Meet Betty, the Real Star of 'Will Trent'
The perfectly poised pup in 'Will Trent' is TV’s new “it” dog.
The adage is that actors should never work with kids or dogs, right? Well, Will Trent star Ramón Rodriguez, who shares the screen with an adorable Chihuahua, strongly disagrees. “She’s a bona fide pro,” he raves. “She comes in, knocks out her scenes, gets treats and goes home in, like, an hour. She’s amazing.”
“She” is Betty, one of the reasons the new quirky crime drama (ABC, Tuesdays, 10 p.m. ET) is just so doggone irresistible. Based on Karin Slaughter’s popular book series, it focuses on Rodriguez’ eccentric agent at the Georgia Bureau of Investigations. Abandoned as a child and raised in foster systems, Will Trent wears his three-piece suit as an emotional shield. But in the first episode, he reluctantly adopts little Betty after finding her tied up all alone in his neighborhood. They bond in a hurry. “He wasn’t just going to let this dog stay out there,” Rodriguez says. “That simple act shows you how much heart he has.”
Related: Everything You Need To Know About ‘Will Trent’ Season 1
That’s exactly why Slaughter, also an executive producer, introduced the four-legged character in her 2006 book, Will Trent: Triptych. “Will certainly had no intention of getting a dog, let alone a Chihuahua,” she explains via email. “Betty is the kind of dog a young pop star would carry in a leather satchel. But Will is a man who grew up in an orphanage and can’t take a dog to the pound. Now she whiles away the hours until Will comes home. Will Trent has lots of strong women in his life. Betty is just another one on the list.”
It's a Dog’s Life
For the record, Slaughter confirms that Betty is not named for animal-lover Betty White. In fact, the dog who plays Betty is really named Bluebell. Per her professional trainer April Macklin—who’s worked with her since 2018—she’s a pure Chihuahua, “a bit of a rescue” and about 8 years old. Plus, she’s British! Bluebell was one of several dogs who played Emma Stone’s pooch Wink in the 2021 film Cruella. Bluebell and Macklin soon uprooted to Atlanta.
Bluebell answered the Will Trent call last year. “We heard producers wanted a small dog and preferred a Chihuahua,” Macklin says, noting that the pet also had to slide comfortably back and forth across a table (as seen in an early scene when Will initially tries to hand her off to a shelter). While she auditioned with a slew of other furry contenders at a “physical showing,” there was no doubt who was, ahem, the pick of the litter.
“Bluebell definitely has a mind of her own but she’s pretty chill,” Macklin says of her personality. “She loves to sit on my bed and hang out with me on the couch. Sometimes we’ll play and she’ll try to attack me like I’m a big dog. She’d also eat her entire bag of dog food in one sitting if I let her because she loves food.”
But when it’s time switch into work mode, she’s game.
Macklin says she and Bluebell have put in “thousands of hours” of training for her to be camera-ready: “She had a great foundation and has a lot of desensitization to other people, loud noises and movement. Now it’s just a matter of adjusting to what she already knows for all her scenes.” When the two head off to the Atlanta set, “she starts bouncing around and barks at me because she’s so excited.”
A few of her tricks? Bluebell makes awww-inducing eye contact and expressions because Macklin stands off-screen holding a telescopic pointer with a ball attached. “I do it to pull a look in different directions,” she says. “She just gazes at the ball.” She also recently spent four days teaching Bluebell how to retrieve props for a scene.
Of course, it helps that her TV dog dad has taken such a liking to her. “Ramón has such a sixth sense in that he knows exactly what to do with her,” she says. “There was one scene where he figured out how to do something brilliant with her. He’ll even put some chicken in the bed to get her to pull a behavior. I think he really loves her.”
She’s right. “I’m absolutely a dog person," says Rodriguez. "I grew up with them and the joy they bring is incredible. Dogs can have some really funny and interesting personalities. But above all, I love how they love.”
And while Slaughter is more of a cat person, she couldn’t be happier with the canine that brought her creation to life. “I think Bluebell was the perfect fit,” she writes. “She’s a real diamond in the ‘ruff.’”
Related: The 20 Best Thrillers Ever, According to Author Karin Slaughter
