There's a lot of debate if Jed (actor dog from The Thing and a few other movies) was a wolfdog or not. He was said to be half wolf half malamute, but to me he looks too much like a dog to be half wolf. Sorry if you've been asked this question about him before, but what's your opinion on it?
He was a wolfdog! He’s was a low-content malamute mix, and a very talented boy! He does look like he’s got quite a bit of dog in him, so I wouldn’t say he’s mid content, but if he was he’d be on the lower side.
Ayy I almost guessed it right lol, but ty for the answer! Ive been curious about this for the longest time
And yes indeed good boi
Of course! And if you ever want to just go on and on about him I’d be down to listen. I barely know anything about Jed and would be happy to change that!
Ah don’t mind if I do!
Long post ahead
For context: in the movie The thing (1982), Jed plays an alien who can take the form of any living thing after killing it. So, in this case, he’s actually a dog-shaped alien that has killed and absorbed a dog; so he must not be found in order to keep infecting people.
So the thing (ha) about Jed’s performance in this movie (and the others he was in, but this one especially) is that his acting is simply fenomenal. Not “fenomenal for a dog”, but just fenomenal in and of itself. To the point where a lot of behind the scenes commentary is dedicated to the actors and the crew commenting on how great he was to work with.
He had a lot of skills that separate him from the average dog in movies and make him stand out, and some you wouldn’t think possible for an animal at all
Probably most notable of all, he basically NEVER looks at the camera. Even when they were dragging the camera right in front of him, he rarely looks directly into the viewer which helps a lot with the immersion. He was always surrounded by crew and actors, with a camera on his face at times, yet his focus was impecable! No matter how well trained a dog is, they’ll usually look for their trainer or at least the camera in curiosity (especially when up close). Not him tho. It’s very difficult to find a shot of him doing so
The scene in the ask is a scene where he’s carefully watching the humans he’s tricking into thinking he’s a regular dog, and he quite literally just. Stands there. Staring. Completely still. No tail wagging, no head moving, no steps taken. Not even panting. The concentration, focus, is just - how??
Let’s break down my favorite part:
This scene is probably the most popular one he was in, where he walks down a hallway looking for someone to infect. Here the camera was being dragged in front of him as it followed him walk, but he acts like it isn’t even there
Ironically tho, this scene features one of the few scenes where he looks at the camera - but here it actually works, as we know the thing wants to infect someone and it sends shivers down your spine when he looks at you for a second
Another incredible talent he had is that he almost seemed to understand the context of the scenes he was recording, somehow!
In the aforementioned scene, he first: walks slowly into the hallway (struggling with the door), looks around, stops at a door to look into the empty room, looks around again, walks towards a different door, finds a person inside, stops panting as tho he’s thinking, PAUSES FOR A MOMENT, and only then walks in. For a split second, he stands still like this (creepy af). It builds up tension and it’s a very -oh shit- moment, before he walks into the room and the scene cuts
According to commentary, “he did it all on his own”. He was literally only trained to walk through the hallway. The pausing at the perfect moments, pausing at the door, waiting a second to walk in before attacking, looking around as though looking for someone, stopping his panting, it was all him doing it. And it’s honestly amazing how well that fits into context! They redid the scene only around 4 times, and the one used in the movie was the best one. So yeah, a lot of his acting came solely from him. Obviously his trainers did a great job, but there’s only so much you can teach a dog to do. How his acting was so good and matched so well boils down to him being a special boy honestly
Another example is in the scene where he walks into the kennel with the other dogs. Again, he was only trained to walk into it. The scary, careful, hunched pose was all him. It fits so well into context it’s difficult to believe he wasn’t trained to do so! When he lays down in the scene, he does it in a really slow, almost calculated way with his head down - which again is very in character
Jed was also known for being incredibly expressive. Again, it was almost like he understood what the scene was asking of him and what he was expected to portray. It can be difficult to get animals to portray accurate emotions since they aren’t human, but Jed somehow understood what the scenes were trying to convey and what his character was doing
Nervous, looking around carefully as he needs to pretend to be a regular dog around humans
Alert, scared, checking to see if he’s still being chased by people who know he’s an alien (he doesn’t look at the camera once here!)
Jumpy, happy, regular behaving dog to trick people who adopt him. So it’s not a matter of ‘He always looks creepy that’s why it works’. He could look very happy and waggy when he needed to as well
Remember how I said it felt like he understood what he needed to do? Another cool detail is that Jed basically never wags his tail in scenes where the dog isn’t supposed to be happy. Even when he’s being petted by someone. It can be a problem in animal acting since dogs will usually be happy to obey and will show it with their tails, but Jed never did. The only time he wags his tail is when the dog needs to act happy to trick humans. In all other scenes he has it very still. Since CGI wasnt a thing then, they completely relied on him to act accordingly. And he did!
He also just went along with everything that was needed of him. At one point he was supposed to run to this human without any indication (no calling or signal from the human as that would look staged in context) and he did just that after some training, which the actor didn’t think would be possible. In scenes where he needs to walk slowly and eerily, he does that. In the kennel scene, he lays down slowly and then stands there, again completely still for a moment as the other dogs freak out upon realizing he isnt a real dog
Also he just. Looks creepy as all fuck in some scenes. Today’s cgi artists would probably struggle to come up with a few shots he made possible
This thing is evil. He walks slowly into it in this weird gait and never looks sideways or distracted. It’s just SO in character
In this scene you can atually see some of the other dogs being excited as they bark at him, even tho they’re supposed to be terrified. But they just weren’t as good as he was at acting (still good boys tho)
Outside of the movie, Jed wasn’t very close with much of the crew and only allowed a few actors to interact with him outside of filming. They said he basically never growled, instead he’d just eerily stare at you in an unsettling way if you bothered him. Which honestly makes him perfect for a horror movie, lmao
Jed was just an incredible actor that understood cues and whose talent went beyond average animal, to the point where decades later “the dog from The Thing” is still one of the most well known scenes from the movie/horror movies in general. He was creepy, he walked eerily, he stood completely still when necessary, he has very expressive faces and poses - he totally sells it as a disguised alien. Today, CGI dogs who the humans have complete control over may not look as realistic/fitting as Jed does in his scenes, honestly
Whether it was bc he was half wolf, or bc he was really smart, a combination of both; it’s just an incredible performance overall with a lot of it coming from him rather than his training. He isn’t in much of the movie, but it’s worth watching it (if you don’t mind gore/body horror) for his scenes. They’re all so good, even if you don’t like the rest of the movie you’ll probs enjoy his parts and forget that he’s real and not CGI
Long story short, good boi is very good actor (somehow)
