A Jack Russell Terrier named Uggie steals the show in the Oscar-winning film “The Artist”
The following written content by Corey Van’t Haaff
When the fire broke out, Uggie, a Jack Russell Terrier, was inside the apartment with his owner, silent film star George Valentin. Madly jumping and barking, Uggie tried in vain to get Valentin to leave the building. In desperation, Uggie ran out of the open door and down the street until he found a policeman, persistently trying to get his attention, even tugging on a pant leg. Finally, Uggie’s relentless coaxing convinced the cop to follow him home, where smoke was billowing from the building.
As the unconscious Valentin was pulled from the burning building and laid out on the sidewalk, Uggie quickly approached, sniffing all over his body, determinedly searching for signs of life—until the director yelled “Cut!” With the camera no longer rolling, Uggie bounced off for some well-deserved play time.
Sarah Clifford, one of Uggie’s two principle trainers, was on the set with Uggie during the lengthy sequence of events that brought the fire scene to life on film. Her company, Animal Savvy, a California-based agency that rents highly trained animals to the entertainment industry, had been hired to provide the dog for the movie The Artist, a silent film shot in stylized black and white, which was named the best picture of 2011 by the New York Film Critics Circle and is highly touted in the race up to the Oscars.
“I knew when I read the script with all the running and jumping and barking action, it was an amazing fit [for Uggie],” Clifford explains. Her instinct was proved correct when the terrier walked away with a Palm Dog Award during the Cannes Film Festival. His performance in The Artist has been widely praised, with New York Post film critic Lou Lumenick calling it “the best performance, human or animal, I’ve seen this year.” There’s even a Facebook and Twitter campaign to have Uggie made eligible for the big acting awards. Quite a lot of buzz for a dog that almost ended up in the slammer. Read more from Modern Dog.
