Such A Softie

By Louis B. Hobson

From The Toronto Sun, 03.01.2001

For his Oscar-nominated role in The Green Mile, Michael Clarke Duncan's little buddy was a mouse.

In the family comedy See Spot Run, which opens tomorrow, Duncan plays Murdock, an FBI agent whose partner is a 100-pound English Bull Mastiff named Bob.

This summer, as Attar the captain of the simian army in Tim Burton's Planet Of The Apes, Duncan bonds with a chimp named Jonah.

"The chimp got me into some major trouble recently," admits Duncan.

"When I first met Jonah it was love at first sight. He was the cutest little thing."

Jonah likewise fell head-over-heels for his towering co-star.

The two did not see each other for three months.

The next time they did, Duncan was in full ape makeup.

"Jonah walked by with his trainer. I called out to him: 'Hey do you remember me?' He broke away from his trainer, rushed over to me, climbed up my body and started hugging me and kissing me on the face."

The chimp's trainer was just as shocked as Duncan that Jonah could have recognized the actor even under all the makeup.

Later that day, Duncan and Jonah were shooting a major scene.

Helena Bonham Carter, who plays the chimpanzee Ari, was holding Jonah, and Mark Wahlberg had to come up to take him away from her.

"I was trying to look straight ahead but I snuck a peek to see how Jonah was doing. He looked so cute because he had on his little space suit and little space boots. He saw me and started reaching out to me, begging for a hug." Burton had to stop his cameras. When the trainer came over to reprimand Jonah, the chimp threw a temper tantrum. They got him calm and tried the scene again, but Jonah swatted Carter, broke away from her and rushed over to Duncan.

"That made everyone angry at me. Tim needed to get the shot. The trainer had great difficulty communicating with Jonah and Helena was frightened he might actually hurt her.

"I didn't even acknowledge Jonah after that, but it was very, very difficult because he is so cute."

Duncan had quite a different effect on the little mastiff pups when he filmed a scene with them last year for See Spot Run in Vancouver.

Because his character is a senior FBI agent, Duncan had to instruct the new recruits on how to handle their dogs.

"I had to holler at the recruits. I chose this one guy to zero in on. His puppy got so frightened at my ranting that he started urinating all over the actor who was holding him.

"I felt so guilty because the poor little thing was shivering he was so frightened -- and the actor looked pretty scared, too."

Duncan says he immediately fell in love with the little mutt and inquired about adopting him.

"Because we were filming in Canada and these were Canadian puppies, the adoption procedure to get him over the border was much too complicated."

If things work out, Duncan could soon be shooting a movie with scorpions.

One of Duncan's best friends is wrestling superstar The Rock, who has been signed to make The Scorpion King, a prequel to Brendan Fraser's hit movie The Mummy. It is inspired by the character The Rock plays in The Mummy Returns, which opens May 4.

"The Rock phoned me last year shortly after he had finished filming The Mummy Returns. He said he was going to do a spin-off from The Mummy II and that there was a good part in it for me.

"We've been talking about doing a movie together for a couple of years now because he is such a good friend.

"He leaves me ringside seats whenever WWF is in L.A. and I never miss. I go to every event because of The Rock, so it would be a great thrill to be in a movie with him."