How a red-haired rescue named Amy ended up playing Amy Adams' doggie double in Nightbitch

It turns out Amy Adams isn't the only Amy starring in Nightbitch.

In the dark comedy (now in theaters), the six-time Oscar nominee plays a struggling stay-at-home mom convinced she's gradually turning into a dog. From the beginning, director and writer Marielle Heller knew she needed a canine actor with red hair and bright blue eyes to match her human star.

The problem for animal coordinator Bettina Weld was that no trained dog in her network matched that description. So, Weld and her team at Hollywood Animals turned to shelters in search of a rescue they could train. They narrowed it down to a pair of white husky sisters, who would need to have their hair dyed, and a reddish-colored stray husky named — wait for it — Amy.

For Weld and Heller, it was love at first bark. "We saw [Amy] and fell in love with her. My trainer, Andie, had gone down to the shelter and met Amy and was like, 'It's meant to be, the dog's name is Amy!' And she was just so sweet, just immediately loving on the trainer and interested in treats," Weld recalls.

So, Amy, who was promptly rescued and renamed Juno to avoid confusion, went straight into training for the film. And from there, a doggy star was born.

Ahead, Entertainment Weekly speaks with Weld about what it was like working with the stray-turned-star, from the most difficult scenes to the times she was proudest of the goodest girl.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How long did you train Juno for the film?

BETTINA WELD: So we rescued her, I want to say, it was the end of that summer [2022]. So we had a couple of months. I'm trying to remember when we started prep and all that, but I want to say we probably had about three months to work with her.

As a dog mom of two huskies, I know all too well that the breed is incredibly intelligent to the point of uber-stubbornness. With Juno being relatively new to training, I have to know, was there anything she just refused to do?

Juno definitely tested our abilities.... You really had to think outside of the box in training her. She wasn't like a normal dog with training because [huskies] are so smart and because they are stubborn, and it had to be almost like it was her idea. And then as soon as something wasn't fun anymore, then it was definitely like, no, I don't want to do it anymore. So then you have to work around that and figure out, okay, when she doesn't want to do something anymore, how do we work through that and get her to the point where she does want to again?

Yep. That sounds like a husky.

Yep. [Laughs]

Was there one specific scene that you recall her being particularly stubborn about?

Well, I have to say, one of the funniest situations was when Juno was supposed to be digging in a hole and putting something into the hole — a cat or a rabbit or something. And for the shot, it had to be very specific where she was putting [the fake dead animal] in. And it ended up being quite a difficult shot, and we were just working it and working it. It just wasn't happening. And she would get frustrated, and she would just run off and do her little running around thing, doing laps, and wouldn't come to the trainers. She was careful and stayed in the yard, but she was playing keep away. And when something isn't going well when you're filming, it can just bring a lot of frustrations, but it was great because it brought lightheartedness, and you couldn't help but laugh at what she was doing. And then, eventually, she would come back and try again. We finally got the shot. But it was sort of comedic relief to break up the frustrations of not getting the shot.

Several dogs appear in the movie in addition to Juno. Did any scenes or moments have to be improvised or changed because some dogs weren't cooperating?

We had quite a good bit of training time, and I want to say everything that we did actually went pretty well. The hardest shot we did, which I know there's a lot of press about it already with Amy [Adams] mentioning it, [but there was a scene] where the dogs didn't react well to her. We had prepped this scene of all the dogs on the lawn and everything. I think it was like 10 dogs or something sitting there, plus the three hero dogs that played the [other moms]. And then Amy comes into the shot, and no one really anticipated it, but the way she came out, she was very creepy. So the dogs immediately were like, what are you doing? Which made everybody nervous.

But we were like, okay, none of these dogs are aggressive. They just didn't really like the way that Amy was coming out and approaching them. And I didn't really realize that she was going to come out in that way. So that was something immediately everyone was like, "Oh gosh, what are we going to do now?" I was like, "No, everything's going to be fine. We're just going to let the dogs see her do that a couple times, and then they'll be fine." And I think we pulled one dog out who just couldn't get over Amy's good acting. So that was not necessarily a blooper, but I mean, it was something that didn't go as well as anticipated but then ended up being fine once we worked through it on set.

What moments made you feel proud of the dogs?

Gosh, it's hard to pick because they all did so well. That scene where we had the dogs on the lawn and then the three dogs coming up and placing down fake dead animals, with Juno also in the shot, was an extremely difficult shot. It was very technical the way that everything needed to be set up and the three dogs needed to walk up and place the stuff down at a specific time. And it was amazing how it came together. I was impressed because there were so many variables that were happening in that shot, so I was extremely happy with the way that turned out.

And then the other thing was we had a shot downtown where Juno had to run down the street, and around the corner, and then up the street at nighttime, and had to follow a specific path. And she did amazing. She just looked so beautiful running, and she never wavered. It was just seamless. And I mean, that could be a little bit strange for a dog to just be running through the streets of downtown LA and then also having to pick a specific path. We also had, I think, cars that were moving a little bit, so it was definitely a setup that was difficult, and she just did it amazing, and she looked so beautiful in the running shot, and it just was another scene that I was extremely happy about.

What happened to Juno or the other dogs after filming wrapped? Are any available for adoption?

We still have Juno. She lives with one of my trainers and her family, and she's very happy. And then all of the other dogs were basically rescue animals that are owned by Hollywood Animals, too, so we've gotten 'em over the years and trained them. And then a couple of the other ones were owned by other trainers. There aren't any that are adaptable.

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