FRANKLIN, Tenn. – Brad Pitt has been acting for almost 40 years, but his latest movie, the survival thriller "Heart of the Beast" (in theaters Sept. 25), marks a first for the Oscar winner.
Pitt costars with Uber, a real-life search-and-rescue German Shepherd. He calls the experience of sharing most of the movie with a dog "wonderful."
"I learned to be actor slash dog trainer pretty good," the 62-year-old star tells USA TODAY. "He's such a beautiful beast and I really had an incredible experience.
"I haven't done anything like that," Pitt adds. "Don't know if I'll ever get to do something like that again."
At the world premiere for "Heart of the Beast," which took place outside of Nashville, Pitt, costar J.K. Simmons and director David Ayer speak
about filmmaking, working together and the two costars they couldn't rehearse lines with: Uber and Mother Nature.
What director David Ayer learned about Brad Pitt while shooting 'Heart of the Beast'
"Heart of the Beast" marks a reunion for Ayer and Pitt, who previously worked together on 2014's "Fury." The director says they explored new territory in their latest collaboration.
"I learned Brad can hold his breath," the director jokes.
"I did all right, didn't I?" Pitt adds. "Yeah, I surprised myself."
Pitt plays James Belmont, a military veteran who is retired with his combat dog Odin (played by Uber and a team of three other stunt animals). The duo survive a harrowing plane crash only to find themselves in the unpredictable and at times unforgiving Alaskan wilderness.
Belmont is forced to swim underwater as he attempts to not only escape the plane, but return to the carnage and retrieve supplies so that he and Odin can survive.
"(Pitt's) on the surface, goes down, has to set into the aircraft, we call 'Action,' " Ayer recalls. "Then he has to run through his whole action. And at some point, he needs to take another breath because we need him the next day."
Pitt laughs about it now. But when asked about the toughest scene in the movie to film, he responds, "Which day?"
"It was just wet and cold," he says. "That's what you signed up for."
The movie filmed in New Zealand. Simmons, who plays a wanderer named Watkins who meets up with Belmont and Odin early in the film, also dealt with the elements.
"The wind was my big concern for my three seconds of canoeing," the actor, 71, says. "There was a lot of time on the water battling the afternoon breeze."
"We sent them off in a canoe," says Pitt, a producer on the film. "(The weather) couldn't have been any worse. The water could not have been any more tumultuous than when they sent him out from the shore."
The wind was so disruptive, crew members had to get into the water to retrieve Simmons and the canoe on a few occasions. The actor did take a few days of lessons prior to filming his scenes.
"It was lovely on those days," Simmons says. "Until the day we were shooting."
Meet Uber, 'the Brad Pitt of dogs'
Most of Pitt's screen time is shared with Odin, played by Uber. The actor jokes that the smells of the woods would sometimes distract his costar. But Pitt entered the shoot with a gratitude for dogs that he believes helped him bond with Uber.
"It's because of what my dogs have given me and how important they've been in my life," he says. "In any of the loneliest of times, your dogs are just this beacon of joy and unconditional love."
His love for dogs allowed him to focus on the story of James and Odin, "who have come from war and loss. And in this later time in their life, they're now trying on peace and end up in this situation where they keep each other moving a step forward. It was a beautiful idea to me."
Andrew Simpson, the film's animal coordinator, felt that connection between Pitt and Odin. All four dogs ended up with about equal screen time, he says, but Uber "has the face. He's the Brad Pitt of dogs."
"Brad's got a very grounded personality, so it was very easy for him to get along with the dogs," Simpson says, noting that Pitt and the pooches were given a three-week "breaking-in" period to get to know each other. "The fact that he has his own dogs, he knows how to handle them, knows what they like and what they don't, it was a great help to us."
Pitt, who brought girlfriend Ines de Ramon to the "Heart of the Beast" premiere, says their dogs are "hilarious" and bring him "an endless amount of delight."
"We have three crazy dogs at home," he says. "Life's just better with a dog."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brad Pitt says life is better with a dog. His new movie proves it.
