Meet Bing, the Charismatic Great Dane and Star of the New Movie, “The Friend”

The scene at New York’s Crosby Street Hotel last week was, as it often is, packed with Hollywood’s finest for a glamorous film premiere. Influencers were lined up at the step-and-repeat, dressed to the nines in pearls and sequins, posing for the camera — all ready for their brush with the star of The Friend, a film based on the 2018 novel by Sigrid Nunez out in limited theaters and streaming now. But these guests strutting their stuff were of the canine variety, and no, the star I’m referring to is not Naomi Watts or Bill Murray — I’m talking about Bing, the Great Dane. 

While other Insta-famous pups, including Samson the Goldendoodle, Dior and Obi Wan, and Jorge the Great Dane, walked the red carpet, Bing was tucked away in another room doing interviews that were bookended by a morning appearance on The View, and later that day, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Although Bing was busy with press, everyone was still sent home with signed movie posters, complete with the leading man’s large paw print.  

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In his first film role, Bing plays Apollo, the beloved dog of Iris’s (Naomi Watts) best friend and mentor, Walter (Bill Murray), who has recently died. He leaves the 150-pound pup in her care. While Apollo upends Iris’s life (and her tiny New York City apartment), he is also grieving, and the unexpected bond between the two brings new life for both of them. As always, Watts gives a great performance. In Bing, she found a more-than-capable scene partner; he steps up with a compelling performance depicting how an animal deals with the death of their person. 

After a whirlwind of commotion on press day at the Crosby, Bing’s pet parent and trainer, Bev Klingensmith, and animal behaviorist Bill Berloni alongside Bing, settled down to talk to Kinship about Bing’s newfound stardom. 

Getting film-ready

Bing, who will be turning seven this May, initially got cast in 2020 right before COVID shut the world down, delaying production. While Klingensmith and Bing waited for the project, the WGA and SAG strikes delayed the movie once again. But while this was of course frustrating, it allowed Watts and Bing time to actually train together before shooting. This is something that no actor Berloni had worked with had ever agreed to.

“We had the month before the first day of shooting to figure out the dynamic,” he says. “So, it was certainly fate and kismet in all those delays.” Both Berloni and Klingensmith credit a lot of Bing’s performance to the amount of time and personal space that Watts gave them to be able to naturally create the relationship between Iris and Apollo.

“She invited us into her home to do that training pre-filming,” Klingensmith says. 

“How many celebrities invite strangers into their homes? That’s her level of dedication,” Berloni adds.

“That was incredibly generous, and she was just thoughtful and caring and concerned about Bing’s wellbeing,” continues Klingensmith. “She never let dog hair or slobber bother her. So, she had no problem with, you know, kind of just getting up in there, just enjoying the dog, and allowing the bond to happen that way.”

They both knew that Watts would do anything to protect Bing while they were filming. When Berloni told Watts that if she ever felt unsafe she could let go of him. Her response, “If he pulls me [into] traffic, I’m not going to let go. I’m going to hold on. And she meant it,” Berloni says. (To this day, Watts and Bing have a special relationship; they even performed a song together on Late Night last week.)

Klingensmith has trained Great Danes since the ’90s and teaches public obedience classes in and around Newton, Iowa, where she and Bing call home. When Bing was only one-and-a-half, she received an email from Berloni, a longtime animal trainer for film, television, and theater. (He cast Sandy for the first Broadway run of Annie.) Berloni spent over a year looking for the perfect pup and saw nearly 30 dogs in the process. When he first got to know Klingensmith, he was impressed with how her training style mirrored his own and knew they’d work well together. And in the intelligent and sweet Bing, he’d found his Apollo.

With the support of directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel, Klingensmith and Berloni were able to get an incredible performance out of Bing. After his training with Watts and acclimation to New York, which included a schedule adjustment and much more leash walking than Bing is used to in Iowa, where usually romps across 10 acres of land. During training, Klingensmith and Berloni walked the city streets with Bing so he could get used to all the new sounds and smells.

On the set

Berloni’s process for getting a stellar performance out of the pup was to make filming work for Bing, rather than the other way around. “We took every individual scene and individual shot,” he says. “I told them where the trainers should be, so they [could adjust] where the cameras could be.” He adds that he and Kingensmith were making kissing noises to get Bing from “point A to point B” on the set. They could do that easily enough, but how could they get him to portray the heart-wrenching scenes of a dog missing his dad?

In order to show Apollo’s grief over his loss, they looked at some of his natural behaviors to enhance that feeling, like when he lays his head down between his paws. “It was a collaboration between us and the directors and the writers to figure that out,” he mentions. “It’s never really been done before. Many films that I've done haven’t got into the inner lives of dogs like we did.”

Klingensmith was constantly surprised by the new things Bing would tackle. A scene late in the film shows him walking on a wall on a beach; they only practiced it a few times, but he nailed it immediately. In another moment, Bing sticks his head through a screen, another move he got down with minimal training. “He never ceases to amaze me,” says Klingensmith, looking lovingly at Bing, who’s getting some well-earned rest while we chat, his paws hanging off his bed. “He’s good, but it’s like, ‘Wow, sometimes even I’m amazed.’”

There were hurdles outside of training, too. When Bing was originally cast he was one and a half, much younger than the age that Apollo is in the novel. The unexpected film delays allowed for the pup to age into the role (very method of him!). However, he’s still not quite as old as Apollo is in the story. To help with that, Bing sported some gray chalk on his muzzle that made him look a bit more distinguished. Another dog, with similar eyes and markings, was Bing’s walking double for a later scene in the film when Apollo is supposed to be even older.

The future for Bing

As was the case with the John Wick franchise, it’s common for film audiences to fall in love with dogs featured in movies. As a result, people often want to get their own, identical pup.

Time will tell if there’s an uptick in interest in Great Danes, thanks to The Friend and Bing. Klingensmith says she welcomes that but heeds that they are not couch potatoes. “They need a lot of exercise and a lot of training from early on. That takes some dedication, so people looking to get a Great Dane really need to make sure they have the time and energy to devote to that,” she says. Klingensmith also cites the Great Dane Club of America as a great resource for the Great Dane-curious. 

Back to this particular Great Dane. What’s next for the star? Both Klingensmith and Berloni are open to new acting roles for Bing, but maybe not something with the same demands. At the same time, though, Berloni jokes that with all this attention, “some Hollywood movie person may come up and offer him another part.”