Woody Harrelson Says “Nine Dogs Came to the Door” When He Visited Robert De Niro, Who Has 18 Dogs

Instagram Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter Amazon TikTok TikTok Thought Catalog Diamond Mark Camera Collective World FlagLink Loading Arrow Pointing Down Skip to content Woody Harrelson recently learned that a visit to Robert De Niro’s New York home comes with a welcoming committee — and a sizable one at that. When Harrelson stopped by, nine dogs came to greet him at the door. That turned out to be only half of the pack: De Niro keeps 18 in all.

“We went over to his house here in New York, and nine dogs came to the door,” Harrelson said. “They’re these little dogs, they get to do whatever they want.”

Harrelson, 65, and De Niro, 83, go back decades, having worked together on the 1997 political satire Wag the Dog. Still, the actor admitted he never imagined his co-star surrounded by so many pets. “Thinking about Bob De Niro, you don’t think of him inside of this world with a zillion dogs,” he said.

Two of those dogs, Lily and Annie, even made it onto the screen, appearing alongside De Niro and Debra Messing in the 2025 film The Alto Knights. Messing said she couldn’t help but laugh when she found out the pups belonged to her co-star. “He walked in with these little dogs. I was like, ‘Okay, this doesn’t compute.’ But it was amazing.”

According to De Niro, the idea to cast the dogs came from his girlfriend, Tiffany Chen. Their parts ended up growing beyond the original plan, Messing said — and their wardrobe included mink coats.

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