The Dog in I Am Legendby Courtney Mroch | More from this Blogger 17 Dec 2007 06:47 PM "I was begging him," Will said. "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. ~-From an Access Hollywood interview-~ As I wrote about in Animal Movies = Torture: How I Fared Through Evan Almighty, movies featuring animals kill me. Doesn't matter if there's a happy ending or not, I can't sit still to watch them. This weekend Wayne and I went to see I Am Legend. I knew there was a dog in it. I'd seen the previews and had surmised the dog played a crucial role. I also had an inkling the dog's ultimate fate would not be a happy one. But I really wanted to see the movie so... We braved it. (Wayne can take animal movies, but he doesn't do so good with scary, and this one was.) However, we both ended up enjoying it because of the very thing I was dreading: the dog's part in the movie. While Will Smith is undoubtedly the star and does, as usual, an awesome acting job, he shares the screen with Abbey the German Shepherd. (That's her name in real life. Her name in the movie is Sam, as in Samantha.) The thing I liked best about it was the way Will Smith's character, Dr. Robert Neville, treated Sam. Just like how I treat Murphy, how Aimee treats her Lally and Moose, and how so many of my other friends treat their dogs: just like a person. He spoke to Sam like he would a person...and she responded in her own way. She helped Neville with chores just like how Murph helps me with mine. (But in her case, battling creepy "Dark Seekers" was part of it. Gulp! Murph's happy he doesn't have such tasks.) She kept him company, went on rides with him, and in general was his buddy. (But she seemed to enjoy baths a lot more than Murph ever has!) It's not very often a dog gets such a big part in a movie, and it's even less often the animal/human relationship is portrayed like the one in I Am Legend was. It was endearing and is something dog-lovers everywhere will be able to relate to. And I don't know how they got her to do some of what she did, but the range of emotions she portrayed --from happy to sad, fiercely loyal to worried-- was amazing. If they handed out Golden Globes, Emmys, or Oscars for best animal actor, she should win one! "Abbey started responding to, 'Rolling!'" Smith recounted. "She would hear it and then go ... I was like, 'Did that dog just respond to the cameraman saying 'Rolling?' Learn more about Courtney Mroch  Courtney Mroch is a wife, a proud pet parent, and a writer. She's been with her husband, high school sweetheart Wayne Pryor, over 20 years, married 11 of those. She's "mom" to Mr. Meow, a.k. Relevantpets tags User Comments kapkap (5) 12 Apr 2008 02:04 PMThe greatest dog I ever owned was a German/Belgian Shepherd cross I selected from a litter in 1970. I had never read the 1954 novel that led to "I Am Legend," and I still don't know whether Samantha was the shepherd's name in the novel. What I do know is that I was fond of the actress Samantha Eggar at the time (from the movie, "The Collector). So I named the pup Samantha -- always known as "Sam." A bit smaller than Abbey, but with the same markings and face. Sam's markings were more vivid, however. Her eyes seemed to have eyeliner ! Eyes like a deer's eyes. Photographers used to stop me to take pictures of Sam. Sam was my best friend as I graduated law school in Boston and moved to North Conway, NH, and then to Rochester, NY where I met my wife in 1973 and my first child was born, in 1975. My videos of Sam meeting the baby are priceless. She never left the side of the baby, espcially when he was out in the carriage. God help anyone who came close without our permission. Though she loved to wrestle and fight with me, she did it with a soft mouth. Given a roasted beef leg-bone, she could crunch all the way through it after about a minute. That is one of many proofs of her immense intelligence and protective instincts; the ability and judgment to control her strength. Our videos of our one-year old son lying against Samatha's prone body, with him poking her in the eyes and ears, and her in her glory, are beyond belief. Unfortunately, liver cancer got her at age 7, in 1977. I saw "I Am Legend" last night on DVD. I was moderately taken-aback that this beautiful clone of my Sam is "Sam" in the movie. I was completely blown-away, three-quarters of the way trhrough the movie when we learn that her name is not just "Sam", but "Samantha." When the credits ran I looked for a familiar name among the screenwriters, etc. Someone who I might have known between 1970 and 1977. Found none, but that doesn't mean that one of the writers didn't know Sam. If the dog in the 1954 novel was Samantha the shepherd, then I'm perfectly satisfied that this is all a coincidence. Otherwise, I wonder if some neighbor or school-kid in Boston, or North Conway, NH, or Rochester, NY, "cast" Abbey to be Samantha in the movie. Nearly identical in appearance, identical in temprament, and identical in name. I choose to think the latter. One and only one true story about how much other folks loved Sam. When I lived in North Conway, NH, I let Sam run free. One day the police came to my house and told me I had to keep her on a run. So I asked whether she had been causing any problems, and they said "Yes. She comes to school recess everyday and the teachers can't get the kids to leave her alone and get back into class. She won't stop licking them and trying to play with them." (A dog that could bite clear through a strange child's arm, and never, ever would even think of doing so.) That was the old days, before leash laws in New Hampshire. 1971, '72. But I understood, and kept her on a run, and walked her over to the school when I could to let the kids fall all over her, and let her slurp the kids with the tail wagging all the time. I've never owned a purebred shepherd, but her mix of German and Belgian was beyond perfect. May that be every dog's epitaph ! Spawns too much love to be permitted ! Loves everyone who does not threaten the baby that came along years after she met her master. What a dog ! And I won't be able to watch "I Am Legend" again without thinking it an homage to my own Samatha. Mike Kaplan Buffalo, NY  Courtney Mroch (9169) 14 Apr 2008 08:50 AMOh, Mike, this brought tears to my eyes. If you ever find out if someone involved with I Am Legend DID know you and your Sam, I hope you'll let us all know. Now I'm very curious! I know how I felt watching the dog in the movie, but you must have been completely awed since the Sam in the movie sounds SO similar to the one you described having! And your reminiscences reminded me of my fellow Pets Blogger, Aimee Amodio's, recent posting entitled "The Awesome One." It's about how we all have that one pet that is just our soul connection. Your Sam sounds like that for sure. (Here's the link to Aimee's blog about that http://pets.families.com/blog/the-awesome-one.) Thanks for sharing this very heart-warming story! Community Tags dogs, dog actors, German Shepherds, I Am Legend, Will smith Discuss this article
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