W.C. Fields warned him, but Tom Hanks didn’t listen.
Fields, the vaudeville comic who once complained about being forced to live on “nothing but food and water” during Prohibition also steadfastly warned performers against gigs with children and pets.
They will always upstage you, the thinking went; avoid at all costs.
A century later, Hanks has violated the adage by working with a cat — this one discovered behind a Pennsylvania gas station — on his new film, A Man Called Otto. It’s a Pittsburgh remake of the Swedish hit A Man Called Ove.
True to Fields’ admonition, the cat from Catawissa, named Schmagel (I’ll explain in a moment), is “a scene stealer to be sure, but a welcome one,” according to Deadline’s review. (The film's critical response has varied.)
Hanks himself seemed particularly impressed, telling the crowd at a recent screening: “I didn’t think you could train a cat, but Schmagel is, well … he’s actually a pilot now for Delta Airlines.”
I caught up with Schmagel's coach, Britany Hufnagle Long, 37, for tips on adding my own family pets to our list of household earners.
My hopes were quickly dashed when she identified "impulse control" as a prerequisite: "Also not being shy of people or noises."
It takes human discipline too.
Britany started showing dogs at six, studied animal behavior in school, and opened a business applying what she'd learned. She also owns a boarding, grooming, and training facility in the Bloomsburg area.
“I met the right person along the way who got me started [in the pictures] as one of my agents, and now I have five agents,” Britany added.
A Selinsgrove native, she turned her focus to cats after one of those reps said “there’s nobody on the East Coast with really good” ones.
Enter Schmagel.
He was found behind a Sheetz not far from Britany’s Columbia County home, the name an ode to a breakfast sandwich on the Shmenu there.
(Sheetz has "Shmagel" — without the "C" — trademarked.)
Schmagel — not “Smeagol,” as Tolkien fans in the British press have taken to calling him — has a growing list of credits, including several 2022 American Horror Story episodes, under his belt.
Britany had eight weeks to get him ready for A Man Called Otto.
Producers gave them a set of actions they would need to replicate with cameras rolling (here's a sample), and Britany said they got to work.
“Every day I put him in the car to drive my daughter to school so it wouldn’t be a stressor for him,” she said. They also practiced in public.
“It’s less about teaching a task and more about teaching with distractions.”
The Otto set was full of them.
Schmagel didn't like the fog used to give the production “that hazy look.” He also didn’t like the sound of the crew’s work boots on the floor.
“This particular movie was probably the most challenging for me because a lot of it was outside and off-leash, and it was in a city,” Britany said. “The actions themselves were not that difficult, but when you pair it with all of those external factors, it becomes extremely challenging.”
She added: “They’re not a little toys that you wind up and say ‘Go.’”
Otto was Schmagel's biggest role and Britany's favorite production thus far. (They don't call Hanks "America's sweetheart" for nothing, she explained.)
The duo is preparing for another, yet-to-be-revealed part as we speak.
—Colin Deppen, PA Local editor | 
