ANIMAL ACTORS
Is That a Cat or a Film Star? By Ca ro l Bada r acco Padge t t
work and experience that goes into selecting, teaching, and prepping them. First off, a cat must have a natural disposition for performance work. And once Martin selects cats with the innate ability to be trainable and to perform, she then has a unique training ground for them. A portion of Martin’s 25+ cats join her in a national touring show she created called Amazing Acro-Cats. For this show, she and her cats travel across the country, performing incredible tricks for their audiences. And this gets her cat actors accustomed to being on a set, with lights — and among large groups of people. Her cats have become so used to the entertainment life after traveling with Amazing Acro-Cats that Martin says, “They’re pretty much bomb-proof at this point.” As it turns out, the cats in Martin’s business aren’t the only ones that must have talent and a natural disposition towards performance. Trainers must, as well. That, and literally years of experience — experience that is quite different from what an obedience trainer might possess. “You learn to be aware of where the cameras are,” she notes as an example, “and you can’t be very close to the animals on set in some of these situations.” When asked about the top three traits an animal trainer and wrangler must possess, Martin is quick to note: patience, flexibility, and knowing your talent. “You’ll get a list of things directors want to shoot, and when you show up, they might give you a whole new list. I always go that extra mile with them because I’ve been doing this for 30 years,” she says. “I try to anticipate that they will add at least six new things to the list.” To keep her training fresh and her cats’ skills in top demand, Martin is always looking for the next way to improve their abilities. Right now, for instance, she’s working with her cats in an outdoor enclosed training area because she anticipates that a number of films will require this outdoor work. The next time you’re kicked back on the couch watching TV or a movie, you may find yourself gazing at some of Martin’s stars. They’ve appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert , Animal Planet , the movies Sinister 2 and Witness Protection, and a whole lot of Purina, Blue Buffalo, and Tidy Cat commercials. With all this experience under her belt and their fur, Martin and her cats are poised to corner the cat market in the Georgia film industry.
Before all the lights, camera, action — there’s a great deal of hard work and experience that goes into selecting, teaching, and prepping them.
Samantha Martin and Dixie Photo by Sherry Rayn Barnett Photography
C ats are the second most-requested animals for film and TV, behind dogs. And yet, “Cats don’t aim to please so much as dogs.” This statement, from Samantha Martin, owner of Chicago-founded and now Atlanta-based Amazing Animals LLC, is irrefutable. Much like the fact that mammals must breathe air, it just “is”. Cats typically do their own thing. But not on the film set with Martin. Because there, thanks to her 30-year background training animals for stage and film performance, cats don’t play by the usual feline rules. Instead, they take direction from Martin, who specializes in the domesticated feline species. The secret to her cat mastery sounds pretty simple at first. “Clicker training, which is positive reinforcement,”
she says. And yet, there’s a whole lot more to it than that, which most people don’t realize — including those who seek out talent for TV and film. “A lot of TV people call me and say, ‘We just need a cat to come in and act like a cat,’” Martin says. And then they wonder why they’ll have to pay a bit for that. “Just anybody’s cat is not going to act like a cat; it’ll hide,” she notes. “It won’t act like a chill house cat when it gets on set.” When Martin brings her cats to the set though, she says, “They’re like, ‘OK. We live here now.’” They move right in and take direction from Martin as she preps them for the job and gets them from Point A to Point B as the assignment requires. Long before Martin’s cats ever get to the set though, before they respond to the clicker training, before all the lights, camera, action — there’s a great deal of hard
For more, go to www.amazinganimals.biz.
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