Bart is in a playful mood, poking his enormous paws under the bars of his cage and grabbing at Doug Seus. Later, Bart rolls on his back as he gets a rubdown through the bars from Seus' wife, Lynne.
Bart is the 1,800-pound, 9-foot kodiak bear who stars, along with a cub named Douce, in "The Bear," a new film by Jean-Jacques Annaud.In the film Bart plays a roaming bear in the wilds of unexplored British Columbia. But Bart has never been a wild bear, so he had to be trained in "natural" bear behavior. And he learned amazingly well.
You might naturally refer to Seus as the man who taught Bart to behave like a bear. He is Bart's trainer, but that's an incomplete description. Their relationship goes well beyond that.
"You've got to love the animals if you want them to work for you," Seus says. "I love him and he knows it." And that love is enthusiastically demonstrated through the cage bars as Bart obeys several verbal commands and then reaches out for Seus - an attempt at a "bear hug," perhaps - as playfully frisky as a child.
In fact, Bart is very much like one of Doug and Lynne Seus' children. Bart came to their Heber City ranch in 1977 as a 6 week-old cub and was bottle-fed in their arms.
Since then he has grown considerably, of course, and seems to be the kingpin of the Seus ranch, which is a virtual zoo. There are the expected animals, such as horses and cats and dogs. But there are also such unexpected residents as Bart himself, an older black bear in the cage next to his, and on this day a row of wolves in cages, to be trained for a new film.
The Seuses and their son Clint have trained animals for several films, and Bart's credits include "Clan of the Cave Bear" and "The Great Outdoors," in which he knocked down a cabin door and sat on Dan Aykroyd (actually Clint doubling for Aykroyd).
"Behavioralists is what we are, but basically I'm a frustrated biologist," Doug Seus said during a brief walking tour of his ranch.
Seus speaks in short, often unfinished sentences and is very animated and enthusiastic as he demonstrates the behaviors he teaches his animals. In fact, he seems a stark contrast to Bart, who is more lethargic.
Filmmaker Annaud had "The Bear" in development since 1982, and when he approached Seus in spring of the next year, he had already become discouraged with the trained bears he auditioned around the world at circuses.
Says Clint, "We were the last on their list, and they'd seen all sorts of bears and had all sorts of problems. But when they came here, we just walked him (Bart) out of his cage on his chain and let him play in the creek, and normally they have all the trainers and everything."
To say the least, Annaud was impressed.
Asked how he felt about the idea of the bear cub in the movie having dreams and hallucinations detailed for us, Seus said anthropomorphism, that is giving human characteristics to animals, isn't as far-fetched as one might think.
"When a wolf loses a loved one, the biologist calls it separation anxiety. If you really look at it, it's grief.
"When a bear sits down at the table and prays with Grizzly Adams, that's appalling. But anthropomorphism from dreaming, feeling morose, that's a different story."
As for the work involved, Seus says that in "The Bear" they used "training techniques that won't be approached again - ever."
Adds Clint, "That was the most difficult thing I ever worked on or expect to work on."