Feelgood film is a dog's life.

OWEN WILSON has made sure his latest movie is a real family affair.

Not only do the Texan actor's parents appear in new film Marley & Me, but his Australian cattle dog Garcia also makes his debut in the feelgood tale.

The film, based on the best-selling memoir by journalist John Grogan, is all about family - and dogs. It follows John and Jenny Grogan through the various stages of their life, from marriage and moving to Florida, to promotion and childbirth.

The one constant in their relationship is a Labrador called Marley, who they describe as "the worst dog in the world".

He chews everything in sight, turns an obedience class into mayhem and howls like fury whenever there's a thunderstorm.

You'd think most actors would politely decline such a script, but perhaps Owen and his co-star Jennifer Aniston had never heard the old adage about never working with children or animals.

"We grew up with dogs," 40-year-old Owen explains. "My family's first dog was a Dalmatian named Nutmeg, but our main dog growing up was a chocolate brown Labrador called Blue. He could swim to the bottom of pools and retrieve golf balls, it was his special trick. He could hold his breath."

Marley ages 13 years in the film, so 22 different Labradors were needed to play him. Incredibly, none of the dogs were trained to do anything other than normal dog behaviour.

"Clyde was the main dog who played Marley and he was pretty consistent about misbehaving and doing bad stuff," says Owen, with a cheeky glint in his blue eyes.

Owen admits it was strange having to take his cue from whatever Clyde and his colleagues did or didn't do on screen - and often the dogs' best takes were the one that got used in the film.

"It was a bit like I'd say my line and then think 'now, is he going to pick that up... yes, he's got it... I'll do my other line now," says Owen. "But there's a lot of funny stuff because the dog was encouraged to be out of control and rambunctious."

Dressed in a blue shirt, black jacket and jeans, with neat designer stubble, Owen looks the picture of health and happiness as he chats easily about the film.

It's hard to believe that just 18 months ago he was suffering from depression and recovering in hospital after an alleged suicide attempt. He withdrew from Ben Stiller's film Tropic Thunder and asked the media to respect his privacy.

While questions about his health are off limits today, he's happy to chat about the film. Owen says the film's feelgood factor is responsible for its box-office success when it was released in the US last year.

"It's funny and it also has some emotion to it and I know then when Jen and I both read the script we responded to the story. It wasn't like an unbelievable, crazy situation, it was all sort of grounded in reality."

While he didn't have to pretend to be a dog fan, Owen admits it was a little more challenging to play John Grogan, a father of three. Still, he says his lack of experience with children helped him encourage the babies to cry on cue. He jokes: "I held them like a football." Inevitably, Marley grows older and the Grogans are faced with a heart-breaking decision, which Owen says was tough to film.

But it wasn't the first time he had been asked to cry on camera.

"With Marley & Me, I was nervous in case I couldn't cry. But then they had this old dog who played the old Marley, he came on set and he was hard not to get emotional because he's just a really old dog and your heart goes out to him.

"It wasn't hard to cry because it was a believable situation."

I've been around monkeys in movies a couple of times and they're not that impressed with us. They ought to seem a little more worshipful 

Owen Wilson Extra Time

Owen was born in Dallas, Texas, to an Limited. They won an Oscar nomination for advertising executive dad and photographer writing 2001 comedy The Royal mum. His two brothers Luke and Andrew are Tenenbaums, which also starred Owen and also actors brother Luke.

His first film role was in 1996's Bottle Rocket, In 2006, Owen starred alongside Kate Hudson alongside his brother Luke, which was filmed in in You, Me And Dupree, who he has since Dallas. Owen and Wes Anderson co-wrote the dated. They split up in May 2007, but have been script and Wes directed. spotted together in France recently.

Owen and Wes have teamed up on He voiced the main character Lightning subsequent films including The Life Aquatic McQueen in Disney's 2006 animation Cars, With Steve Zissou and The Darjeeling which was nominated for an Oscar.

CAPTION(S):

LIFELONG COMPANION - Owen Wilson as John Grogan with Marley the dog