Among the actors directed by Justine Triet in Anatomy of a Fall there is also Messi, a seven-year-old border collie with black and white fur and ice-colored eyes.
In the French drama that won at Cannes and was nominated for an Oscar among the 10 best films of the year, he plays Scoop, the guide dog of the child protagonist, who is left almost blind after an accident.
Arriving last week from Paris to Los Angeles, Messi won admiration, cuddles and selfies from half of Hollywood.
At the nominees' lunch, he gave licks and photographs to Billie Eilish, America Ferrera and Bradley Cooper.
Ryan Gosling was scared when he fell to the ground and pretended to be dead, as he does in a heartbreaking scene in the film.
"It took two months of daily training to teach him to let himself go on dead weight, his eyes rolled back and his tongue hanging out," explained his trainer and owner Laura Martin Contini, during the press conference organized by the distribution company Neon .
"Messi is a misunderstood artist. We took part in dozens of auditions, but he was always rejected in the last selection.
Anatomy of a Fall is his first big opportunity. And he didn't waste it!", he said, extending a biscuit to the dog-actor lying at his feet.
Triet, nominated for best director (the only woman, given the exclusion of Greta Gerwig), always wanted Scoop to be "a well-rounded character, not an animal running around senselessly".
"Preparing a dog for the camera is slow work, requiring patience and trust. Whatever moves on the set, he must remain focused on the trainer," according to Martin Contini, who explained that he adopted the border collie from a neighbor of the house and of "having chosen the ugliest of the litter, but there was something about him... he was a 'chien de cinema', a film dog".
It was then his two sons who were football fans who gave him the name of the Argentine champion.
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