María Gabriela de Faría may play a villain in Superman, but off-screen, she’s a hero in real life. The 32-year-old Venezuelan actress, who stars as Angela Spica, aka The Engineer, in James Gunn’s summer blockbuster, recently adopted her own superhero dog—thanks to the film’s heartwarming connection to rescue animals.
In Superman, The Engineer and Lex Luthor, played by Nicholas Hoult, go up against David Corenswet’s Superman and his trusty sidekick, Krypto the Superdog.
But at a special screening of the film in Miami, de Faría found a super dog of her own, thanks to an event hosted in partnership with Best Friends Animal Society, which brought several adoptable dogs to the screening as a nod to Krypto’s important role in the movie.
Adopting Krypto’s Real-Life Inspiration
De Faría’s new canine companion, Jude, is a 5-month-old Schnauzer mix from Miami-Dade Animal Services. Jude was one of the adoptable dogs at the screening, and the actress couldn’t resist the dog’s charms after holding her for just a few seconds.
“I held Jude for five seconds and folded like a lawn chair,” she recalls with a laugh. “She looked at me like we’d known each other forever.”
Having previously resisted adopting dogs at other events, de Faría was overcome by Jude’s sweetness. “At every event, I took photos with the puppies, posted to support the cause, and said, very confidently, ‘Nope. Not taking one home,'” she admits. “Cut to the Miami screening… She got me.”
After the event, Jude traveled back to Los Angeles with de Faría, where the actress shared that Jude has already made herself at home. “Now she runs the house,” de Faría says, humorously adding, “I’m so grateful to everyone who made that moment possible—and I fully accept that I was played by a very tiny, very furry con artist.”
The Connection Between Krypto and Ozu
The inclusion of Krypto in Superman is deeply personal to director James Gunn, whose own rescue dog, Ozu, inspired the creation of the film’s superhero dog.
Gunn shared that adopting Ozu—who had come from a hoarding situation and was initially “uncontrollable”—played a huge role in the development of Krypto’s character in the film.
“When I first adopted Ozu, I was starting to write the Superman script. Ozu was such a terrible, uncontrollable dog — tearing up our entire house — I thought, ‘What if he had superpowers? We’d be screwed,'” Gunn recalls with a chuckle.
Gunn also noted that Ozu’s “problematic” behavior, including his early experiences in a hoarding situation with 60 other dogs, influenced how Krypto should behave on screen.
“I used Ozu’s body as the model for Krypto, just changing the color of his fur,” Gunn explained. The director also used hundreds of video references of Ozu to inform Krypto’s on-screen movements.
A Dream Come True for Faría
For de Faría, adopting Jude ties into her deep passion for pet adoption. She emphasized the significance of promoting rescue animal adoption, as she has always adopted her pets, including two cats and now Jude.
“This Superman movie was inspired by director James Gunn’s dog, Ozu, a rescue dog that changed his life,” de Faría shared. “It is a dream to me to mix such a huge, important movie with something that is personally so important to me.”
The bond between Krypto’s story and real-life rescue dogs like Jude reflects the heartfelt theme of love and companionship present in the movie, as well as the importance of animal adoption.
