QQ. What was it about your role as Ellie that was challenging for you?
A. It was a very difficult process creating Ellie because I had so much time to allow her to emerge and evolve. He was doing rewrites and raising money, so I got to know Ellie over a long period of time. I think we shot it four or five years before Loving Annabelle and it just took a while for it to get out; out into the world on DVD. Jacques wrote the role for me knowing my personality and my background. Loving Annabelle was much more challenging because I had three days, I was cast three days before we started shooting, so I actually didn't even try to create a character, I just said the words for the most part and tried to find that experience. I would say the most challenging thing about the character of Ellie was really the fact that I was wearing five different hats. We were making the film with such a low budget and I was a co-producer and I was craft services, I was making the coffee in the morning and going to Trader Joe's in my five minutes when I wasn't on set. I was also the dog wrangler because I had my own pet care business for fifteen years. Jacques worked with me for a while so that's kind of the story was set in that world because it's a world that we know. I would go and pick up the dogs in the morning before we'd go to the park, all the dogs that were in the film, so I was responsible for that. Part of me would be in the scene as the character and another part of me would be looking around and making sure that everybody was behaving. So, I would say that was the difficulty.
Q. Were any of the dogs used in the film your animals?
A. Yes, our dog who is no longer with us, was Betsy's black dog. She's a lab/golden retriever mix and she passed away a year or a year and a half after we wrapped. All of the dogs were either dogs that I took care of or friend's dogs or people in the crew brought their dogs. So, they are all dogs that we love, and that's the worst thing about dogs. It's that they don't live for fifty or more years so most of them are gone. It is comforting every time I get to see the film and get to see all of them.
Q. Where did the inspiration for the film come from?
A. Jacques wanted to make a film that we could make on a relatively low budget. So, he wanted to maximize the resources and the things that we would have available to us. Like the dogs and clients, a lot of the homes that we shot in were my client's. But, thematically, I think he wanted to deal with the issues of anger. Specifically, how women express anger, moreso how women express anger than men. They internalize it and turn it inward and become somewhat self-destructive with that anger. In an earlier version of The Dogwalker the boyfriend came back, the abusive boyfriend from the beginning, he came back and there was a confrontation. He started to attack her and she ended up beating him up. As we went into the actual distribution last year we realized it was a message that we didn't want to send about violence. We didn't want to promote violence so Jacques cut that out so it became about Ellie's journey and her learning to take care of herself and not be as self-destructive as she had been in the past. Jacques and I have known each other for seventeen years now and when I was younger I wasn't unlike Ellie.
Q. Is that where the experiences for your portrayal came from, being not unlike Ellie?
A. Yeah, I was never abused by a boyfriend or anything like that, but I was a bit of a fuck up.
Q. Sometimes working with a spouse on a project is straining. How was getting to work with yours on the film?
A. We've actually developed a really wonderful working relationship over the years. We've made a bunch of shorts together and we've worked together in life with the dog walking business and then with Filmmakers Alliance, the filmmaking collective that we founded together. So, we've worked together often and for so long but when we first started working together with acting and directing, we did clash a lot. I asked Jacques to take a class with my acting teacher just for a month and kind of learn the language that I use and speak. Because when we first started working with me he would give me more external directions; which made me crazy. By the time we got to do The Dogwalker, I sensed we had very similar aesthetics, very similar ideas about film and art. Often times he wouldn't even have to verbalize a direction and he would just look at me and I would be like, "Yeah, I know, I got it." We kind of communicated telepathically.
Q. How was getting to work within low budget constraints?
A. For me, I don't mind, I kind of like getting my hands dirty. I'm not used to luxury, big budget stuff, it was exciting to get in there and make it with our friends. There were days when we were shooting at the park and it was freezing cold. There were a couple of days when it was super hot and it would have been nice to have an air conditioned trailer. I am sure a lot of the crew wouldn't have minded having not such a tight shooting schedule. But, I think everybody believed in the project and it was fulfilling to be making this film as opposed to maybe a Horror film. You're making something that you care about and believe in. As long as there is good food and you're not working people to the bone and as long as hopefully you get a twelve hour turn around, I think we were all in pretty good spirits.
Q. Did you learn a lot about dogs from working on the film?
A. I think that what I believe, and what was written in the script, that's all stuff that we learned or believe. It's just our opinion, or Jacques opinion, based in what we've learned over the many years that I had the pet care business. I think when you spend as much time as I did with so many different dogs you really see their emotions, you see their personality. There are no two dogs that are alike, even our dog now who we love as much as we did our first dog, he's a sweetheart but he has a totally different personality. Another thing that I definitely learned from taking care of animals, when I was not centered, out of balance or stressing, the dogs acted up; they picked up on my energy. I took care of hundreds of dogs over the years, depending on how they were trained, raised, how much exercise they get, attention that they get, how much their owners understand animals, psychology, there were well adjusted dogs and there were crazy dogs. But, they are all about love and only once in the entire time that I took care of dogs did I have a dangerous experience with a dog.
Q. Why should viewers take the time to check out the movie?
A. It's hard for me to be objective because I was so deeply involved with this project; it's like my first child. I think there is a simplicity to the story, honesty and an integrity that allows the viewer to go on this journey. Hopefully, it feels right to open their hearts and empathize with this woman and her experience. Hopefully, that will bring greater empathy and compassion to ourselves and other people in our lives.
Q. The film Loving Annabelle was incredibly well received. There are so many fansites, fan videos and so much more, did you expect this amazing reaction to the film?
A. Never in a million years did I ever imagine, I never think of that in anything that I have worked on. So, for this to happen, it's just a kick! It's just like, wow, a film can have this kind of impact. It's exciting and it makes me happy and I think that it has a really beautiful message. I hope that it's not just entertaining but uplifting as well even though it's a "sad" ending; I don't think it's final.
Q. What would you like to say to your fans and supporters?
A. Something that I've said in other interviews when I have the opportunity to speak with students or people, I think that I'm very lucky to have had these opportunities to work on these beautiful projects. They came from listening inside to a path that was right for me, because I don't really audition for mainstream stuff. Not because I have any judgment against them, I just listen to the path that I needed to go on and it's brought me here and I just feel very fortunate. I think that the way that we get to where what is truly fulfilling for us is not always prescribed, traditional route.
