New R-rated comedy Strays opens in theaters nationwide on August 18th. Director Josh Greenbaum (who grew-up near me in Saratoga Springs, NY) has real dogs play the film’s characters in about 95% of the scenes. They’re voiced by some Hollywood A-listers, including Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx. In this Animation Scoop Q&A, Greenbaum shares insights on working with the human and pooch performers and how the dogs’ mouths were animated so they can say some truly dirty dialogue. Plus, find out who Greenbaum and I think should have a cameo in the sequel. (This interview was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: What honestly interested you in doing a hard-R talking dog movie?

Josh Greenbaum: (laughs) It’s funny, this is random, but after I made my first movie “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar”, I did a fun interview with Guillermo del Toro, who loved “Barb & Star”. He was asking me after we did the interview, “What are you doing next?” And I was telling him about this. And he goes, “Huh. That makes sense.” And I don’t know what that meant, but I liked it. I think it made sense to him in that clearly I like a little left of center, weirder movies and ideas. That excites me.

Josh Greenbaum: On the one hand, the concept was exciting. I had a bunch of scripts to read one weekend. You get the logline — the one sentence of what the movie’s about. I remember reading “Strays”… essentially that there’s a sweet and naive dog named Reggie who has a terrible owner [Doug]. He is left as a stray and teams-up with a few other dogs to get revenge on Doug by biting his —- off. So I was very excited by it in the sense that this sounds crazy. But to be totally honest, I kind of anticipated that it would be sort of just a spoof movie. “It’s taking the dog genre and spoofing it.” I love a spoof but I tend to want much more story and heart and character in what I make. I think that’s how I can do my job best: when I can hold onto something and be like, “This is actually about something a little bit more… a little deeper.”

When I finally read the script, written by Dan Perrault, I loved it. I was surprised. It was emotional and it had so many other layers to it. Of course it had all the ridiculous, outrageous jokes that you want in that type of film. But at its core, it’s about being in a toxic relationship, which Reggie is. How do you get out of that, and how do your friends help you through that? There are larger, universal themes, even though, yes, it still boils down to an R-rated, talking dog movie.

JM: There’s a lot there and a lot of humor. You’ve got real dogs voiced by these big A-listers — Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx. They’ve done a lot of voice work in many animated movies over the years. This has a lot dirtier dialogue than what Jamie Foxx said in “Soul”. How was it directing these guys and crafting their voice performances?

JG: It was, as you might imagine, a dream come true. One of the first things I asked all of my cast was, “Can you please come and do your voice work in a room together?” You’re right, they’ve all done a lot of voice work. But 99% of the time they are in a room in a booth by themselves just delivering their lines. And they’re often acting opposite their director, which I certainly did. But I’m not a professional actor. I got Will and Jamie in the room together. They did almost all their sessions together. And then we had sessions where Will, Jamie, Randall Park and Isla Fisher all came in the room together. And I just asked them, “Just riff. Listen. Improvise off each other.” And that brings it to life, an authenticity.

When you have the improv talents of a Jamie Foxx and a Will Ferrell, you want to lean on it and say, “Just run free.” I let them overlap. A lot of times we’re told, “Don’t overlap your lines because it makes it hard in editing.” I was like, “Don’t worry about that. Overlap is good. We’ll just animate the mouths of both dogs and it’ll feel much more organic and natural that way.” It was amazing. As you could imagine, shooting on set was difficult. Being in a room with Will and Jamie was easy and fun. They’re such pros and brought so much to the project. They really enjoyed playing off of each other, which I think you can hear in their performances.

JM: That’s good. And what goes into animating the mouths? I’m sure that has to be very difficult. Who in which department is behind that, and how do you make sure it all looks good and sounds good?

JG: It is a big, big job. I chose to film [95% of] the movie with real dogs. Anytime… the shot called for something unsafe, we, of course, used a full CG dog. But I really wanted to lean into getting an incredibly natural performance, so it just feels like you’re watching real dogs. But, as you point out, they don’t talk. I couldn’t get them to speak yet. (laughs) So we have to lean on our VFX department. We had an incredible company in MPC and MR. X. We had artists all over the world (although they’re primarily based out of Australia). And they would take these muzzles and replace them on the dog.

I think I had to approve 1,500 shots, which is a lot of shots to go through. Anytime the dogs talk [I had] to watch and look at it and see, “Does it look like they’re speaking? And is it conveying the emotion of the scene and what we need out of it?” Occasionally we would manipulate the eyebrows and other things. But I really tried, when the dog was confused, instead of furrowing their brow the way a human would, I tried to get them cocking their head the way a dog does when it’s confused. I wanted to make it feel as natural and organic. The more real it is, the less pulled out you are during the film, and I think the funnier it feels. “These look just like real dogs”… ’cause they are real dogs.

JM: I think dog lovers will love this movie.

JG: I hope so. I’ve had a dog my whole life. I’ve got two now, one of whom is from the movie.

JM: There’s a hand-drawn animated moment during the mushroom scene with Maggie, Isla Fisher’s character. How did that come together?

JG: The dogs happen to eat some mushrooms. They need food. We all need sustenance. They’re on this journey that leads them through the woods. They happen to find what looks like some good food, and it happens to taste pretty good. Of course they happen to be hallucinogenic mushrooms. So we had fun with it and said, “Let’s get as weird as we can. What might a drug trip feel like for a dog?” We can only guess. We made a joke that when Hunter the great dane is looking at Maggie, she all of a sudden looks like a 2D animated drawing. We got some wonderful artists, found some good references. There was an animated “Lassie” show that felt like the right inspiration for it. A little bit of an old, Disney, 2D cartoon.

JM: We’re not going to spoil anything, but there are two big surprise appearances in the movie. One is a voice, the other is on-camera. And the two people are from another movie involving animals that are focused on in this film that happen to be from the same studio, which is Universal. Without naming the two people, how did you get them to agree to be in this movie?

JG: Well… you’re right… and very astute that they are in very similar movies, both of which are for Universal. We just reached out. One of whom, as you mentioned, has a voice that is VERY familiar to people. He has voiced some pretty big Disney characters and some other dogs. I had never worked with him, but when I reached out, he sort of knew that we’re kind of poking fun at… He’s sort of playing the role of a narrator dog, and we’re making fun of narrator dogs because that is a trope sometimes in this world of dog films. And he was excited and game. And he’s so funny.

And then our on-camera cameo, he was just game. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time. I just reached out. He happened to be in Atlanta at the same time, which was very lucky. He came out and killed it and has a very funny, crazy, weird cameo that comes out of nowhere. But I’m glad, Jackson, that you recognize that he is part of why we cast him. He’s from this world. If you know your dog movies, you’ll recognize him, amongst a million other wonderful movies.

JM: Yes. He is one of my favorite actors. And I have met the voice actor guy on several occasions and is a very nice guy.

JG: A delight.

JM: That’s awesome. It’s very clever that you thought about this aspect, put it in the movie, and Universal agreed to keep it in the movie. That’s very smart. How do you think another Universal animal friend, Ted, would get along with the dogs in “Strays”?

JG: Oh very well! Ted fits right in. That’s a great question. We should’ve had a Ted cameo. All of a sudden, maybe when they were high on mushrooms, Ted should’ve shown up. That would’ve been really… Da**it Jackson! Where were you when we were writing the script?

JM: “Strays 2”! “Strays 2”!

JG: “Strays 2”! “Strays 2”! Done! It’s in! You’re getting credit!

JM: Thank you.

JG: That would be really fun. It’s funny, in making this film, you kind of revisit and think about what’s come before. “Ted” was a big one in that it was one of the first kind of “taking a PG ‘genre’… we had never seen teddy bears pulled into the world of the R-rated comedy”. It was great to re-watch that film. It’s surprising how sweet that film is, and it’s very emotional. It;’s about two very close friends. I’m always reminded that these big, loud, R-rated comedies… I think the reason they stand the test of time and hit is that, yes, they have to deliver the laughs, but when they work well is when there’s an emotional component to them.