Um, going back to just how long it's kind of taken you to bring this project to fruition, what was it about this story that really kept you fighting for it, and what was it that's kind of delayed things, as it were?

I mean, I guess, uh, I'm t- tenacious.

That's all it is to it.

When I, I, I g- came up with the story, uh, my writing partners and I put a lot of work into the script, uh, and I just, like, believed in it.

And I feel like that's what you gotta do in this crazy artistic industry of ours, is that you gotta know when to, like, put it to the side and come back to it, and I did.

Every, every fall I'd be leaning in and, uh, financing and casting.

And when it didn't come together, it'd get put away again for another few months while I worked on something else, and then brought it back, uh, and after doing that for a really long time and spending almost every penny I had, uh, and several false starts, uh, COVID really kicked us in the teeth.

It's like the perfect time for this film to come out because I feel like those themes, we're really feeling them as a society at the moment as well.

How did this impact your performance?

I feel like I was a little bit distracted, but honestly, I was like, I know he's not going to run away.

I just was like, he's probably getting hot in the sun, and I started worrying about that.

But otherwise, I was like, he's fine.

And he was fine.

So you clearly felt like Newport was a casual enough environment or a comfortable enough environment to experiment with bringing dog on stage, which I think says a lot about the festival.

It really does, yeah.

I think it was multiple things.