The Big Picture

Collider’s Therese Lacson sits down with the stars behind Luc Besson’s
DogMan
in this exclusive Q&A.
Caleb Landry Jones and Jojo T. Gibbs talk about working with a director like Besson, share behind-the-scenes stories, and the challenges of working with over 100 canine co-stars.
Jones and Gibbs also tease upcoming projects like Besson’s
Dracula: A Love Tale
with Christoph Waltz, Alex Gardland’s
Civil War
, and Martin Campbell’s
Dirty Angels
.

Before Luc Besson’s latest thriller, DogMan, hit theaters, Collider hosted a special early screening where we invited two of the film’s stars, Caleb Landry Jones (Get Out) and Jojo T. Gibbs (Past Lives), to sit down for an extended Q&A with us after the credits. Hosted by our own Therese Lacson, the duo discuss what it was like behind the scenes on a Besson movie, and the challenges faced in preparation for their roles.

DogMan is an unusual and multilayered story about a young man, Doug Munrow (Jones), whose traumatic childhood pushes him to create a found family of dogs. These canine companions prove to be more trustworthy than humans, and in addition to finding solace within the drag community, Doug and his dogs also moonlight at vigilantes. We learn of Doug’s brutal past through his conversation with prison psychiatrist, Evelyn (Gibbs), who can not only empathize with Doug, but can relate.

Check out the full interview in the video above, or in the transcript below for more on working with over 100 canine co-stars, what it’s like on Besson’s set, if Jones will ever return to the Marvel universe, and more future projects, including Alex Garland’s Civil War.

DogMan A boy, bruised by life, finds his salvation through the love of his dogs.Release Date March 29, 2024 Director Luc Besson Runtime 114 Minutes Main Genre Crime Writers Luc Besson

CALEB LANDRY JONES: When reading the script, I just thought it was wild. I saw all of the things that could go wrong, and didn’t know where to start. Luc started very simply by having me over, talk, go through the script little by little. After about five months, I was very comfortable with the guy. So by the time I was over in France and meeting wolves and taking walks with an elephant and talking to doctors and getting dance lessons and singing lessons, even though I didn’t sing in the movie, one thing led to another thing and informed more and more of what I was to do. But at first, I just had no idea what to make of it except that I had kind of a sick feeling in my stomach of, “Oh man, this is great, but oh man, you could really mess it up or really waste everyone’s time.”

JOJO T. GIBBS: For me, I didn’t get the full script until after I got the role. I initially got the audition, and there was two scenes. Just from the breakdown and seeing Luc Besson and Caleb Landry Jones, and I had seen him in Get Out in The Outpost, and I was like, “Oh, hell yeah. I gotta get this role.” And my agent called me so hastily about it. He was like, “What are you doing?” I was like, “Doing an audition.” He was like, “Scrap that. I got another one for you. Get it back to me tonight.” I was like, “Oh, send it to me,” and it was Luc Besson, and I was like, “This is why. This is why the energy.” And yeah, I sent it back the same night, and I think it was really quick. I got the role probably the next day, and then they trusted me with the full script.

Amazing.

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Image via Shanna Besson/Europacorp

Speaking on that, working with Luc Besson, he is just a legendary director. What was your experience working with him, Caleb? I know you’re working with him again for the upcoming Dracula [A Love Tale] film.

JONES: There’s room for another Dracula?

There’s always room for more Dracula, I think.

JONES: First off, I just wanted to say after [Jojo’s] tape, Luc was really, really excited. He’s going, “I found her. I found her. I found Evelyn. I found her. She’s incredible.” And then Jojo and I didn’t meet beforehand and so the first time we meet is in the first scene that we meet in the movie, and that was really great.

So when you say, ‘how is it working with Luc,’ Luc is very meticulous, and has a very specific idea in his head. He sees the whole thing in his head and lives and breathes the movie all the time. [Laughs] It’s all he’s talking about pretty much from morning until when you see him at night. So, there’s this person just working in this kind of way and planning everything so specifically that you’re able to have 124 dogs, which is just a heck of a mess. Every one’s not doing what you’re supposed to do, and he’s still able to say, “I got that. No, I just need this. Okay, I got that. I need this. No, I still need this.” When you watch the movie, to me, I’m just in awe of how he’s put it together, something that on set was just 47 voices, and 35 of them were animals and 10 or 12 of them were people. So, it was a really amazing opportunity in many ways.

GIBBS: I agree. Working with Luc, he’s so passionate. Like Caleb said, he was very meticulous and intentional. He had this huge three-ring binder that was clearly more than the script. I don’t know what was in there, but it was a lot of detailed information. He would meet with us in the morning, and just the dedication of his time and the respect that you could tell the crew had for him was so evident, because the crew ran in a militant kind of way in the best way. Just very efficient. You could attest that to their respect for his passion. And we were talking about it earlier, Luc was telling me his story. He has a movie. His story is a movie, low-key. He learned all the different roles on set. So, when you can not only ask for something but give a solution to it, as well, I think that’s very special for a director to be able to do, and that’s probably why they respect him so much.

Definitely. I think being able to understand every single position on set gives you a lot more insight when you’re filming. So I just want to talk about the movie specifically. Caleb, you have a lot of physical scenes in this, not only just wearing the leg braces, but also performing drag and expressing yourself. Can you talk about that aspect? Was it a challenge, or was it something that came more naturally to you?

JONES: Sometimes I think I’d be in the middle of something that was a little difficult and then I’d see Luc, like, wedged underneath something this small with the camera on his shoulder, or on his knee or something, and then you’d just shut up. Then he’s asking for a hand up, gets up, and then we’re on to the next thing. There wouldn’t be any 20, 40-minute, two-hour conversation about, “Can we do this? Can this happen?” Suddenly we’re rolling, and before you know it, you got it, and he’s out of there and we’re onto another hole somewhere else to get a specific thing. I lost myself a little bit just thinking about all the places I saw him fit himself to get a shot, and say, “You won’t believe how close I got you. You will never believe how close I got you.”

Well, he has some great takes in this film, so I think that was worth it. At least probably to him, and also probably to the audience here. Adding to that, I’m curious about the drag and the scenes that you had to perform. How much practice and preparation did that take?

JONES: It was a lot. [Laughs] I don’t know French, so I’m a mess. The tongue doesn’t work. I still don’t know any French. Tonio Descanvelle, who’s an actor that has worked with Luc many times, came in. He’s in the film. He’s one of the police officers in the beginning of the movie. But he came in and helped me phonetically learn that damn song, along with helping me with lines, too, which I’d never had that kind of help with, which, I think, is the reason why I was able to spar with Jojo and keep up.

Image via Europa Corp

Jojo, when it comes to this final scene in this film, what is going through Evelyn’s mind, and what is her impression of Doug as she’s leaving? She’s sort of like a cipher. You can’t really detect her deep feelings. What do you think is going through her mind, especially when she sees that dog appear in front of her house, which is kind of scary considering what you know about him?

JONES: It’s sweet!

GIBBS: You thought it was scary? [Laughs]

He was kind of like the guard dog. If it was the corgi, I would have been fine. This is like a doberman, so I don’t know. [Laughs]

GIBBS: The doberman shows the level of protection that… We love dobermans. They are a little scary looking, though. They look like they’re about business.

Justice for all dobermans. It’s just that particular one. I was like, “Mm, I don’t know.”

GIBBS: Yes. I met him in person. He was really sweet. I think at the end of the scene– As a prison psychiatrist, I would assume you probably come across some interesting characters who may be a little devious in the mind. So, when you actually meet a criminal that you’re like, “You’re not a bad person, you’re just a person that’s been through a lot and had a lot of bad experiences, and somehow you’re here right now.” I think she empathized with that because she probably was in the same predicament. I have a few friends that are therapists and psychiatrists, and usually you have personal experiences you go through that influence you wanting to have that type of job to be able to help people. Those are just the assumptions I made when I read the character to give her a backstory. So, I think that’s why she really connected with Douglas at the end, because she was like, “Damn.” And she had to walk out, so she probably felt like he should be, too.

Image via EuropaCorp

I mean, technically he didn’t kill anybody. Those dogs, they have minds of their own.

GIBBS: Yeah, free will.

It’s like a Charles Manson situation, I think. So, Caleb, I’m curious about working with all of those dogs. Did you have any incidents? I can imagine it’s probably not far from wrangling cats. I mean, maybe not as chaotic. At least dogs listen to instructions. What was that like, and do you have a favorite dog?

JONES: [Laughs] They’re not my favorites, but there were these two — the stinkiest — dogs that were the ones on the couch that look like pillows. Those just smelled so bad, to the point where Luc always saved shooting them until the weekend, on Friday. So we’d shoot on the Friday and then it’d have Saturday and Sunday to air out there because it was just so bad. And that’s a testament to him and how thoughtful he is to his crew and all of us, because it was really, really bad. But I think my favorite one was that big one, one of the ones that saves the day at the end, that gets up on the desk and knocks the guy out, or whatever happens to him. She was really sweet, and she came over kind of late. A lot of those dogs came from shelters, and so she came up and she was a bit cut up and stuff. She was just the sweetest, slobberiest, just mammoth, but I liked her a lot.

I would have gone home with all of those dogs.

JONES: From France to America, it’s tough. Johnny Depp got in some trouble with a dog or some cat or something like that. But the Australian labrador was really cute. Everyone was trying to figure out how to. Quite a few of them were adopted by the crew, too.

Thank god. Well, I hope those stinky dogs, nothing happened to them.

JONES: No, they were loved dearly. Just, man, oh, man. The air holds on to that smell.

Image via Shanna Besson/Europacorp

So you guys have both worked on some pretty large projects in the past. As actors and performers, what is the greatest advice or guidance that you’ve ever gotten that helped you navigate the industry better in the future?

JONES: Don’t be late. Stuff like that, probably. “The work doesn’t stop,” or something like that. “100% is not good enough.”

Well, don’t overwork yourself. You need some time off, too.

JONES: No, those are good, you know?

GIBBS: I give myself the best advice. [Laughs] Personally, what’s helped me is believing in a higher power because I have to just believe in something beyond what I can see in people. So, that’s what’s allowed me to keep a sound mind, honestly. That’s kinda how I keep my mental health. That’s the main one right there, is not caring about people’s opinions and allowing the anger or whatever you feel, the disdain, to fuel you forward rather than to hold you back.

That’s good advice, I think, for most people, not just actors. As performers, I’m sure you guys have an ideal filmmaker or actor to work across. Who would that person be?

GIBBS: You know, I met Quentin Tarantino in a club my first year in LA, and I just feel like I’m gonna work with him because we had a moment. He kissed my hand, and this girl was like, “Oh my gosh, you are blessed forever. Quentin Tarantino kissed your hand.” And I was like, “Girl, I’ve been blessed. But yes! Girl, you saw that?” I was like, “Did you see that?” [Laughs] So, I heard he had one more movie. I’m gonna get my people on it. So yeah, we’re gonna see.

JONES: I hope to work with Jojo in that movie with Mr. Tarantino. Gene Wilder is dead, but you know.

That’s fair. I hope that dream comes true.

Image by Collider Staff

So, for challenging roles and challenging parts, especially things that are not just physically challenging, but also mentally challenging, how do you prepare? How do you get into that mindspace where you’re ready to act in that scene, and then how do you get out of it?

GIBBS: I think learning the lines is the most important thing. I made sure I studied the night before and the day of. This was probably the most dialogue-heavy that I’ve done. The last day Luc had us do all, I think it was eight or nine pages in one take, and we didn’t know we were gonna do that.

JONES: I was trying to tell you, “I think there’s a chance…” [Laughs]

GIBBS: You were like, “He might!” And he did. I was very happy that I knew my lines, because usually you can be like, “Well, I’m gonna learn a scene and I’ll take the time in between to get the last part.” But yeah, we did it all in one take, and he was so pleased when we finished, and was like, “Okay, moving on.” And I was like, “Thank god.” But that’s the biggest thing is making sure when you get to set, especially Luc’s set, because everybody else is gonna have their stuff together and you don’t want to be the one.

JONES: No, you don’t want to be the one holding anything up, or in the bathroom and everyone’s ready to go and they got 35 dogs ready to go. But I couldn’t get far because of those legs. What was the question you were asking?

When you’re getting into a challenging character, especially for this character, there’s a lot to take on. He’s got a lot of layers to him.

JONES: Yeah, but Luc, it’s not his first rodeo. I love his movies. His movies are very much himself all the time. Even if you don’t like them, they’re very much him, and I love that so much. So a lot of that’s just about following him and trusting him, and then trusting your own intuition and gut and all that stuff, and the hard work that you do beforehand. But he’s the captain of the ship, so all you gotta do is keep up with him. But he’s fast, so it’s tough to keep up with. Then getting rid of anything is pretty easy because usually whatever you’re going back to is pretty different from what you’re just coming from.

I would hope so. In this case, especially.

JONES: Yeah, I left the wheelchair in France, and 124 dogs.

I would not want to leave the dogs, personally.

JONES: I was okay about it. After three months, I was alright to get back to a hairless house.

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Image via 20th Century Fox

So Caleb, I want to discuss a little bit about your past projects specifically. I first discovered you, which was, like, 12 years ago or something at this point, from X-Men: First Class. Banshee fans!

JONES: I hear they want me back. No, I’m teasin’.

Actually, I’m curious because the industry has shifted so massively since that time.

JONES: Yeah, we got CGI.

Yeah, a lot of CGI.

JONES: We got special effects.

Is there any part of you that wants to return to a franchise, or is that just in your rear window now?

JONES: No, that was awesome. I just want to keep working. But no, not really. It was an amazing experience, but the movie that we made tonight, it’s not Disney, it’s not Warner Bros. It took a lot of hard work and a lot of fighting to get it to where it is, how you guys saw it. But I believe in the way that that happened so much more. The bigger stuff, there’s great people involved, but it is harder to make something I think is special because there’s so many more people to please, and that can be tough.

Yeah, I can imagine there’s a lot of people involved. A lot of hands.

JONES: And they’re not sure what year it takes place, and they’re still asking if these are the right costumes and are these the real ones? And how do you pronounce the last name? It’s bad. [Laughs]

Well, message taken.

JONES: Maybe it’s better.

Looking forward, as I said, Dracula: A Love Tale is your next work. How is it working with the great Christoph Waltz on that film?

JONES: I don’t know. We’re going to start in a month.

Related Luc Besson’s ‘Dracula’ Movie Has Already Begun Production [Exclusive] The adaptation stars Caleb Landry Jones and Christoph Waltz.

Oh, exciting! Have you spoken with him yet or discussed it?

JONS: Yeah. He’s a very, very, very nice guy. I was pretty shy.

That’s understandable. It can be a little bit intimidating.

JONES: Just about to start work, you know? You’re not ready. You don’t got your fangs in yet, or nothing.

Well, I wish you luck on that.

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Image via A24

Jojo, you have a film coming out soon. It’s Civil War, which I believe you play a role in, directed by Alex Garland. Can you talk about working with Alex Garland on that and what your general experience was?

GIBBS: It was amazing. It was definitely a moment of speaking a want out and then it just came, because out of the blue, I was requested to have a general with him. I read the script and I loved it. We met for lunch, and he basically was like, “I wanna offer you this role that’s bigger than the role that you auditioned for. It was for a male, but I want you to do it.” And it’s interesting because when I was on set, a lot of the actors were actually real Green Berets and Navy SEALs, and things of that nature. They were like, “A woman would never be in this role in real life, but this is so dope that he did this.” [Laughs] They were like, “Maybe somebody will be inspired to rise in rank.” But once you get what the context of the film is, you’ll see why things are maybe out of a little order.

Anyway, working with Alex was so amazing. I did the project literally right before DogMan. I shot it in Atlanta for, like, two weeks. We finished one night, I got on a flight to Paris the next day, and started DogMan the next day. And yeah, I met Caleb on set. We couldn’t meet before.

JONES: We shot for one week.

GIBBS: Yeah. It was boom, boom. It was a very intense three weeks. But Alex, him and Luc are so different from what I experienced. Luc is very planned and meticulous, and Alex was kinda like go-with-the-flow and just figuring it out. They’re two different types of films. I loved both of their approaches. Very passionate both ways, and I can’t wait to watch it. I’m really excited.

I’ve heard some good things about it.

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Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

Then, just touching on Dirty Angels, I don’t know how far you are in that process yet. It’s directed by Martin Campbell, who did The Mask of Zorro and Casino Royale, and GoldenEye, too. I imagine it’s probably an action-filled, and a more physical role. What is it like taking on that aspect of the job?

GIBBS: I loved it. We did a lot of training beforehand. I learned how to kill in so many ways. I didn’t get to execute all my moves. I was so mad. [Laughs] But yeah, that was dope to do the work ahead of time. I realized that my cardio needs to be better. They had us running suicides, and I was like, “Whoa, am I in middle school?” It was a little trauma that I experienced, but it was incredible. We shot it in Greece, and that was dope. Thessaloniki, Greece. No shade, it’s not sexy Greece, but it’s nice.

JONES: It’s not sexy Greece?

GIBBS: Sexy Greece is Santorini, you know? Anyway, we had a great time. Martin is incredible. And, oh my gosh, for a man his age, the energy he has? Wow. I just hope to one day be that vibrant.

Maybe he’s running those suicides, like, every day.

GIBBS: We were there from November to March, I believe. That was a long time to be abroad, but it should be an incredible film. The physical part was cool. It was cool.

I can’t wait to see it. That cast is amazing. Sign me up. Then just a final question. Obviously in this film, Doug has his dogs who he can kind of telepathically communicate with. If you could pick a fictional animal to have that type of relationship with, which one would it be?

JONE: Which ones rule the planet? Is it the bees? I don’t know. That’s a silly question. I’m not sure. I never was big on Aquaman. It was nice, though. We got to show the film in China, and it was the same week Aquaman [and the Lost Kingdom] was coming out and we beat Aquaman. It felt so good. [Laughs] There was one lady that got up in the audience, and we were doing Q&A’s, and she was in her late 70s, and she got up and she was talking through her grandson who was translating for her. She was crying and telling us that she’d been sold several times as a child and that she had dogs, and that her dog, she didn’t treat them well enough, and something about how she felt very guilty for not giving them that love. But now she has a family of her own in time, through her children, and now they have animals. It meant a lot to go over there and show the film over there, and to have some folks like herself talk about it. I don’t know why I brought that up. Probably because the last time I was in front of people with the movie was in China, and that just popped in my head.

Do you have an answer?

GIBBS: Well, I feel like I communicate with my dog already. She is very communicative with her eyes.

The judgment.

GIBBS: The judgment, and I can see when she’s considering whether or not to listen to me. Most of the time she doesn’t, and she’s not food motivated, so I really have no upper hand in this situation. Yeah, I’m a slave to my dog. So, that’s who I would probably communicate with, because I think she says some funny things probably. [Laughs]

JONES: Y’all wouldn’t be living together anymore.

GIBBS: Probably not. She probably talks shit, to be honest.

DogMan is in theaters now.

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