I realize that this blog is now in danger of being the all-Carter-all-the-time blog with nothing about our house. But the truth is, our dog is famous. Much more famous than any of us or our house will ever be, so we need to talk about our dog.
Tonight, we got a babysitter and went to see The Fighter here in Lowell. For those of you who do not live in Lowell, New York, or LA, you cannot see The Fighter yet. But here in Lowell, we're special.
The movie was pretty great. The boxing scenes were hard (for me) to watch. It was very fun to see all the local sites and know where every scene was happening, including the fact that Charlene's house, which another character claims is on Stevens Street is actually in our neighborhood, far from Stevens Street. When you come to visit us, we can take you on a tour of The Fighter's Lowell. And, of course, you can meet its major -- in fact only -- canine star, Carter.
Carter's scenes were great. There are two of them, and in one of them, Christian Bale yells "Is that a cocker spaniel?!" at him. Christian Bale has talked about my dog.
Carter is kind of a big deal.
When we returned home, giddy and pleased, we asked the babysitter how things had gone. She got a worried look and said "everything was OK, but there was one thing.....Carter got up on the table and got the banana bread."
Well, who are we to deny a major star his banana bread when we went off to the movie -- his movie -- without him.
Further updates when the dog press junket begins.
Update: I just googled "The Fighter" Wahlberg spaniel to see if there were any mentions of Carter in the reviews of the movie so far.
O.M.G.
Here's one: http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/12/10/the-fighter-review/ where you will find this:
It's also funny in very random moments, like when Dicky turns to a passerby who's gawking at his argument with Charlene and says, "Hey, what kind of dog is that? Is that a cocker spaniel?"
And then there are multiple sites that include quotes from the movie, and this is what they say in the little blurbs under discussion of The Fighter:
Related Quotes
I'm telling you, just keep checking in on "Is that a cocker spaniel?" in the next few weeks....it's going to be the "whaaazup" of 2010.
Update: Jake just asked me "didn't they ask you what kind of dog he was?" -- I did -- and he followed: "so you co-wrote that scene." YES! Also, Jake totally co-directed with Russell, as Carter needed some coaxing to do that thing he does.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteI googled "is that a cocker spaniel" and your blog was one of the results. Here's the thing: My mother grew up in Lowell, and her uncle (who has since passed away) lived on Stevens Street with his cocker spaniel Jingles. They walked all over town together, and were well known. When I saw "The Fighter," I couldn't help but wonder if the man walking the dog was based on Uncle John, and if your dog was playing the part Jingles! I know there's a good chance you might not know this much information, but we are so curious. It could be just a huge coincidence, but I felt I had to look into it. Also, what street did they use to tape "Stevens Street"? My mother and her siblings can't agree on the answer.
Hi there! Thanks for reading! The location of "Stevens Street" was actually 11th Street up on Christian Hill/Centralville (not far from the Reservoir).
ReplyDeleteIf you'd like a little more info on the filming we were involved with, I wrote up the first installment of our story of filming here:
http://83durant.blogspot.com/2009/08/triumphant-return.html
To the best of my knowledge, this scene was NOT in the script and was basically created by the director. We were literally pulled off the street while we had our dog out for a walk. They looked at about 20 neighborhood dogs, and chose ours. They asked what kind he was after they chose him, and when we told them cocker spaniel/brittany (that's our best guess - he's a mutt) they "wrote" the line for Bale's character.
The Wards were on set during those days, though, so it's entirely possible that they requested a spaniel-looking dog, thinking of your Uncle!
Oh, also a couple more links to our stories about the movie-making:
ReplyDeletehttp://mrcarterdogblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/just-when-i-thought-i-was-out.html
and
http://mrcarterdogblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/carter-star-of-silver-screen.html
(they're from the dog's perspective).