Superman Star Finds Her Own Krypto to Take Home at Special Screening of the Superhero Blockbuster

María Gabriela de Faría may play a villain in Superman, but she’s a hero in real life. 

The 32-year-old Venezuelan actress stars as Lex Luthor’s right-hand woman, Angela Spica, also known as the Engineer, in the James Gunn-directed summer blockbuster. The Engineer and Lex Luthor (played by Nicholas Hoult) challenge David Corenswet’s Superman and his dog, Krypto, in the film. But off-screen, de Faría was searching for a super dog of her own.

The actress found one thanks to her role in the superhero movie, adopting a 5-month-old rescue dog at a special screening of Superman in Miami. The event was hosted in partnership with Best Friends Animal Society, which brought several adoptable dogs to the screening as a nod to Krypto’s prominent role in the movie.

The film’s superhero dog, Krypto, was inspired by Gunn’s rescue pup, Ozu.

Faría opted to adopt a Schnauzer mix named Jude, who was one of two adoptable dogs from Miami-Dade Animal Services in attendance at the screening.

The new dog mom tells PEOPLE exclusively that Jude has already settled into her new home.

“We flew back to L.A. the next day, and now she runs the house. 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,” Faría says of Jude coming to California after the event.

Before meeting Jude, Faría had managed to resist the charms of adoptable dogs at other screenings, opting instead to promote them on social media. However, Jude was too precious to be ignored.

“At every event, I took photos with the puppies, posted to support the cause, and said, very confidently, ‘Nope. Not taking one home.’ Cut to the Miami screening, I held Jude for five seconds and folded like a lawn chair. She looked at me like we’d known each other forever,” the actress explains.

Promoting pet adoption was important to many of the people behind Superman.

“This Superman movie was inspired by director James Gunn’s dog, Ozu, a rescue dog that changed his life. It is a dream to me to mix such a huge, important movie with something that is personally so important to me,” Faría shared in a statement, adding to PEOPLE late that “all my pets — my two cats and now Jude — are adopted, so rescue has always been something close to my heart.”

Speaking to PEOPLE for National Bring Your Dog to Work Day in June, 58-year-old Gunn shared details about the impact his rescue dog Ozu had on Krypto’s inclusion in Superman and on the film as a whole.

“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.’ And thus, the filmic Krypto was born. He really just gave the script that unusual aspect that made it fun to write,” Gunn told PEOPLE.

In an Oct. 2024 Instagram post, Gunn said Ozu “was problematic to say the least” because he “came from a hoarding situation in a backyard with 60 other dogs & never knew human beings.”

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Despite the circumstances, the pup went on to inspire his owner to use Ozu’s body “as the model for Krypto, just changing the color of his fur.” Gunn also drew on the hundreds of video references of Ozu to inform how Krypto should act on screen.

Superman is in theaters now.