Shamier Anderson Talks ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’, Working With Dogs & Hopes For His Character In The Future – Interview
The highly anticipated John Wick: Chapter 4 has been released in theaters!
Leading up to its premiere, Geeks of Color had the opportunity to sit down with some of the new cast that joined the franchise. Firstly, we spoke to Shamier Anderson, a rising star in the entertainment industry that makes his mark in the new action-thriller. Anderson portrays a mysterious character known as the Tracker, who is sent to locate John Wick.
Before we delve into his role in John Wick: Chapter 4, we must commend Anderson on his past work. Anderson has an impressive resume, having appeared in popular television shows like Wynonna Earp, The Next Step, and Goliath. In addition, Anderson has appeared in several films, including Bruised, Race, Destroyer, Bruiser, and City of Lies.
Check out the full interview with Shamier Anderson below:
During our chat, Anderson shared his excitement about joining the John Wick franchise and how he approached the character. Anderson said, “The Tracker, I believe he’s one of the only characters in the film that’s the most relatable to the audience. Why? He’s the one character on the outside of this wacky world and coming into the world, literally coming into the space–coming into the John Wick orbit. And so, with building that, I wanted to ground him even more, so I said to Chad Stahelski, our filmmaker, ‘What if the Tracker used all of the John Wick movies as documentaries and as case studies, so he was hyper-aware?'”
We all know dogs are a huge part of this film franchise. Since Tracker and Wick have dogs in common, Anderson spoke about the similarities between them. Anderson said, “This whole movie franchise is about him avenging his dog. So there was that relationship and that correlation between our lead John Wick and Tracker.”
Anderson also spoke about working with the dogs in the film, stating that it was a unique experience and that the dogs were incredibly well-trained. This was Anderson’s first time working with animals. He shared, “You have to have so much patience. Because I know we’re making a movie, the camera guy knows he’s making a movie, everybody on set knows you’re making a movie, the dog is just being a dog, the dog has no idea what’s going on. And so sometimes we’ll have takes the dog will just do dog things like having to use the bathroom, you know? Having to eat some food, just barking at something. So these are things that, you know, took a lot of patience and learning.”
Anderson also revealed that he wasn’t just working with one dog and said, “Even though we see the one dog which their hair’s cut and everything to look the same, they’re all identical. They’re all different. Because one safety’s number one, we want to make sure not exhausting any animals or making sure every dog is healthy. But each dog has its individual skill set. So some dogs are really good at chasing, some good dogs really good at jumping, biting. And so these are the things that I had to learn. So the time that I spent on one dog, I’d have to do that for every single dog. Learn all their names, all their quirks, and all their mannerisms.”
Lastly, I asked Anderson if he would be interested in reprising his role in some fashion. He expressed his hope to return to the franchise in future films and said, “Without question, 100% down. I mean, I think beyond me selfishly; the world responds so much to the Tracker everybody wants more of him. So let’s campaign for the tracker #TrackerSpinoff.”
John Wick: Chapter 4 is now in theaters.
