Year of the Dog Movie Review

In Year of the Dog (April 13), the directorial debut of writer-actor Mike White (Chuck & Buck, The Good Girl), Molly Shannon plays Peggy, a shy secretary whose life goes to the dogs when her adorable beagle, Pencil, dies. She recovers by gaining a revolutionary zeal to protect all critters great and small. As it turns out, Shannon already knows where the wild things are — and she's willing to answer our inquiries about that and other aspects of her life.

PREMIERE: What did you eat for breakfast this morning?

I had an egg sandwich with cheddar cheese and ham on an English muffin. I love knowing what people eat. I have a friend who would be obsessed about certain stars when [they hosted] Saturday Night Live. She happened to like Neve Campbell, and I was like, "Neve had a glass of cabernet, she had pasta with tomato sauce..." She wanted to know every detail: Did she have bread?! Did she have butter?!

What was the last movie that you saw that made you cry?

I was very touched at the end of Volver, when [Penélope Cruz] tells her mother, "I need you!" I don't know if I really cried, but I was moved.

What was the last book you bought?

1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12. It's that technique where you say what you want them to do, and if they're not doing it, you give them a "That's one!" "That's two!"

You have a three-year-old and a 22-month-old. So, does it work?

I haven't read it yet. [laughs]

What song always gets stuck in your head?

It's an old TV jingle: "Almost everything you wanted but didn't get for Christmas is on sale now at Sears!"

If you could go on vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go?

I already did this, but I loved it — I went to Ulusaba, a private game reserve in South Africa. We saw leopards and rhinos and cougars and elephants... just everything. It was in the middle of nowhere. I remember one night, I was like, "I'm going out for a little run." And then I'm like, "Oh, wait, I can't go out. It's dangerous. There are wild animals!"