Podcast Summary: Last Podcast On The Left — “Good Boy: An Interview with Ben Leonberg & Indy”

Date: September 29, 2025
Hosted by: Marcus & Henry
Guests: Ben Leonberg (director), Indy (the dog star)

Overview

In this special “Side Stories” episode of Last Podcast On The Left, hosts Marcus and Henry dive into the bizarre and heartfelt world of dog-led horror with an interview featuring Ben Leonberg, director of the new indie horror film Good Boy, and his canine star, Indy. The trio discusses the unique challenges (and joys) of making a movie from a dog’s perspective, the emotional soul of animal-centered storytelling, practical realities of indie filmmaking, and the surprising depths of canine cinema. The mood is characteristically irreverent, funny, and enthusiastic.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Interviewing A Dog: Comic Antics and Satire

• The episode opens in comedic fashion as Marcus and Henry joke about interviewing a literal dog, Indy. They riff on canine Hollywood unions (“Are you in SAG or Wag?” at 05:07) and throw playful barbs at Indy’s silence, drawing out the absurdity of treating a dog as a film star.

  “Many people would say ... that when a broadcaster has found himself interviewing a dog, that that would be the low point of their career.”
  — Marcus (01:03)

  “Now, are you in SAG or wag? ... Well, non Union.”
  — Marcus & Henry (05:07)

2. Meet Ben Leonberg: The Director's Perspective

• After the comic dog “interview,” Ben Leonberg joins to explain the real filmmaking process with Indy. He details the logistical and emotional dynamics of shooting a film centered on a dog.

  “He refused to read a script for the entire duration of the shoot. He really doesn't understand that he's in a movie. I cannot say that enough.”
  — Ben Leonberg (06:21)

  • Leonberg and his wife did all of Indy’s training and handled nearly every aspect of production themselves (09:26).
  • Indy is a “non-traditionally trained” actor, meaning genuine dog behavior, not staged “acting,” drives the film’s emotional cues (09:50).

3. Dog-Centered Storytelling: Horror from Their POV

• The origin of Good Boy comes from the everyday anxiety of why dogs bark at nothing—tying into haunted house tropes and classic horror cinema.

  “I think we've all wondered or worried why our dog is barking or staring at nothing.”
  — Ben Leonberg (11:46)

• The film’s concept is inspired by scenes like the golden retriever in Poltergeist sensing danger before humans (13:35), and Leonberg shares how he shot shorts mimicking scenes from The Shining to experiment with canine POV storytelling (13:15).

4. Filmmaking Techniques and Homage

• Leonberg discusses emotional audience engagement: people bring an outsized emotional investment to dog-centric films. He references the “Kuleshov effect” (21:23) as the mechanism by which editing—not dog performance—tells the story.

  “We got a question all the time. How did you get Indy to look scared? And we didn't. ... He's just standing there with neutral expression. ... The performance and the emotion is coming through the edit and the audience.”
  — Ben Leonberg (21:07–22:19)

• The film pays homage with partial shot-for-shot remakes of classic sequences from notable horror films but subverts them with the unpredictability of a real dog actor.

5. Emotional Impact, Humor, and Audience Investment

• The crew addresses the universal desire not to see harm come to the movie dog, lampooning films like Marley & Me for traumatizing viewers (15:52).

• Audience instantly sides with the dog, eliminating the need for the usual “Save the Cat” screenplay trick.

  “If you make a movie with a dog, you do not need to have them save a cat. ... First frame is a dog asleep on a couch and the audience goes, aww ... They're already on his side.”
  — Ben Leonberg (28:52)

6. Filmmaking During COVID

• The film was made during the COVID pandemic, which led Ben and his wife to shoot the entire movie themselves in their own home, adapting to logistical constraints and discovering unexpected creative advantages (31:08).

7. Low Budget, High Creativity

• The team stresses how films like Good Boy show what’s possible with minimal resources but maximum heart—encouraging audiences to support indie horror to make more of these projects possible (32:58).

  “Not just that, just support, you know, like low budget horror movies as much as you can. If you go and see this movie in the theater, then more movies like this will be made because that's what the world needs right now.”
  — Henry (32:58)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Dog Labor Satire: “Do you know that Ben is actually. I hate to do this. ... Not your father.”
  — Henry, riffing on dog ‘child labor laws’ (02:31)

• On Indie Filmmaking with Dogs:
  “The trick is figuring out how to make a movie around them.”
  — Ben Leonberg (06:41)

• Kuleshov Effect Simplified:
  “You have a shot of a dog looking past the camera very intently. Then you show a dark, empty corner, and the audience says, there's something there ... That dog must be terrified. He's not. He's just being himself.”
  — Ben Leonberg (21:07–22:19)

• Emotional Danger—Dog Edition:
  “If anything bad happens to the dog, I'm gonna go John Wick on the director.”
  — Ben Leonberg, relaying audience threats (15:20)

• On Voice Acting:
  “The truth is, we don't yell at him, is we replace the voice afterwards.”
  — Ben Leonberg (23:01)

• Why Visual Storytelling Works:
  “There's something about people who can just emote. Like Humphrey Bogart said, Like 12 words a movie ... where like you look at like Indy, because it's not a dog actor, because it's looking at you with genuine love.”
  — Marcus (20:08–20:54)

• On COVID Filmmaking:
  “The pandemic kind of forced our hand that we could ... The best way to make this movie was just with me, my wife and Indy. ... The house you see in the movie is where we actually lived.”
  — Ben Leonberg (31:08–31:29)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:03 – Opening banter: “career low point” jokes about interviewing a dog
• 05:07 – “SAG or Wag?” and indie dog labor jokes
• 06:21 – Ben Leonberg explains the filming process with Indy
• 09:26 – Family-run production, self-training, and authentic dog acting
• 11:46 – Ideas behind Good Boy and everyday dog mysteries
• 13:15 – Using horror iconography (Poltergeist, The Shining) as inspiration
• 15:16 – Audience emotional attachment, Marley & Me trauma
• 21:07 – The Kuleshov effect and making a dog “act”
• 23:01 – Replacing dog “dialogue” in post-production
• 28:52 – The myth of “Save the Cat” upended by canine casting
• 31:08 – COVID-19 as catalyst for small-scale, homegrown filmmaking
• 32:58 – The importance of supporting low-budget horror in theaters

Closing Thoughts

Good Boy is more than a clever genre twist: it’s an experiment in raw, emotional storytelling using the real responses and presence of a beloved pet at the center of a haunting narrative. Through warm humor, honest filmmaking insight, and an unshakeable love for dogs, the episode encourages listeners to rethink what a horror film (or any movie) can be when passion, limitation, and creativity combine. The conversation will resonate with indie film lovers, horror fans, and, of course, dog people everywhere.