Warning! The Following Contains SPOILERS for Never Let Go.“It was hard for all of us,” Halle Berry admits. The Hollywood heavyweight is referring to a very specific moment from her new film: Fans could have heard a pin drop when Momma (Berry) reveals that the family dog needs to be sacrificed to provide food for her boys Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) and Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins) in the horrific new survival thriller Never Let Go. While promoting the movie at this year’s Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, an attendee thanked director Alexandre Aja for not killing the poor pup, to which the filmmaker replied during the Q&A (per Entertainment Weekly):
I would have not been able to work in the U.S. anymore. I would have been deported.
The dog scene also turned out to be one of the most trying for the movie’s A-List lead, Berry. The Oscar-winning actress (Monster’s Ball) addressed what it was like when the cast and crew tried to capture that emotionally gut-wrenching moment from the set for the cameras. “The dog scene was hard for me,” Berry explained. “It was hard for all of us. Let me tell you a secret about Alex [Aja]. He has a little dog called Peanut. She’s a little tiny thing.”
Berry continued by saying:
“Alex walked around every day of shooting this movie with his dog Peanut in his coat, and her face stuck out. We were all animal lovers, so filming this scene was something that was emotionally hard for all of us. [The dog scene] kept getting pushed and pushed. We knew how emotional it would be, and we knew the feelings it would drudge up, and we didn’t want to do it.”
Percy Daggs IV Faces Acting Block during Dreaded Dog Scene
Never Let Go is being hailed by some as one of the best horror films of 2024. And much of the movie’s success is due to the performances of the standout cast led by Academy Award winner Halle Berry. But when it was time to shoot the unforgettable dog scene, it turned out that co-star Percy Daggs IV experienced a bit of acting block when it came to turning on his talents for the cameras. But Berry had his back, as she reveals in the same Q&A from Fantastic Fest. The actress said (below):
“I think it was because he [Daggs IV] didn’t want to face the dog thing. It was hard. He knew he had to cry. Whenever somebody knows in a script that they have to cry, they all of a sudden get dry. You can’t cry. I decided to do something that was off-script and shake him up and take him out of his head and out of his fear and out of the dog thing.”
Berry continues by saying:
“The true testament to their talent was, when I shook them up, everybody just went with it, and Percy’s tears started to flow. And he started to connect to his dog. It’s one of those moments, as actors, you just hope happens once in a film, where you have a real moment… and that’s how we got that scene. I think the one take is the scene that ended up in the movie.”
Never Let Go is now playing in theaters. However, while many critics and moviegoers are enjoying the horror flick, the Berry-led survival thriller only registers 61% on the Tomatometer and even less on the Popcornmeter, formerly the Rotten Tomatoes audience score, at 55%. So, before heading out to theaters, be sure to check out MovieWeb’s Never Let Go review to find out what to really expect from director Alexandre Aja’s latest project.
Check out the
Never Let Go
official trailer right now (below):
