She says: “His personality shines through the screen. Even though we had to say goodbye to him, I know he’ll live on for fans and people who remember him – and that for me is the real magic.”
But that’s not to say there weren’t a few mishaps along the way. On one occasion, Monkey launched himself at a priceless, anamatronic dragon – thinking it was a supersized dog toy and not a bespoke masterpiece that had taken the props department months to conceive.
She knew he needed feeding up, attention and something to put his energy into – so the film could be just what he needed.
She added: “He looked up at me with a look of such gentleness that I immediately knew that whatever I had heard about his aggressive side must have been wrong. I could tell this was a dog who just longed to be loved.”
Julie decided the dog was worth checking out anyway. She explained: “Often owners say a dog is aggressive as an excuse to get rid of them. But nine times out of ten it’s because they weren’t prepared for how big the dog got or how expensive it is to feed them. People prefer to blame the dog than blame themselves.”
The 50-year-old decided to rename him Monkey to suit his goofy personality and took him home to Tring, Hertfordshire to train him up.
He starred alongside Daniel Radcliff and Emma Watson in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The animal-welfare advocate, who aims to rescue animals wherever possible, began ringing around dog rescue charities and came across a specialist mastiff rescue charity in Northampton.
Julie worked as Harry Potter’s head animal trainer between 2000 and 2011, and has trained more than 250 animals for the movies including owls, cats and even spiders.
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