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Local poodle makes big screen debut in ‘Isn’t It Romantic?’

Yesterday, the Warner Bros. satirical rom-com “Isn’t It Romantic?” premiered in theaters across the country just in time for Valentine’s Day. The movie features many big names in Hollywood, such as Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemsworth, Adam DeVine and Priyanka Chopra — but local theatergoers may find the real star to be Willow, a 3-year-old standard poodle from Williamsport, who makes her way into three scenes of the film.

Willow’s owner, Stacy Miller, operates Oberjoch Boarding & Grooming Kennels on Reach Road, and also raises show dogs. In the past, some of her other pets have been shown in national advertisements for Target and on billboards in Time Square, so when her agent told her that the producers of “Isn’t It Romantic?” were looking to cast a fluffy white poodle, she jumped at the opportunity.

“The first thing we had to do was go to New York City — all of the filming was done there,” Miller said. “In the summer of 2017, we had to go to the movie set and meet the producers and actors. We got to meet Rebel and all of the other dogs we were going to be working with.

“You meet the other dog owners and then you kind of do a little bit of rehearsal,” she added.

The plot of “Isn’t It Romantic?” focuses on a New York architect named Natalie, played by Wilson, who happens to hate romantic-comedies. After hitting her head on a subway platform and being knocked unconscious, she awakes to find herself self-aware in the PG-13 universe of a rom-com, and spends the remainder of the film trying to escape that reality by finding true love.

During Willow’s scenes in the movie, she is shown with a group of dogs that are being led by a dog walker played by actor Trevor Kuhn, who Miller said “(Wilson) gets tied up with romantically.”

A few weeks after her first rehearsal meeting with the film’s producers, Willow had to travel to Long Island for filming at Castle Gould. That was easier said than done, since Miller, who was already in New York for a dog show at the time, was forced to navigate her way through Manhattan in a 35-foot RV after her GPS took her on a bad route.

“That really was not fun,” Miller said. “We ended up getting to this location and had to spend the night in the parking lot because there was filming the next day. We were all by ourselves — it was just me, my daughter, her friend and the dogs — so, it was a little bit scary.

“Movie security showed up at like 2 a.m. shining their flashlights in my motorhome,” she added, with a laugh.

Since Willow’s scenes required her to walk in a pack of dogs — some large packs and some smaller ones — most of her training for the movie revolved around learning how to get along with her fellow “actors” and keeping the sniffing to a minimum.

“It was a challenge and it took a lot of practice,” Miller said. “We had to teach those dogs that wanted to play, not to. Some of the dogs were more scared and timid, so they needed to be trained to not look afraid.

“It was mostly just getting the dogs to know each other,” she added.

About a month after filming at Castle Gould, Willow returned to New York City — this time to Fifth Avenue — for one final scene.

“That was an all-day process, it was very long. They want you there first thing in the morning and then you sit around and wait until your call time,” Miller said. “We were there from 8 a.m. and we didn’t get our call time until 5 p.m.

“Then, they do the scene over and over and over again,” Miller added. “I think we must have shot the same scene 20 times, and I am not kidding — it is crazy. You do the scene, and then they rush you back to reset and you do it again.”

All of that rushing to reset the Fifth Avenue scene led to a pretty scary moment for Miller and Willow. Although he had been very careful throughout the shoot to make sure each dog owner was given their pet’s leash back at the end of each take, Kuhn mistakenly dropped Willow’s leash while trying to hand it off, which led to a few adrenaline-packed seconds, after the poodle panicked and took off running.

“He thought I had Willow’s leash and I did not, and he let go, then she took off running in the street — in the traffic,” Miller said. “I came running after her. Of course, I had the adrenaline going and this woman got in my way, and I remember literally just picking her up and moving her because she was in my way.

“That poor actor, he was so sweet. He kept apologizing to me,” she added.

Thankfully, Miller’s agent was standing a little further down the street and was able to grab Willow before anything bad happened. However, the brief chase did end shooting for the day, after a representative from the Animal Actors Guild expressed his concerns.

“He was afraid someone was going to get hurt with us rushing through everything,” said Miller. “It was really getting dark, so I don’t think we were going to get much more anyhow.”

Overall, Miller said that it was “very interesting” to be on the set of a major movie production. She also enjoyed meeting Wilson, who she described as “very nice.”

“I didn’t really get to have a real long conversation with her or anything, but she was always checking on the dogs to make sure they were all well-hydrated and asking if we needed anything,” Miller said. “She was polite and concerned for the dogs’ well-being.

“I also know that Rebel comes from a dog show background — her family was heavily into dogs and her mother is a qualified dog show judge. They raised beagles and Rebel used to show dogs herself as a junior,” Miller added. “She was accustomed to being around show dogs, which was neat.”

After Willow’s big movie debut, she was pursued for a spot in a commercial, but had to pass it up for an even better gig — mothering a litter of puppies.

“She is a new mother, so we couldn’t really do that yet,” said Miller.

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