Though having a good relationship with the majority of his cast, James Gunn accidentally sabotaged one Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 actor on set.

SUMMARY

•  Filmmaker James Gunn’s efforts to befriend the dog actor who played Cosmo the Space Dog on set unintentionally sabotaged filming.
•  James Gunn’s love for dogs caused him to get distracted playing with the dog actor, making it difficult for the dog to focus on shooting scenes.
•  While the dog actor, Slate, couldn’t be used for shooting, Slate’s presence on set provided valuable reference material for visual effects and helped adjust lighting for the character of Cosmo.

While filmmaker James Gunn is a friendly sort, his efforts to befriend the dog actor who played Cosmo the Space Dog on the set of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 accidentally sabotaged the filming. Gunn is famed for befriending the actors he works with and often recasts actors he has enjoyed working with in the past in his movies. Unfortunately, this tactic backfired in the case of Slate, the dog who was cast as Cosmo the Space Dog in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Stephane Ceretti, a visual effects production supervisor on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, spoke with ComicBook.com about the problems Gunn had with Slate. Ceretti explained how Gunn, an avid dog lover, who find himself distracted playing with the dog actor in between takes, subsequently exciting Slate and making him unable to focus on getting back to work when shooting was set to resume. See what Ceretti shared below:

It was mostly reference. Well, we scanned him, we scanned Slate, we use this fur and everything as a reference. We had him doing some different things so that we could study the way that everything moves and on camera with good quality material. And what I was doing is every time we would have a scene with Slate, with Cosmo, we had Slate coming in, get in front of the camera, so we know exactly what he looks like in the light and all that stuff. Sometimes have him just do a few things, but Slate was really not a dog that we could have used for shooting, that was a beautiful dog. But every time Slate would come, James loves dogs. So James would start playing with Slate and then by the time we were rolling, Slate was like, ‘Oh, I’m gone. I don’t know. I want to play.’ But it was great. It was actually fantastic to have that on set for us because we could match and add the reference. We could look at all the time, and the vendors really liked that French store that was doing Slate was very appreciative that we had gone through the effort of doing that for them.

Why GOTG Vol. 3 Mo-Capped Cosmo With A Human

Ceretti brought in Oscar-nominated actor Maria Bakalova, who was cast as the voice of Cosmo the Space Dog, to play the character physically using motion-capture technology. Slate still appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, however, acting as the physical model for Cosmo the Space Dog. Slate also acted as the stand-in for Bakalova, coming onto the set so that the lighting could be adjusted to match what the audience should have seen if there were a real dog on the screen.

With the majority of Ceretti’s work with Slate being “mostly reference,” it shows the major evolution Cosmo has taken across the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. The character first appeared in the original movie as part of The Collector’s massive collection of interstellar species, being played by dog actor Fred for his cameo. The casting of Bakalova for both The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special and Vol. 3 not only led to a change in the character’s gender, but also saw her brought to life with VFX to better bring emotion to the adorable Guardian.

Gunn wasn’t the only one enamored by the dog as Bakalova was also very complementary of her canine co-star, describing Slate as the movie’s “very friendly on-set mascot.” By all accounts, Slate was not only a good girl, but the best girl, much like Cosmo the Space Dog in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, even as the only thing that prevented her from appearing on-screen in person was James Gunn and his love of dogs.