collider While on set I sat down for an exclusive interview with Greene. She talked about what attracted her to the project, playing an emotionally unbalanced zombie, working with the effects makeup, and director Joe Dante. She also talked about how the film references and subverts genre tropes, shooting in Los Angeles, crowdfunding, life after Twilight and a lot more.
Burying-the-ex-anton-yelchin-ashley-greeneHow did you get on board with this project?
AHSLEY GREENE: My agents brought it to me and said, “Hey do you want to do this?” I read it and I really liked that it was very different than anything that I had seen in this genre. It’s very specific to comedy horror and I thought it was also smart. It made me laugh to myself and that’s usually a good sign whenever you giggle out loud to yourself when you’re reading a script like this. Then just the people that were involved. Joe Dante was already signed on to direct and they said they were going out to Anton and I was like, “If you guys get Anton I definitely want to do it.” I just think he’s an interesting character actor. It all finally came together. There were a lot of pieces to the puzzle and once it all did come together we only had a few days before we shot. So that was a bit stressful, just because we didn’t have the preparation time that we would have liked. But it’s turned out really well. We’re almost done. We’re on our last week, which is insane to me, to shoot a movie in a month, and a good movie. I think its going to turn out really well. The dailies are turning out well. I’m excited. Its something I’ve never done before and I think its definitely going to turn out well.
Has it been fun for you working with the makeup?
GREENE: [laughs] You know what, it is. Its fun. The call times are not fun, because it takes about two hours. Gary (Tunnecliffe) does the special effects and he’s phenomenal. He’s been doing this forever. Its really cool to see him create a character alongside me. Hair and makeup and special effects kind of had her look progress, so it’s almost a character in its own, which is very cool. I’ve never had a face cast. I had that. So now there’s a dummy with my face on it that’s really really creepy. I’ve never worn contacts like this. There’s actually two layers of contacts in my eyes on top of each other.
They’re quite something to interview against.
GREENE: I know, I can hardly see. It’s like a really thick fog. It’s very very bizarre. But I guess it helps you get in character.
Is it significantly more challenging than what you had to wear for the Twilight films?
GREENE: The contacts are more challenging. I think the makeup might have been more challenging on Twilight just because we didn’t have special effects doing our white makeup, and on this one its really nice because I go to special effects first and then hair and makeup does their thing on top of that. So it’s kind of very well oiled. On Twilight we just went in and they had to do the whole thing and we sat there for like two hours. So I think that was a little more difficult. Also I think our characters in Twilight were so popular already before the movies came out so there were just so many more eyes looking at you, or people jerking you one way or another about what they wanted Alice Cullen’s look to be and Edward Cullen’s look to be. So this, to me, is a little more fun. It’s a little crazier.
burying-the-ex-ashley-greeneCan you kind of set up your character and what people are going to see from you?
GREENE: Yeah, Evelyn is [laughs], she is a go-green advocate who has her own blog and is the girlfriend of Max, and she’s a bit overbearing and overprotective at times. She has a little bit of jealousy and vulnerability because she’s very afraid of losing Max, because he’s basically all that he has. So she does get a little extreme at times, but you kind of see where she’s coming from. It’s that tragic thing that a lot of people do where you are so clinging on to someone that you actually push them away. That’s what you kind of see in this story. She gets hit by a car, unfortunately, but comes back as a zombie. Progressively turning into the zombie. So when she first comes back she’s dirty, she’s crawled out of her grave, but you can see Evelyn. She gets more and more hideous and more and more rotten as she tries to win back her boyfriend that she lost… probably about five months ago when she died. I describe her almost, when she comes back as zombie Evelyn, it reminds me as bipolar disorder because her highs and lows are so extreme and she just cant control them as much as she wants to.
You mentioned that the script made you laugh when you read it and one of my favorite things about Joe Dante’s previous films is that he has this wonderful tone where he kind of walks the line between genres. Can you talk a little bit about what you think the tone of this film will be like?
GREENE: Yeah, I totally agree. I think he’s- when I heard he was directing this I was like, “Yes, this makes sense. He’s the one to do this if anyone.” And we trust him so we completely just do whatever he says. He’s very simple and very specific and very calm. Its been really fun. It’s definitely not realistic as far as real life goes. There’s sometimes where I’m like, “Why would she do this?” And he’s like, “Because…people have done this, people will get it.” And I’m like, “Okay” He knows this whole world and how it works and I’m a newbie to it so he has kind of had to walk me through it. Because I came to the table thinking very logically. I think its the same thing like the Twilight world. There are some things that are just movie magic that make it more fun.
You guys are doing crowdfunding while you’re in production, which is unique, and you also just did Wish I was Here, which was crowdfunded. Do you have any thoughts on the whole new trend of more studio films dipping into the crowd funding?
GREENE: Well I was really happily and pleasantly surprised by how much money Zach’s film made on Kickstarter and it was really the first time I became aware of crowdfunding. Some people think it’s controversial, but my kind of retort to that is that it’s not like we’re making people give money for something. They were all fans of Zach’s and whoever else is in the film and wanted to see this film get made. I think it’s very cool to allow the public and people who are passionate about film to be able to participate in some way. I thought that was very fun. With this it’s also very interesting because were doing it after we started. But again, it’s all about fan involvement and getting people excited, and there are so many people who are a fan of Joe. So I think its fun to know that there are so many people who are excited about the film before it’s even come out.
(..)
Talking about time limits, I was told it’s day fourteen out of twenty. Can you talk about what that shooting process has been like for you, especially coming off of something like the later Twilight films where you had a significantly higher budget.
GREENE: Yes. It’s definitely a lot more pressure when you’re shooting a film like this so quickly. To me, it’s the most material I think I’ve ever shot each day. The amount of pages that we’re shooting each day is just insane. I’m used to things where we’re shooting a page and half or two pages a day, and here we’re shooting eight. So that is a little stressful, because you want to come to set and have everything laid out, everything memorized and it makes it a little hard. I think it’s the same thing that the rest of the cast and crew feel. Luckily, again, I think the atmosphere on set trickles down from the director and I think everyone has that mentality of “Were on a tight schedule, but we’re going to get it done and it’s all going to be okay.” That’s very nice that people aren’t running around screaming and yelling, because I’ve seen that happen on sets before. We are still managing to shoot this film, get all the footage that we need and make sure that we are going in with a good product, and I think a lot of that comes from the organization and planning on the directors part. The hours actually aren’t bad either. We work like fourteen or fifteen hour days, and we get to home to our beds, which is really nice. So it’s been a cool experience. I think everyone will be excited for the holidays after working this. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s just cool.
burying-the-ex-anton-yelchinI think it’s only in Hollywood that you’ll hear people say, “only fifteen hour days.”
GREENE: [Laughs] Well you know I’ve been on some things where they just don’t seem to care and they have to get their shots and just work right through. Yeah, maybe that’s why everyone’s so cool and chill about everything is that we do get to go home and go to sleep. I think generally from crew call it’s about twelve hours. Hair and makeup takes a bit longer, but it’s not bad. And the other thing is we’re never sitting in our trailers twiddling our thumbs. To me that’s harder than being on set all day, because when you’re on set it goes. I think this is our last scene and I feel like I haven’t even been here half a day just because you’re constantly working and not thinking about it. So yeah, sitting in your trailer is miserable [laughs].
(..)
GREENE: It’s not as crazy as it was. I think there’s something about us being together for films and premieres and stuff like that where people just went crazy over it. I think their minds ran wild. And they were always excited to see what we were doing, what we were wearing, what we were going to do in the next film, how they wrote and adapted it. So there was that constant buzz and constant microscope, because everybody wanted to know. I think the nice thing for me now is that there’s still the overwhelming support of the fans, but not the madness on the media’s part. Yes, the paparazzi still will occasionally- I think they’re here today because they want to see what the character’s going to look like, but it’s a lot easier to get around it than what it used to be. It used to be just impossible. It’s good. It’s all very positive. I think I’m in a really good spot, because you want people to still care and you want your fans to still be there, but you want to also have a life and engage with your friends and family without them having to deal with the repercussions of what we’re doing. Full interview at source
Via Gossip_Dance
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