An interview with Jolt, aka Lucky the Pizza Dog from Hawkeye


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Greg Tresan and Jacqui Johnson appear on our Zoom Call on either side of a couch, on which two adorable Golden Retrievers are sitting to attention. Tresan playfully asks me if I can tell which of the two is Jolt, aka Lucky the Pizza Dog from Marvel’s Hawkeye.

After watching the first two episodes at the time of our interview, I tentatively choose the dog on the left. I am wrong. The dog on the right is Jolt, while on the left is his sister and his “double”, Eevee. On a Zoom call with an admittedly fragile connection, they could be twins, despite being two years apart.

Johnson, owner and handler of Jolt and Eevee, never intended for either of these dogs to get into showbiz. She initially chose the two dogs as puppies to train in agility and obedience, as well as to be family dogs with their mother, Annie. Johnson told me that she has two little boys, and her rule was that she chose the puppies, but the children had to name them. So the boys named them after Pokemon: Eevee of course, and Jolt is short for its thunder-based evolution, Jolteon.

Jolt, in all his glory.

It was through Johnson’s work with the two agile dogs that she met Tresan, who, along with his wife Carol, owns the Atlanta Dogworks Kennel and Dog Gym, as well as Animal Casting Atlanta. Johnson brought his dogs to the gym to jump and train, and Tresan saw Jolt’s potential, ultimately suggesting that she try an acting job.

Tresan is used to working with bigger productions to launch their animals – it was through him that Stranger Things got his Chester, WandaVision got his Sparky (who also made a cameo on our call) and Venom has found Gemini. However, when Jolt and Johnson auditioned for Hawkeye, they had no idea the scope of what they were initially auditioning for due to Marvel secrecy. When the couple showed up for auditions – which were held remotely due to COVID-19 – Johnson initially assumed the role was for a cameo on a children’s show or something.

Although Tresan showed a number of dogs for the role of Pizza Dog, he was ultimately reduced to Jolt and two others, including Cruiser, who plays Chester in Stranger Things. During a video call, Johnson put Jolt to the test, showing off his obedience, agility and recovery skills. And conveniently, Jolt also came with a double dog to Eevee. But Tresan says what ultimately sold Jolt as Pizza Dog was his overall appearance and adorable golden retriever vibe.

“Pizza Dog is – I don’t mean it’s iconic, but it’s part of the canon for Marvel stuff, and it was already visually there in the comics,” he says. “So I think they had something very strong in mind.”

On the set of Hawkeye, Johnson tells me it was a lot of “hurry up and wait”. Jolt spent many days relaxing in his dog bed or in a kennel waiting for his turn in front of the camera. Eevee was kept on hand specifically in case Pizza Dog was needed for two things at the same time, and actually doubled for Jolt on the series. And yes, Pizza Dog’s eye injury on the show is CG – Tresan told me they scan the dog every time they go out to film to get the perfect look.

Once Jolt was in the spotlight, his training really kicked in. Tresan tells me that she must have learned some new tricks for Hawkeye, although he couldn’t speak specifically of what they were. And there were also challenges. “You can see from the action that there was a lot going on. When a dog runs free in the middle of 5th Avenue, that’s a big deal.

“It’s a special skill to be able to hand your dog over to someone else and make him his dog for now.”

Specifically, he cites the difficulty of keeping a dog focused on an ensemble filled with hundreds of people, all of whom are, understandably, very excited to spend time with a cute and friendly dog.

“When you bring a dog like this onto the set, the big challenge is to keep people from petting the dog. Because everyone wants to hang out with the dog, which from my point of view as a wrestler is really tough. Just constantly trying to get someone’s attention can be very distracting and it doesn’t look good on camera… When we get the dogs to land, we get them to be the dog. someone else. They are not meant to be our dogs. It is a special skill to be able to entrust your dog to someone else and make them your dog for the time being.

He points to a specific scene in Episode 3, “Echoes”, when Clint and Kate take Pizza Dog for a walk in the park. Tresan recalls that Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton / Hawkeye) previously described the walk as difficult to film because Jolt kept getting distracted by the squirrels. But, Tresan insists, it wasn’t the squirrels that were the problem – it was Johnson.

Jolt, outside a restaurant serving his favorite snack.

Jolt, outside a restaurant serving his favorite snack.

“It was really cold outside and she was wearing that red down coat with a hat, and she looked like a lot, a lot of other people walking through the park. So at one point I said she had to go for Jolt to stay focused. But unfortunately everyone was dressed like Jacqui. So [Jolt was going,] “Is this my mother? Is this my mother? “

With Hawkeye wrapped up, both dogs are back to their usual occupations – agility, diving (once the winter months are over) and being adorable family dogs. As Jolt turns around on the couch and shows us his whole fuzzy stomach, Johnson describes their life at home. Eevee, she says, is “all sun and rainbows”, while Jolt is, in real life, just like in the show, a huge “hound dog.” In fact, she was particularly easy to train due to her incredible food motivation: treats, Cheezits, pepperoni, everything looks good to her.

Even pizzas? I ask. Yes, especially the pizzas. In fact, Tresan says pizza is “an intrinsic part of their training,” even though they don’t use it very often.

So yeah, Jolt eats real pizza in Hawkeye, and she loves every second of it. They didn’t want to take too many takes of her eating the real thing, Tresan says, because it’s not great for dogs to have a ton at a time, but he adds that the first bite that ‘she ate in front of the camera’ happened very quickly. “

“She may be in trouble, but that’s why I kept her.”

And even outside of training, Johnson says, Jolt finds ways to put his jaw around a pie.

“There was a time when my neighbor brought me a really big pizza,” she says. “I put it on the counter. I was going to get the mail, say goodbye to the neighbor, I go home and see Eevee and their mother Annie at the door waiting for me to come in, and I don’t see Jolt. So I walk into the house and the next thing I know is all the big pizza is gone minus half a slice because someone jumped on the counter to eat all the pizza.

Her love of pizza combined with Jolt’s birthday party on the same day as Hawkeye’s premiere almost feels like a dog’s fate, and Johnson agrees as Jolt looks at her with a massive, mean smile. Johnson responds with a nod.

“She may be in trouble,” she continues. “But that’s why I kept it. It was the puppy that was always running away, but when she was running away she would come find us and say, “Hey, what do we do? He’s my troublemaker.

For Jolt fans, Hawkeye probably isn’t the last we’ll see of her. Johnson maintains an Instagram account of Jolt’s adventures with his family which has taken off from Hawkeye, and Tresan says he thinks Jolt “has a movie in her.”

What is Jolt’s dream role? Johnson suggests it would be cool if “we had some sort of Air Bud or Homeward Bound theme”. But Tresan wants to see something original. He suggests a Scorcese movie, “I think they have to play a dramatic role.” But given Jolt’s love of acting, Tresan ends up settling on a hypothetical John Wick 5.

At the end of our call, Eevee pulls away from the couch and returns moments later to deliver Johnson a random piece of plastic. Johnson then shows the best way to get Jolt to look at the camera – just look at it and ask, “Are you hungry? Jolt’s eyes light up, her ears prick up and she looks up at attention. Then, no pizza to be found, she leans in to give Johnson kisses as treats are handed out to everyone.

Rebekah Valentine is a reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.


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