Meet the woman who helped to make Mistletoe merry, plus see two exclusive clips.
Well, actually, he’s a corgi.
the Queen: a corgi named Mistletoe.
Bonbon, a.k.a. Mistletoe, from ‘A Royal Corgi Christmas’.Hallmark Channel
Alas, Mistletoe is not as well-behaved or high-pedigreed as the other royal corgis.
In fact, he’s quite mischievous.
Does Mistletoe rather comedically end up with trifle on his head after destroying a buffet?
Does he rather dramatically compete in a Christmas Corgi Derby?
Does he ultimately learn to be a good boy?
These questions are self-answering.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did Bonbon come into your life?
SANDRA STRONG:At 10 weeks old.
He came to my puppy classes and the owners turned up at my gate.
And I thought, “Thatis a star.”
So they did all my courses, all the film courses.
He was almost ready to go.
And the more you teach dogs, the more they understand and the quicker they learn.
And he only lives 10 minutes from me.
So we had one extremely well-trained corgi.
[But] we had a big problem.
And my colleague is a top Crufts judge.
The big dog show [in England] is Crufts.
It wasn’t until they realized that she was a Crufts judge that they would speak to us.
They thought we were trying to steal corgis for the film.
That was quite a test of anyone’s skills, believe me.
Because corgis aren’t the easiest to train.
They’re quite stubborn.
What was Bonbon’s previous work experience prior to this?
A true fresh, furry face.
He loved every minute of it.
Given the subject of the movie, does Bonbon have any royal blood in him?
He was certainly in character as far as the film was concerned!
He came from working stock.
He was born on a farm where corgis are still used to herd livestock.
Corgis move livestock by nipping at their heels and are known as nippers.
We have to deal with this early on in puppy classes.
Does Bonbon celebrate Christmas or is he agnostic?
He’s gotsucha good face.
Such a happy face.
The face of a film dog.
What was in Bonbon’s contract rider?
He might have wanted demands on set, but he didn’t get any.
He has his needs now.
He’s a famous star.
[Laughs] There was nothing particularly special.
But we’ll talk about that next time.
Does Bonbon need certain treats to perform?
You use treats for motivation.
But there was a lot of motivation in that film, so we used high-quality treats.
Mainly we were using dried venison.
You mentioned that corgis can be a little difficult and stubborn.
What’s the biggest challenge in training them?
You’ve got to start with them while they’re young.
All puppies are quite impressionable, and luckily he was started at 10 weeks.
Because then he was very much into training.
So they’re quite [impressionable] at that age.
But I mean, he was brilliant.
So because he was trained so early, we got so much training in.
He was like, “What are we doing today?
What are we doing today?
I want to know!”
He just loves the camera.
[Laughs]
What was the most difficult trick that Bonbon pulled off in this movie?
That was great when he destroyed the buffet.
First of all, how many takes were required for the buffet disaster?
We could only do one take.
So we had to get it right the first time.
Obviously we didn’t allow him to be there when all the food fell on the floor.
That’s how we did it.
But to teach a dog to pull something like that when there’s very little resistance is quite difficult.
And in films, everything changes all the time.
You’ve gotta pull!
And then he’d think, “Oh yeah!
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
That’s what I have to do!”
He was absolutely terrified of it!
He wouldn’t go anywhere near it, which was a bit of a problem.
Then we couldn’t get him away from it because he then had to go wade through the trifle.
This trifle was not made of cream; it was made of a thick white sauce.
And he loved it!
It was just flour and water, and he was lapping it up.
Thought it was absolutely delicious.
[Laughs]
Bonbon had one other funny episode when filming.
They scared him so much he would not stop barking!
The orchestra had to leave so he could continue with his “staged” naughty behavior!
After he upends the buffet, he’s got the trifle all over him.
Did he venture to eat it off his fur?
All the food we had, we had to double-check it was safe for dogs.
Except for the white sauce with no flavorings in.
You mentioned that the buffet was the most difficult thing to pull off.
How long did you train Bonbon for this scene?
Probably about three, four weeks.
That’s what we were [rehearsing].
It’s all in, like, one take.
It’s not, “Let’s set up a little scenario,” and he does that one.
And then the next one.
Let’s talk about the Christmas Corgi Derby, which happens later in the film.
How ambitious was that scene?
If you were racing dogs, they’re like horses.
They go in a bit of a box and the door comes up and away they go.
They do that so they don’t turn around in the box; they stay facing forwards.
I remember one of the guys on the camera was saying, “I’m dreading this.”
I said, “Why?
What do you think’s going to happen?”
He said, “You know it would take four days to shoot something like this properly.”
And literally, we did it in two takes.
The whole length we did in two takes.
We could not believe how well-behaved these dogs were.
And they all stayed in their lines and corgis aren’t known for walking in a straight line.
They just all stayed in the row.
It was quite unbelievable.
We got very lucky twice!
No, he did the whole lot.
Couldn’t have asked for a better dog.
He tried his best at everything.
Did Bonbon get along with the other corgis?
Most of the time.
His owners love him to go mix with other corgis.
We have these breed events here.
So he went out a lot on those.
I think he got into a little scrap with one of the boys at one point.
They were from the same kennel and Bonbon quite liked this bitch.
The male stud for this other bitch hadn’t been neutered.
It was like, “Keep away from my woman.”
We’re used to that sort of stuff.
How did the actors take to Bonbon?
It sounds like you had to train them a bit, too?
And he is really good with people.
He loves to be with people.
Jordan absolutely loved him.
And Jordan would play with him.
And he used to get Bonbon so excited, Bonbon would do the zoomies.
And he’d just zoom around and around Jordan.
They had a great relationship.
And the nice thing about it, it really did look as if Jordan owned him.
They were best buddies, absolute best buddies, by the end of it.
He’d do anything for Jordan.
No, because we all walk around with poop bags, so it’s no problem.
There was with two of the other dogs.
I mean, it was quite ambitious for two dogs that hadn’t had any training.
[Laughs] I mean, they were great.
you’ve got the option to’t do things with dogs all the time and get it 100 percent.
But it’s much better if you might offer them a solution.
What was that scene?
It was some sort of Christmas dinner for the staff.
It was a room where there was a very low, large table absolutely covered in food.
And this was real food.
And they wanted the dogs to go and sit either side of the Queen.
[Laughs] There was just no way, because the food literally was at their height.
I said, “Even Bonbon would have a problem with that.”
Especially when they had a whole mountain of pork pies.
That was the first thing that would’ve been nose height for the corgis.
So there’s an absence of corgis anywhere near the table in that [final] shot.
They are in the shot, but they’re not sitting looking at this food.
Oh, he is so funny.
And the owner had only just taught him this.
And Bonbon loves this!
And of course he did it absolutely perfectly.
He’d keep still, but then his tail would twitch.
[Laughs] “Look at me!
I’m so clever!
I can do it!”
Why are people obsessed with corgis?
The funny thing is, corgis are much more liked in the States than they are here.
We don’t have a lot of corgis coming through.
But as far as I can see in the States, they just love them.
What is Bonbon’s ultimate career goal?
Does he want to audition forThe Crownand be one of the Queen’s corgis?
I think he could do any of that, you know?
Because I run this agency, I’ve always provided a lot of things for the Queen’s Jubilee.
There’s always adverts around it; we’ve always used corgis for that.
And because there aren’t so many well-trained corgis around, it’s difficult.
Is there a corgi whom he’s modeling his career after?
I think he is the top corgi.
I mean, I’ve never ever seen a corgi that has learned so much as him so quickly.
He’s absolutely brilliant.
Mainly I use the dogs for adverts, so there’s a much smaller part for them.
Well, I think that’s probably what will happen.
There was some talk there was going to be a sequel.
I suppose it depends on how this movie does.
He has a passport so he can come to the States and work over there!
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