Jason Schwartzman and Bob Byington talk 7 Chinese Brothers

Hollywood Journal

Jason Schwartzman and Bob Byington discuss how Jason’s real-life dog, Arrow, got cast in 7 Chinese Brothers and how director Bob Byinton got inspired to write the script.

Transcript

00:00Seven Chinese Brothers stars Jason Schwartzman and his dog, Arrow.

00:04We sat down to talk with the one who actually speaks English.

00:07Your dog, Arrow.

00:08How often was he like, I gotta get into a film, what can you do for me?

00:11And then how long did it take you to say yes?

00:14He had proven to me that he wasn't, that he really wanted to do it for real.

00:19That it wasn't just a flash in the pan whim that he wanted to be in movies.

00:23I said to him, if you really want to do this, go off and study for a few years, cut your

00:27teeth somewhere, and then if you still want to do this in a few years, then we'll see.

00:32You know, the dog was written as a tough, mean dog.

00:36It was actually written as a German Shepherd, and it was based on a German Shepherd that

00:39I knew, and Jason was not really involved with casting.

00:44He did say, maybe you should meet Arrow.

00:47Once I met Arrow, I knew why he wanted me to meet Arrow, because Arrow's incredible.

00:51I mean, moments after I met Arrow, it's like, that's the dog.

00:55My character in the movie, he's a guy that really isn't doing much.

00:58His dog is really the only person that he cares about.

01:01In the script, it was like that, you know, that he loves this animal.

01:05But when Bob met my dog and wanted to put him in the movie, it kind of made sense in

01:10a different way to me, because I think it probably would have been strange to just talk to some

01:14strange dog.

01:15Never a good idea, keying someone's car.

01:18Arrow really did seem to know what we were doing.

01:21And it was weird, because he seemed to know he was looking at the camera when he would

01:25do it.

01:26It started to freak us out a little bit.

01:27I was really proud of him.

01:28He's actually a great dog to be in a movie, because he has a real, like, just tiredness

01:34that was wonderful for shooting purposes.

01:37He would just walk into the room we were shooting, and he would just fall asleep on a couch like,

01:41okay, he'll probably be asleep there for about three hours.

01:44So let's just sort of put the, make the scene happen sort of around this area.

01:48And that's really what we did.

01:50What inspired you initially to do this film?

01:53Uh, well, I saw a movie I didn't really like when I was younger, much younger, actually.

02:00And I wrote the script, like, in a real kind of letter of response to the movie.

02:05Like, I don't like this movie.

02:06I'm going to try to do better.

02:07Which film was that?

02:08I don't know.

02:09Should I say?

02:10No one saw it.

02:11I mean, it was called Hearts of Atlantis with Anthony Hopkins.

02:14I hated it, and I'm like, I can do better.

02:16So I wrote the script, and then it took 15 years to get made.

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