Dan Trachtenberg’s “Predator” prequel, “Prey,” features two of the most fierce female protagonists in recent cinema history: the Comanche warrior Naru (Amber Midthunder) and her canine companion, Sarii. As Naru battles against a deadly extraterrestrial threat, she has Sarii by her side to help. The two are a regular Predator-fighting team, and who doesn’t love a horror movie with a tough, lovable dog? Sarii is one capable canine, but it turns out that the dog who plays her, Coco, took a little bit more wrangling than your average actor.
In an interview with Dexerto, Trachtenberg and Midthunder revealed that while they loved scenes with Coco so much that the crew kept putting her into new ones, she was also a “hot mess” who required some extra patience on set. Most working dogs are trained for years, and that includes dog actors, but Coco was adopted specifically for filming “Prey,” and she needed a bit of acting practice first.
Coco is an American dingo, also known as a carolina dog, and they’re one of the oldest breeds in existence. The ancestors of today’s carolina dogs came across the Bering land bridge between Asia and Alaska with the Indigenous people who traveled east and then south to populate the Americas. They are incredibly smart, a little shy, and full of energy, with similar temperaments to the Australian dingo and Japanese native breeds like shiba inus and akitas..
