BOP Interview:
Warm Bodies' Jonathan Levine and Analeigh Tipton
By Ryan Mazie
January 31, 2013
BoxOfficeProphets.com
“I like things that are different and for me,” said Levine about being drawn to Warm Bodies in an interview roundtable in Boston alongside actress Analeigh Tipton (America’s Next Top Model, Crazy, Stupid, Love.), “…but my interests always screw me up along the way, because I don’t want to do something that is too much like something I’ve seen before, so this felt like a great way to do both. To do something unique and work on a bigger palette, maintain my integrity, and do something that feels fresh.”
Taking place in a world overrun by zombies, Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class, UK’s TV hit Skins) stars as R, one of the walking dead who saves Teresa Palmer (I Am Number Four) as Julie, a human fighting the war for survival. Rescued by R during an attack, Julie realizes that R isn’t like the other zombies. Forming a relationship that can make even the coldest heart beat again, the two go on a comedic-thrilling adventure that can warm up the dying population. Tipton stars as Julie’s living friend alongside Dave Franco, Rob Corddry, and John Malkovich.
During the roundtable, the director and actress talk about: watching their own work on screen, movie soundtracks, the resurgence of zombie movies, John Malkovich rapping, and LARP-ing.
You two have been on the road promoting this film for quite some time. Do you watch the movie in every town or do you skip out when it plays?
Jonathan Levine: No, I don’t, because imagine seeing [your favorite movie] a thousand times. And that’s how many times I have seen the movie before it even gets to people. Once a movie is done, I don’t watch it. Like, 50/50’s been on Showtime and it’s cool when I’m flipping around like, “Holy shit, I directed that movie!” I look at it for five minutes and my girlfriend is the production designer so I watch it every once in a while, but I can’t watch it for more than five minutes before I go, “I fucked that up. I fucked that up.” And she goes, “I can’t believe I put that painting up…” So I just turn the channel.
Analeigh, are you an actress who can’t watch herself?
Analeigh Tipton: I’ve had both experiences recently and it’s nice in this one. I come in and out of [Warm Bodies] so I can really lean back and enjoy the film for what it is. It’s such a small piece of me so it doesn’t bother me that much. I haven’t seen it with an audience yet. I’ve only seen it sitting awkwardly alone in a movie theater.
Jonathan, you have directed horror (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane) and comedy before, but both were very R-rated, so what was it like working within the PG-13 confines?
JL: Well, I was never too worried about that, because I view this movie as following in the footsteps of The Goonies, Princess Bride, and even WALL-E, that have nice hearts at the center of them, but are not super earnest and have a degree of cynicism to them. But I never thought that amping up the gore would help tell the story in any way. I wanted it to be gory, because I wanted people who like zombies to not think we are pussies, so we pushed it as far as we could, but it’s not about that. It’s also a movie geared to young people and I didn’t want them not to be able to see it or have to sneak in.
I saw Project X … and the theater was filled with 16-year-olds and I was like, “They all snuck in. They bought tickets to something else and Project X didn’t make money from them.”
Your films have great soundtracks. How much of the music in this did you know you were going to use compared to post?
JL: I wrote a bunch of stuff into the script. I wrote Simon & Garfunkel into the script, which didn’t make it into the movie. I wrote Guns N’ Roses in, which did make it into the movie. I write songs into the script that I am listening to while I’m writing and never think that they will work. I think they are a good tonal guide, but not that the exact song will work. When you put a song into a movie, it is not just about the song, but the lyrics and the tempo and how it works with the rhythm of the scene. So just patience was the only thing and we kept trying a bunch of stuff and I am really, really happy with where it ended up. But I also just put stuff in that I think is cool. I was listening to that Bon Iver album a lot and put it in, because I was like, “That’s cool.” There’s not always that much thought that goes into it, but when it works, it’s nice.
As an actress, do you find it easier when you know what song they are fitting into the film? Does that even come into play?
JL: “Pretty Woman” was in the script.
AT: Personally, that helps me. I’m a big music person and I compare a lot of my emotions to how something sounds. That’s a tool I use for myself. I’m not sure if all actors really do that.
(Looking at Jonathan) I don’t think you and I ever did, but I can probably express myself much better to him if we were having trouble figuring an emotion out if he like gave me a song and I’d say, “I’d get that.” As a filmmaker myself, music is where I drew from creatively and artistically. Seeing his films do that is cool. I had no other word than cool (laughs).
How was it working with Rob Corddry?
JL: Rob is incredible. What can I say about Rob? He has that thing that Seth Rogen has where you can say, “Hey dude, I need you to say something funny here and I’m not smart enough to write it,” and he’d do it. In five different takes, he’d come up with five different lines.
Like the, “Bitches,” line, was that ad-libbed?
JL: That was totally ad-libbed. We didn’t even put it in the movie for a while, because we were like, “Is it too much? Does he break character?” And then we tested it once and people went crazy and I was like, “It doesn’t even matter if it makes any fucking sense at all. It is too funny.” So the great thing about Rob is that even in that scene he is pretty moving so he is great as a dramatic actor as well. And as a storyteller, as someone who created his own TV show, he is a very smart person to bounce ideas off of and one of the nicest guys.
And Analeigh, you got to hold a gun to Malkovich’s head in a pretty cool scene. What was it like working with him?
AT: Incredible. He knew that I was very intimidated holding a gun to him and he had me take the gun and press it in to him and said, “Analeigh, I need to feel the gun.” Then after the takes he’d put his hand to my cheek and say, “Thank you.”
JL: He is a genius. And not only a great actor, but he produced Perks of Being A Wallflower and Juno, he has his own clothing line, he is an opera singer.
AT: He can rap!
JL: He can rap. I like to play music on set, which I’m trying to stop doing.
AT: Why?!
JL: Well, I want to do it a little less, because it distracts me. Late at night when people are getting tired, I’ll start blasting usually hip-hop. At one point I was playing something from The Chronic and he just started rapping along. And you know Malkovich has a sense of humor, because he is super funny in Con Air and Burn After Reading. Burn After Reading is one of my favorite Malkovich performances. So I think part of him knows that it is funny that he is John Malkovich and he is rapping (laughs), but gets just super into it and it was one of the greatest things.
He’d also start reenacting YouTube videos that he likes.
AT: “Unforgetable”! Look it up. And picture John Malkovich doing it. If it is about a guy in the woods talking to the camera and he goes off about waffles, you know you’ve got the right one.
Analeigh, is it disappointing being one of the only ones in the cast not getting to be a zombie at some point?
AT: Yes, completely. I’d go home and I’d try to put on some zombie make-up or attire.
Is it terrifying or awesome to see yourself as a zombie?
AT: Awesome! I think. I like that look. I’m also really into dressing up like weird fantasy things.
JL: Wait a minute! What do you mean? Weird fantasy? Like Comic-Con?
AT: For my 21st birthday, I had a LARP-ing theme (Live Action Role Playing). But it’s not weird, because in LA they have weird vampire underground LARP-ing clubs. But they have some interesting groups.
So you are kind of updating the George Romero subtext of zombie movies here with the culture being brain dead. Are zombie movies getting more popular, because we are getting dumber?
JL: That has been my stock answer for it. I talk about it with more flowery, academic words, but you distilled it. But there is also, like that thing I really like where he is reading the “Us Weekly” with Kim Kardashian. There is definitely something about the trivial nature of our lives today. (To Analeigh) Are we getting dumber? You are smart. You don’t count.
AT: I do not think we are getting dumber. Whatever happened to the whole positive thing about singularity, though, because there was a whole tipping point where everyone was like, “Hey, this is great! Technology! We are all joining together.” Then recently-ish, or at least publicly, it just kind of went over the edge and everyone was like, “Yeah, technology, we are all fucked.” (laughs)