What was your reaction to the idea of kitten poker?
On paper it was great. Actually having to deal with about twelve kittens on a table, when for some of the scene we were raised above the floor to get proper eye lines so the table was about two feet off the ground and the kittens kept trying to crawl off the table, [was difficult]. You don’t want to let them fall, so you’re in the middle of this dialogue scene trying to remember your lines and not look at the camera and you’re like "Oh, there goes a kitten, there we go."
So it was an effort trying to wrangle the kittens and keep them on the table. It was so crazy because there were twelve to fourteen of them that they would just keep interchanging all day long on the set. "Meow, meow, meow…" "Cut, we have kittens mewing".
Did they let you keep any of them?
No, but they were from the SPCA (Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals) so everybody on set wanted to take one home. I can’t - my wife’s allergic to cats - so that solved that problem.