Naomi Watts and Bill Murray have joined forces for The Friend. The Scott McGehee and David Siegel-directed picture adapts Sigrid Nunez's 2018 novel of the same name, a story that chronicles a woman taking custody of her late friend's extra-large dog, but adds some color between the lines.
That color comes in the form of names. In Nunez's book, nearly every character is left nameless, with the exception of Apollo, the titular Great Dane. For the feature film, Watts and Murray's roles are given the names Iris and Walter, respectively.
ScreenRant spoke with Watts and Murray to discuss the power behind their characters' names, how they approached filling in their characters' backstories, and what their personal relationships with dogs are.
Naming Iris Was “Very Intentional,” Says Naomi Watts
“I just loved this connection between the two of them…”
The two leads of The Friend, Iris and Apollo, share names with Greek gods. In mythology, Iris is the goddess of rainbows and messages while Apollo is the god of the sun and prophecies. While the connection to myth was coincidental, Naomi Watts knows there was a “very intentional” purpose behind naming her character.
“That's really the director-writer team that came up with that and [it was] very intentional,” Watts said of her character's name. “I just loved this connection between the two of them (Iris and Apollo). He is this massive creature, godlike and clumsy and powerful and entitled and surprising. She was quite at a low point in her life already. She was sort of stuck and was quite a lonely person.”
That low point gets lower after Walter (Bill Murray) takes his own life. Walter was Apollo's previous owner, and in the wake of his passing, he left his massive pet in Iris's hands.
“The one person that she looked to for advice, support, he was her mentor, suddenly taking his life was kind of her undoing,” Watts continued. “And to be forced into this situation with this dog that was nothing but a hard reminder of the pain of the loss was a very confusing time for her.”
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Much of Walter's presence in The Friend exists in flashbacks and dream sequences. He is described as someone who struggles to maintain strong, lengthy relationships with human beings, yet his bond with Apollo was the one dynamic that persevered throughout his life.
“It's unknown because the way the story is written, I've got to sort of show what it was all about, how we arrived at the beginning,” Murray said of filling in Walter's backstory. “I had to manifest in ways that made it clear what was gone, what had just disappeared so suddenly, and suggest why all this upset, all this regret, anger, all these things that you get with death was visible, how it manifested.”
Even though Walter and Apollo's relationship is not a presently unfolding piece of the narrative, Murray's performance offers a picture that is worth a thousand words.
“And so you put a face on the feelings, on the emotion.”
“So I had to be that person, my job, my instruction, and it was fun to sort of combat that,” Murray continued. “To be the sort of emotional ping pong for her to have someone to bat it around with to really get to answer the questions for her.”
Watts & Murray Are Dog People In Real Life
Murray Shares That He Lost His Longtime Dog Not Long Ago
Part of what made Watts and Murray's on-screen dynamic with Apollo so strong is thanks to their real-life backgrounds with man's best friend.
“I'm obsessed. I'm definitely a dog person, and [it goes for] all dogs,” Watt said. “I just love dogs. I'm enamored with them because they're the most loyal, loving special creatures. I find them to be completely necessary.”
“I recently lost my dog. It's not even that recent anymore, I've just been unable to replace him,” Murray shared. “He was the most extraordinary creature. I am surrounded by people who are lunatic about dogs and have lots and lots of dogs and actually leave their dogs with me. I've got a lot of dogs running around that they're not my own personal responsibility, but they get fed, clothed and sheltered.”
The Friend is in theaters now.
Source: ScreenRant Plus
