Jason Schwartzman on Starring With Real-Life Dog Arrow (Schwartzman) in '7 Chinese Brothers'

Jason Schwartzman is having a good run at the SXSW Film Festival, starring in two buzzworthy indie comedies, The Overnight (which initially premiered at Sundance) and 7 Chinese Brothers. Also having a good fest? His dog, Arrow.

The 11-year-old French bulldog has a featured role in Brothers, receiving one of the top billings in the film’s end credits, where he’s listed as Arrow Schwartzman. “Joel is his middle name,” Schwartzman, 34, pointed out when we caught up with him at an Austin bar. “Arrow Joel Schwartzman — that’s technically his name.”

Brothers, from writer-director Bob Byington (Somebody Up There Likes Me), stars (Jason) Schwartzman as the wise-cracking, self-destructive loner Larry, whose biggest aspiration in life is to “learn Spanish.” He drinks hard, pops pills, and can’t hold onto a job, but he’s so immensely likable that you can’t help but root for him. Part of what makes him so amiable: the man’s relationship and (one-way) conversations with his best friend, Arrow, whom Jason equates to a canine version of Larry. The actor told us all about his pup’s big-screen debut:

When did Arrow come into the picture?
Well, there was always this character [Larry] with this— it was a big part of the script [from the beginning]. But the dog was a German Shepherd, and the dog was very violent; the dog would bite people. This guy doesn’t really have a lot of friends, and his dog is violent. So you wouldn’t want to make friends with him if you saw him on the street.

I don’t know. Bob says I forced Arrow into the film, like, “You should meet my dog.” I don’t recall that I did, but maybe I did. Certainly my dog is the opposite of violent. He’s hardly awake. But I think it’s good, because he’s kind of like the dog version of Larry; he’s like a lethargic, lonely dog. I think it was essential and really cool that Bob [put him in the movie] because I don’t know if it would have been as intimate talking to a strange dog.

Is that your actual dynamic with your dog? So you talk to him a lot like that?
I do. I don’t talk to him out loud as much, but we spend a lot of time together. We’re always just together. And one of the things about Arrow’s personality is he will just sit next to you. A bigger dog or a different dog probably would’ve just walked away when Bob would’ve yelled “cut.” But because Arrow would just sit there next to you, we could do these extended takes.

So you didn’t have to train him at all for this?
No, no, you can’t train that. You can’t teach that stuff.

Is he going to be a showbiz dog now?
If we can get him an IMDb page.

Hey, it’s possible. There’s a Facebook for dogs. There could be IMDb for dogs.
Well, I don’t want to be like a stage-dog-dad. I don’t want to have to do that. But maybe if the right thing happened. He’s picky, though.

Watch ‘extras’ of Jason & Arrow filming 7 Chinese Brothers:

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