2015 saw Adam Driver set a new standard of Star Wars villain as he portrayed the angst fueled, tormented soul of Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens. A performance that resonated with me for a long time after; becoming my favourite character in the franchise and encouraging me to change the name on my McDonald’s employee badge to “Kylo Ren”. Trust me it was funny but you had to be there.
Imagine my excitement when I discovered he was the star of 2016 film Paterson, a beautiful and very human piece written and directed by Jim Jarmusch about a bus driver seeing the poetic moments in his day to day life. The film boasts the rare ability of making nearly the entire cast stand out, despite the focus of the film being on one man.
I was surprised following my IMDB search to find placed third in the cast was the mononymous Nellie, Paterson’s pet dog.
I was not aware dogs had IMDB pages nor was I aware Adam Driver had been overshadowing the canine actress who had worked more than 700 consecutive shows, something never achieved by another working stage actor.
She was nominated for “Best Dog Actor” at Cannes (An award I was not aware existed) and she won posthumously the “Palm Dog Award” for her role in Paterson.
Maybe she was not the biggest star Paterson had to offer, but no doubt she was a very good dog. Though this has left me curious, I wonder if the cat from Inside Llewyn Davis has an IMDB page.
Sources:
Nellie IMDB
T H E N A I V E F I L M M A K E R 