York City, where they live.
“I had a female dog named Tiger, who passed away about 10 years ago,” Siegel remembered during a recent interview with IndieWire. “She was a 1-year-old stray when I adopted her. And she was a very important part of our lives. We actually made a movie, ‘Uncertainty,’ where she is one of the stars. One of those elevated beings that rarely come along.” McGehee continued, “Around the time David and I finished making ‘What Maisie Knew’ is when David lost Tiger, and I lost my father — those two events happened within a month of each other.”
A devastating third loss found them during that time, too — the death of Siegel’s father-figure uncle, whom McGehee also knew well. “We went through a grieving process together, supported and learned so much about each other,” added McGehee. “That was an intense period for us and a kind of foundation we relied a lot on while making this film.”
In embracing New York City for the production and defining the romantically nostalgic atmosphere of “The Friend,” the duo leaned into their own shrewd perceptiveness of The Big Apple, while Iris and Apollo stroll through the streets of the town and cozy up in Iris’s small but handsomely appointed pad. To represent the New York of brownstone blocks, bookish enclaves, and chaotic avenues, the filmmakers scouted the city themselves on their bikes, trying to emphasize a balance of scope and intimacy in their locations.
“New York is an iconic presence in many great American movies we grew up loving,” said McGehee. “So we thought: ‘How can a New York movie feel like it’s part of a beautiful, big, romantic tradition, but is also fresh and of today?’” Added Siegel, “We worked really hard on the soundtrack that could play into the New York-ness of the movie. That is something we must have said to the composers a lot.”
That soundtrack not only includes a lovely version of “Manhattan” performed by Blossom Dearie, but also an Iggy Pop cover of “Everybody’s Talkin’,” accompanying a lovingly hilarious homage to “Midnight Cowboy” in a scene where it might actually be a gruff-voiced Bing singing the ballad. (“That was sort of the idea,” Siegel admitted with a chuckle.) There were other references at the filmmakers’ fingertips, including Nora Ephron’s “You’ve Got Mail.” (Or was it Rob Reiner’s “When Harry Met Sally,” also written by Ephron? No, it was “You’ve Got Mail.”)
A moment of confusion between the filmmakers on which contemporary rom-com classic was more of an influence on the vibe of “The Friend” actually made a lot of sense when Siegel explained, “That era of cinema was when the studios were making movies that were broader, that allowed for bigger access to a certain kind of view into New York. We thought about that, and talked about George Fenton as a composer a lot.”
Seasoned at being a cinematic playground since the early days of movies, New York City itself was cooperative despite being expensive. But it’s one thing to make an NYC movie across the city’s unpredictable streets; an entirely different thing to make it with a massive Great Dane, however good a boy he was. After an extensive nationwide search with the help of trainer Bill Berloni and producer Mike Spreter, the production chose Iowa native Bing after meeting more than 30 dogs. He just had the right temperament to work with Berloni, and possessed the soulful quality in his eyes that the filmmakers were after. A bonus? Bing’s very own human Bev Klingensmith, who ended up becoming an asset to the production with her expert handling of the big boy. “There was something obviously movie star-ish about Bing,” said McGehee. “He just glows with indescribable charisma. The it factor that Cary Grant has,” he laughed.
Praising her collaborative scene partner Bing in a separate interview, “He listens, and he’s very present,” said Watts, who’s acted alongside wordless performers previously in “Penguin Bloom” and particularly, in “King Kong.” (“I imagine we were interested in Naomi for this role for similar reasons that Peter Jackson was interested in her,” remarked Siegel.) Watts continued, “Bing is a sensitive soul, he’s looking for inconsistencies, and he takes and absorbs everything going on around him which, in many ways, makes him an easy performer to act against.”
Still, Bing weighed nearly 150 lbs. and Watts had to convey to him that she was the one in charge. In the beginning, Berloni worked with both Watts and Bing for weeks to build a sense of trust between the performers, mostly indoors and in private. Then they carried out their practices outside. “There were so many obstacles that could pop up in a given moment — crowds of people who wanted to point and poke, traffic, bicyclists, other dogs who may want to do more than meet and greet,” Watts recalled. “Everyone, every species, everything was interested in Bing, so in order to get the shots that we needed to achieve, I needed to have full control when we walked around. He’s obviously way stronger than me. So sometimes when he wanted to move at a faster pace, I had to really keep a hold of him. The same goes for when he wanted to stop and sniff things.”
Firm protocols around who could engage with Bing during the production made it easier for both Watts and Bing to establish a breezy routine and form an authentic bond. “There are very strict rules to protect the animal’s well-being,” Watts explained. “And we had a representative from the American Humane Society on hand to ensure that Bing was always being looked after well. Bill, his trainers, Bev, and I were the only ones allowed to touch Bing while we were shooting, which also helped Bing to learn and to look to us for direction.”
Another aspect that helped Watts to walk in Iris’ shoes? Stacey Battat’s intentional costuming of cozy knits, colorful overcoats, and patterned scarves — the kind of curated items one would expect in the wardrobe of an intellectual New York academic. “Every time I take on a new character, I’m always thinking about the choices someone makes in terms of how they express themselves through clothing,” said Watts. “How they walk, how they talk. All of that helps you get closer to the character. Iris is an artist who has lived in a rent-controlled building for years. She isn’t wealthy. I spoke a lot with Stacey about how she maybe spent money on fashionable clothes in the past and has held onto a few favorite pieces. She’s not on trend, but distinctly herself and tasteful.”
McGehee and Siegel were especially hands-on in articulating the film’s New York personality through design choices. “This is the third movie we’ve made with Stacey,” said Siegel. “We went through many iterations of costumes to get that kind of mismatched yet stylish feel to Iris. She’s a person living and working in a certain social milieu. And we really wanted it to feel like that. The color palette of the apartment, in relation to the color palette of her wardrobe and of Bill’s wardrobe is something that we talked about quite a bit.”
On the whole, the filmmakers wanted to come away from “The Friend” with a light, gentle touch, balancing an accessible and entertaining tone with an undercurrent of sadness. “Both Bill and Naomi gave us a lot of confidence in that they’ve got a lightness in them — the ability to be funny, but also to handle serious things without getting dreary,” said McGehee. Added Watts, “People always ask me about if there’s a repetitive theme in my work — and maybe grief is that central theme. This movie just felt different, though, in exploring the intimacy of a friendship and the loss of that friendship, versus romantic love. And how powerful a friendship can be. Sigrid touches on grief so beautifully in the novel — we must prepare ourselves for it every day. I know I’ve experienced that in my life, and it’s something that I think this movie explores beautifully.”
“I hope one of the things that the movie conveys is, you have to go through this stuff with a light touch,” said Siegel. “You can’t always force things to go the way you want in life. You can only live in them, and hopefully guide them. And you have to walk lightly through it all.”
Bleecker Street releases the film in select theaters on Friday, March 28.
