Sam, Will Smith’s co-star in I Am Legend, the apocalyptic sci-fi movie, might be a familiar name to you. After 10 years, Abbey, the dog from the movie, is still doing great, and lives with her family and Steve Berens, her trainer.
“She’s older now and she doesn’t hear hardly anything. But she’s still kicking, she still likes a ball and likes a bone” Steve said during a recent interview.
“When you work with a lot of actors, they’re not that interested in the animal – a lot of actors look at it as something that the audience is going to be looking at instead of them.”
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“But Will was not at all like that. He understood that this was his co-star, and he really dug it and really got into it. […] I think that she really liked him, and that made a difference.”
During his childhood, Will Smith lost a dog in a car accident, and he vowed never to own another pet because the pain was too great. But his on-set relationship with Abbey was just too strong, so he even asked her trainer if he could keep her.
“I was begging him. I was like, please let me have Abbey. Please, please, please let me have her. But you know, she has her own family now so it was just another one of those fleeting Hollywood romances.”
If you need to refresh your memory of the film, here are some clips showing Will Smith and Abby’s connection.
