Amy Adams, Scoot McNairy and cast members of the movie Nightbitch, directed by Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me), walked the red carpet for the world premiere at Toronto Fest on Saturday night.

“An overworked stay-at-home mom (Adams) tries to catch a break, any break, while caring for her rambunctious toddler,” says the synopsis of the film, based on the bestselling 2021 novel of the same name by author Rachel Yoder. “Also, she might be turning into a dog.”

Scott McNairy plays her husband.

“We had, I think, 12 dogs on set with 12 trainers all hiding in bushes. That’s how you work with dogs on set. It’s crazy,” Heller explained.

“We spent a long time casting the dogs, casting the dog that was Amy. That’s actually a beautiful story because we were looking for a reddish husky and we couldn’t find one. And so they ended up adopting Juno, who they found in a shelter in California and trained her for many months before we shot the film. She was just the most gorgeous, incredible dog.”

However, something was different when the cameras rolled. “Amy’s acting when she does it,” Heller explained. “So she’s doing this weird looking at the dogs and going like this, and the dogs freaked out and started lunging at her.”

Adams interjected: “Except one dog. One dog was like, ‘That’s not okay. That’s not cool.’”

Heller noted: “It almost ruined the whole shoot. The trainers were like, ‘Oh, they thought she would be stalking them.’ Her behavior was too odd, and it flipped them. It was wild.”

Adams summed up: “Yeah, I freaked the dogs out on the set.”