Goose Was Recast With Two New Cat Actors For The Marvels
In Anna Boden's and Ryan Fleck's 2019 superhero film "Captain Marvel," the title character (Brie Larson) has a cat she named Goose. Goose, a Garfield-like orange tabby, was named after the character played by Anthony Edwards in the 1986 film "Top Gun." But it would later be revealed that Goose was not a cat at all, but a shape-shifting alien creature called a flerkin, a voracious squid-like alien that can swallow human-sized prey whole before returning to the size of a house cat, presumably digesting its meals very, very quickly. It was Goose that scratched Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) across his eye, leaving him wearing his signature eyepatch. (Don't worry, though: Goose is merely capricious like a cat, not a monster that wanted to hurt Mr. Fury.)
According to a 2019 piece in Collider, "Captain Marvel" hired four different cat actors to play Goose throughout the film. Their names were Gonzo, Rizzo, Archie, and Reggie. One of them was hired because it has good at being held, one had the most attractive cat face, one was good at nuzzling, and one was called the "jerk cat," as its behavior was unpredictable ... but in a cinematic way. The Collider article didn't specify which cat held which talent, but it was Reggie who attended the "Captain Marvel" premiere. One might guess that Reggie was the "face cat."
In the sequel "The Marvels," due in theaters on November 10, director Nia DaCosta required new jellicle qualities that the previous Goose actors didn't possess. So Goose was recast with two new cat actors named Nemo and Tango.
The cats' trainer, Jo Vaughan, recently spoke to Total Film about the wrangling process, and the various strengths of the two new cats. And yes, one was the "face" of the pair.
Nemo and Tango
Vaughan pointed out immediately that Nemo was the cat better at jumping, running, and generally being more physical. Tango, meanwhile, was hired for his mug. All the "heroic" cat close-ups were of Tango.
Filming with cats can apparently be perilous. Unlike dogs, cats can't be trained in quite the same way, and it seems that Tango and Nemo couldn't control some of their more aggressive cat instincts. For instance, one of them had to act on a set that was covered with a sandy floor. Thankfully, the cat didn't poop in the sand, but he didn't necessarily behave, either. Vaughan tells the story:
"The naughtiest thing one of them did happened when we were on one of the sets where the ground was quite gravelly. We were all ready to go and it was just a giant cat-litter box. He didn't go to the toilet on set, but he came out and just started rolling around in it straight away."
It also turned out to be a challenge working with Larson on set. The actress is aggressively allergic to cats, and wasn't on set any of the days Captain Marvel had scenes. Any shots of Goose interacting with Captain Marvel were achieved with a stunt double or, in some cases, with Vaughan herself. Either she or a member of the cat-wrangling crew was put into the Captain Marvel costume and they stood in the background while Nemo or Tango got their close-up. That sounds like a game one can play with the new film: Scan "The Marvels" for shots of Goose with the superhero in the background, and it's quite likely those shots don't feature Brie Larson.
'It's a lot for a cat'
Vaughan also explained the process of getting a pair of cats screen-ready to play such a visible role as Goose the flerkin. Like any performance, Nemo and Tango were trained according to what the scenes demanded, and then intensely prepped for those sequences leading up to the actual shooting. Vaughan said:
"We had a three-month training period. I read through the script, and marked down all the actions that the cat needed to do. These cats go onto set knowing everything that they're going to do. When we come to shoot, we break it down day-by-day. The day before we will prep what we're going to do the next day so it's fresh in their mind."
Vaughan also casually dropped something of a bombshell at the end of her interview. "The most challenging aspect of training a cat," she said, "is the enormity of the sets, the huge crew, and time constraints. It's a lot for a cat." Indeed, one can see how a pair of orange tabbies might be a little overwhelmed. Vaughan also expressed how chuffed she was with her felines, and casually mentioned that the cats "did us proud ... as did the ten kittens."
Excuse me! "The Marvels" may be replete with superheroes and aliens and all the usual accouterments of the genre, but this may be the first mention that DaCosta's film will feature ten kittens. I know a recent poster featured a few of them, but that fact needs to be mentioned in the advertising more. Audiences will become 6,000% more interested in "The Marvels" if they knew that there were going to be ten kittens involved. Indeed, if, instead of an action climax, there were just 30 minutes of kitten footage, "The Marvels" would be the most successful movie of all time.
"Marvel Kittens" opens November 10, 2023.