Bev Klingensmith didn’t think twice when she deleted an email from Hollywood movie producers looking for a Great Dane to star in a film. But as a dog trainer and handler and the owner of a charming 150-pound Great Dane named Bing, she later responded to that same email to offer help in finding the perfect fit. She never imagined that conversation would result in her own pup Bing becoming a movie celebrity.
“It’s very unusual to have a dog from the Midwest be brought out for the filming of a movie,” Bev said. “I realized it was a really cool sounding project and went ahead and submitted photos for consideration.”
The search for the best canine costar originally began on the East Coast before it expanded to the Midwest. They were specifically searching for a Harlequin Great Dane – a dog with a white coat and irregular black patches – to match the one featured in the book-turned-movie “The Friend,” which tells the story of a writer who takes ownership of her friend’s Great Dane after he passes.
Bing checked all the boxes for the character of Apollo – he’s a near match to the dog on the book cover and is an American Kennel Club (AKC) champion with several performance titles. It wasn’t long before two of the movie’s directors and the head animal trainer arranged a visit to Bev’s home in Newton to meet him.
“They told me later, as soon as they met him, that they knew he was the right dog for the role. I didn’t know that for weeks, so they kept me in suspense,” Bev joked.
After driving out to New York and being set up with a homebase in Staten Island, Bev and Bing began their work on set. The project started out in actor Naomi Watts’s home – the film’s lead star – as her and Bing became more comfortable with each other. Bing also became friends with Naomi’s six-pound Yorkie, Izzy.
Throughout the filming of the movie, Bing was able to show off the obedience skills he’d mastered while training in Des Moines and learn some new skills specific to the storyline – like carrying things in his mouth and scratching at doors.
Despite playing the role of a dog mourning his past owner, Bing’s happy demeanor was maintained, and his excitedly wagging tail even had to be edited out of a few scenes.
Once filming was wrapped and the movie was released in April 2025, Bev and Bing spent more time on the road promoting it. The duo attended film festivals, premiere events and private parties alongside Hollywood’s biggest celebrities.
“It’s hard to wrap up the surrealness of all those experiences. If you asked me, I would have said that was never, ever possible,” Bev reminisced. “And who wouldn’t love to share their love of their dog with the rest of the world? It’s been an incredible, humbling, amazing experience.”
After returning to Newton and their usual routine, Bev reflected on the opportunities in Iowa that eventually led from her and Bing strolling the local trails to walking Hollywood’s red carpet.
For the past 30 years, she’d lived peacefully on ten acres in Newton – a uniquely Iowa opportunity that allowed space for her dogs to roam – while being just a short drive away from various opportunities in Des Moines.
She remembered her first Great Dane dragging her down the sidewalks and their first obedience classes with the Des Moines Obedience Training Club – where she’s now a trainer herself and is where Bing completed all the courses that led up to his AKC certification and performance titles.
These experiences introduced Bev to Central Iowa’s strong dog sports culture and encouraged her to become even more involved. She went on to join the Central Iowa Kennel Club and hold several officer positions and eventually became the president of the Great Dane Club of Des Moines.
“[The clubs are] just really fun ways to give back, and I’m a huge proponent of teaching our dogs to be as adaptable as possible because you never know what life is going to throw at you,” Bev said. “I typically mean from job changes and moving or things that you might not anticipate. Now I can also add in there, ‘Because you never know when Hollywood might call.’”
