Was it hard working with a cat actor?
Well, Huey (who played Howard) isn't trained to do anything on cue, but since I knew him and wrote the script, I knew he would be able to perform certain tasks. For example, he always comes running when he hears a can of food open. He runs away in foreign places, and he meows a lot. All of the meows in the film were delivered by him as we were filming--we didn't add any in the editing process (we could have, but I liked the idea that he was able to so perfectly act the part!). But on several occaisions, particularly when he needed to sit there or act interested in something, we had to bring out the catnip for some coaxing. This was sometimes tricky, as when we sprinkled some out of the bag onto the couch or wherever, he was always more interested in the bag than what we sprinkled. So we had to hide the bag, but then during our scenes he would dig it out and rip into it. So that wasn't much of a solution either. Basically, he was either in the mood and was a star on the first take, or it would take several laborious tries to get something useable from him. He was moody like that. But, well, he's a cat. And a pretty damn funny one at that.