A quick word with The Dog from Footrot Flats

The Dog's acting career since Footrot Flats has been a sorry tale of bad choices and missed Hollywood opportunities.

The beloved Kiwi hit 80s animated movie, Footrot Flats, is finally out on DVD. But Graham Reid found The Dog took some tracking down: calls to his agent requesting an interview went unreturned; Footrot Flats creator Murray Ball was "unavailable for comment" and a casting agency known to have worked with The Dog sent a statement which was blunt and to the point, "The Dog was yesterday, and yesterday's gone".

Then one day the phone rang, it was The Dog and he was ready to talk.

We met at his flat in Onehunga. He was overweight, unshaven and clearly the worse for a long night on the town - although he said he didn't get out much and preferred to do his socialising at home. He was drunk, but lucid.

Looking back at it, Footrot Flats should have been your big break - but it didn't work out like that.

No, what happened was I became immediately typecast. Every script I was sent was for an animated dog in a comedy.

But ...

Yeah, I know what you are going to say - but I felt then, and still do, that I could do more. You look at the careers of people like Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich. They shift between comedy and serious roles and I saw myself more in that class of actor. I'm no single-trick pony like Homer Simpson or Fred Flintstone. So I pursued other types of roles.

With any success?

Mate, I wouldn't be in Onehunga if it had worked out, would I? The problem with animation is you are either Disney or you aren't. I wasn't, but it took me a while to realise that. I auditioned for the singing raccoon in Pocahontas and really, that wouldn't have been a stretch. I'd spent a fortune on vocal training. But RITFATA [Raccoons in the Film and Television Arts] is a powerful lobby and they slammed the door on me. And of course after Who Framed Roger Rabbit? the toons got pretty militant in the late 80s and early 90s. I wasn't part of that whole pay for play movement. I almost had a part in Mulan, however.

What happened?

In the mid-90s when they were casting it looked all go and they liked me. But of course because it was set in China they wanted to change the shape of my eyes. I hesitated - and they gave the role to some dog from a B-grade manga flick. That was a pretty low point.

You didn't work for a long time after that.

Not really. Because of the porn thing I was out of the whole Disney/Pixar combine - so that shafted me for The Incredibles obviously - although a couple of French directors were interested. I signed up as Bruno for an X-rated version of Les Triplettes de Belleville recently but I don't think anything will come of it.

Television work?

I was offered the part of Santa's Little Helper in The Simpsons, but I just couldn't see the show had any future. And my agent felt the part in Family Guy wouldn't last more than a season so we turned that down. He got me a role in the second Smurf movie instead, which tanked.

But with Footrot Flats out on DVD things are looking up?

Sure, I've done some in-stores and DVD signings, and I'm up for a remake of The Littlest Hobo with David Hasselhoff.

I have to say though I will be glad when all this Footrots promotion stuff is over. Walking into stores with that bloody dada da Dobbyn song blaring out day after day? You notice he doesn't sing the bloody thing anymore. What does that tell you? But me? I'm stuck with it.

Other than that, life is looking up a bit?

Yeah, its been a dog's life - if you'll pardon the pun - this past decade or so, but I'll be alright. I draw strength from great Hollywood canine actors of the past like Rin Tin Tin and Lassie. And of course Old Yeller.

But wasn't Old Yeller put down in the first movie she was in?

Yeah, lucky bitch.

* Footrot Flats: A Dog's Tale out now on DVD