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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)

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