
“I’m probably the only director in the business that actually prefers working with kids and animals,” says Smith with a laugh. “I’m fascinated by making movies about animals, nature, and wilderness, and A Dog’s Way Home combines them in a way that’s very exciting for me. When I was a young man acting in Never Cry Wolf, the director of that film, Carroll Ballard, taught me so much about working in nature and working with animals and understanding how to capture that on film. I try to carry that forward in the films that I make now.”


“The thing about animals as opposed to human actors is that animals will always be honest,” Smith says. “You’ll never get a false moment out of an animal; there’s an innocence and purity about them as characters in film that I find endlessly interesting.”
Joining Smith in the big-screen retelling of Bella’s journey is Ashley Judd, who previously worked with the director on two other beloved films about an animal: Dolphin Tale and its sequel.

In the film, Judd plays Terri, a veteran affected by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and finds that having Bella in her home is able to give her considerable relief. “As someone who has had service animals, I’m very familiar with the way that these animals are of extraordinary benefit to their humans,” says Judd. “When Terri has [PTSD] episodes, Bella recognizes that, and she’s there to put her chin on Terri’s leg, to comfort her, and to help bring her back to the present moment, to get her back into her body, and out of being stuck in the past traumatic event that happened when she was in the U.S. military.”

In Philippine cinemas February 6, A Dog’s Way Home is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Use the hashtag #ADogsWayHome
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