How “Heart of the Beast” animal coordinator knew he found his canine star: ‘He’s the Brad Pitt of dogs’

Gerrad HallTue, October 13, 2026 at 1:30 PM UTC

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Uber as Odin and Brad Pitt as James Belmont in ‘Heart of the Beast’Credit: Paramount PicturesAndrew Simpson tells EW about finding a rookie animal actor, Uber the German Shepherd, to star opposite Brad Pitt in the survival drama.Key Points -

Heart of the Beast stars Brad Pitt as Special Forces veteran James Belmont and his combat dog on an adventure in the Alaskan wilderness.

Animal coordinator Andrew Simpson found the dog star in New Zealand, where the movie was filmed.

Simpson explains how they made the dog look like and perform as an amputee.

Andrew Simpson wanted to work in stunts when he was growing up in Scotland. But as a 20-year-old backpacker in Australia, his career ambitions took a turn when he “stumbled upon” the set of A Cry in the Dark (released as Evil Angels down under) — that’s right, the one famous for the line “The dingo took my baby!”

“They said, “Hey, do you want to work with this lady over here?’” he recalls to Entertainment Weekly. “She was in charge of the dingoes.”

In the nearly 40 years since, he’s racked up more than 150 credits as an animal trainer or coordinator, primarily working with wolves and Belgian Malinois on movies including Dog and the third and fourth entries in the John Wick franchise, as well as the series Game of Thrones, Fallout, and Lioness.

But finding the star of his latest project, David Ayer’s Heart of the Beast(currently in theaters), turned out to be a whole other, well, animal.

They found it in a German Shepherd named Uber, which Simpson found in New Zealand, where the movie filmed. Uber makes his acting debut as Odin, a former combat canine who was partnered with Brad Pitt’s James Belmont, a Special Forces veteran. (Three other dogs played Odin for water scenes and the log-crossing, and as a puppy.) Now both retired, the two set off on what should be a relaxing getaway in the Alaskan wilderness — but their trip turns into a fight for survival after James experiences a heart attack mid-flight, causing their single-engine plane to crash into a lake. Surviving that, they then have to hike 58 miles to the nearest road to find help...and along the way have to battle the elements, as well as a pack of wolves and raging river rapids.

Uber plays ‘Odin’ in ‘Heart of the Beast’Credit: Paramount Pictures

Uber, it turns out, had a little experience in stressful situations: His owner was involved in search and rescue operations.

“Uber started off as a police dog. He went through the police training program and he was just so kind that he failed the program,” Simpson says, laughing. “He didn’t have that aggressive streak in him. He’s a very unique dog. He had that, then he had the interaction with search and rescue, he’s been a stud dog, and now he’s a movie star. He has the résumé; he has the Hollywood story.”

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Below, Simpson explains how he found Uber, which he calls the “Brad Pitt of dogs,” working with Pitt to form a relationship with the dog, and more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How long did it take you to find Uber?

ANDREW SIMPSON: It was going back and forth between which type of dog, which breed of dog, [Odin would be], and when the decision was made, “Hey, we’re going to go German Shepherd,” there wasn’t enough time because New Zealand is one of the hardest countries to get into for their biosecurity. It’s four-and-a-half months of pre-prep that you have to do with an animal to bring it into New Zealand. So our only option was, we’ve got to go to New Zealand and find this German Shepherd. And New Zealand’s not a very big country. It is when you’re looking for a dog, but geographically it’s not a very big country. So what I had to do at the start was pretty much like an insurance salesman. You’re just making cold calls to German Shepherd breeders and German Shepherd rescues, you’re researching online, making calls to anyone you may know there in the past, other contacts, and you just start that process, and then you go. It’s boots on the ground and eyes on the dog, and that’s how you find them.

When you saw Uber, did you know that was your star?

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Yeah. We reached out to a lot of people and there was one lady in particular who was very nice. She bred Uber, and then Uber went to another home, and then that owner passed away sadly. So Uber came back to the breeder and I reached out to her and she goes, “Hey, I’ve got a dog who you might want to look at.” She sent me a picture of Uber and I’m like, “Oh my God, that’s the Brad Pitt of dogs right there.” I mean, he was just beautiful. Then I went there, looked at a bunch of dogs, I met Uber and then me and [the breeder] got chatting and she’s like, “Uber’s fathered a few puppies around New Zealand. You might want to look at them.” She showed me some of their photos and oh my God, it was like a match made in heaven. It was like the gold mine.

(Left to right): Director of photography Mauro Fiore, camera operator Ulric Raymond, animal coordinator Andrew Simpson, director David Ayer, and dog trainer Joseph McCarter with Uber on the set of ‘Heart of the Beast’Credit: Paramount Pictures

Not only do you have to train Uber, but does Brad also have to go through the training with him?

One of the hardest things is to make a dog look like he belongs to somebody else, especially when he doesn’t belong to us because we’re getting to know him, we are getting to teach him and work out his quirks and his personality. Brad Pitt’s an icon, and you meet this guy and you go, “Okay, I know you’re top of your game. We’re going to make the dog top of his game, and together you got to make it look like you genuinely know, love, and have affection for each other because that’s what we have to do.” And hats off to Brad, he was in there, he was in the mud, he was in the water with that dog. He spent the time and he did make a relationship with him. When you see it on screen, it’s not something you can fake. When that dog looks at him and he looks at the dog, you can see that there’s a connection there, and that’s what I believe makes this movie work.

Odin, as portrayed in the movie, has a prosthetic leg. Was that just something that wrapped around the dog’s leg to make it look that way? They weren’t amputees, right?

No, they weren’t amputees. There was a lot of talk at the beginning whether the leg would stay or whether the leg idea would go. I’m glad it stayed because there’s a lot of these veteran service dogs that come out of the military do end up with limbs missing, and it was a testament to everybody in the production who decided to keep that element because it is a very true element. We ended up finding a guy who makes prosthetics for humans, and his passion is making prosthetics for dogs, amputee dogs in New Zealand. I teamed up with him and told him what we’re doing, and he jumped in and he designed them. Every single leg was custom-fitted for each dog, so it wasn’t one-size-fits-all. He made these most beautiful legs. We had stunt legs, we had legs that were hero closeups on camera, and we taught the dogs with his guidance how to wear them, and it turned out beautifully.

What was the hardest scene or trick to train Uber for?

The prosthetic leg was a big thing because every sequence we’re doing with the dog, whether it’s running, whether it’s the water, whether it’s the log, whether it’s a swamp, whether it’s getting in and out of the airplane — I said to the writer (Cameron Alexander) a few times, “You sit in your room and you write this stuff and it’s super cool, now we have to figure out how to do it.” We’re going to have the dog jump out of the airplane. Okay, he’s jumping out with basically three legs. He’s got to hit this little pontoon and look like he’s done it every day for the last few years. So definitely a lot of challenges in that aspect. It’s a survival story, it’s an adventure story, it’s a thriller, and it’s real. There’s no crazy visual effects. Ninety percent of what you’re seeing is real: real dirt, real water, real trees, real everything. It made it really challenging, but really fun.

Brad Pitt and Odin on the set of ‘Heart of the Beast’Credit: Paramount Pictures

You’ve done a lot of work in film and TV, and a lot of times a dog just might pop in for a scene or two, or just be present but not really doing anything. How do you compare this experience where it’s Odin and Brad almost the entire film?

But for a couple of scenes, it is just him and Brad. And the funny thing is, Odin’s number one on the call sheet and Brad’s number two. That just never happens. It’s definitely challenging when the dog is there every day, every scene is focused on him. But it was a fun aspect to have the dog be the central character. Geez, the dog had a team of 12 people. We had colorists, we had costume, we had makeup, we had American Humane, we had assistants, we had trainers. I mean, he had his own parking spot. Odin was the guy. It was a movie about Odin and everyone realized that, and it made it super fun to be on.

Were you nervous to meet Brad Pitt? What was that like?

For sure nervous. I’ve been in this industry a while, met a lot of them, but never met him and I was a fan of his work. He’s an icon. He’s like Robert Redford, Paul Newman — he’s in that caliber. When you meet [actors], it’s always like, “Okay, how’s this going to be?” Because you just never know. But he was great. He put his work hat on and he’s like, “What do I need to do? You teach me and I’ll understand what I need to do.” He’s one of those guys that once you explain to him what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, he’s like, “Okay, makes sense. Now I know, let’s get to work.” He was awesome. I loved him.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

on Entertainment Weekly

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