Cool movie, Woody. But how the hell does an Oscar nominee end up in a zombie flick?
How? Easy! All it took was the writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and the director Ruben Fleischer to ask.

So, you weren’t a horror snob?
No, I wouldn’t say I was prejudiced against the genre.

Then again, Natural Born Killers was pretty horrific...
I disagree. I think Natural Born Killers was more of a misunderstood romantic comedy, ha ha!

Your character Tallahassee is an old-school cowboy — we must say, you look right at home as a zombie-killing gunslinger, Woody.
Well, I really didn’t kill anybody, honestly. Ha ha! That was just playing around — you know that, right? I remember thinking about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid during all those scenes. I should’ve gone back and watched it before we shot them, but naturally, being lazy, I didn’t. But yeah, it was fun!


You’ve got a cool scene where you have to reload two guns on the counter — was that your idea?
I think that was already in the script. That is a really hard thing to do, which is why my stunt double did it, ha ha!

But it was you letting off the shottie while going down the rollercoaster, wasn’t it?
Oh yeah — and that was a lot of fun! We had to do the rollercoaster ride quite a bit, and shoot one person after the other. It was good times! Quite cathartic, really.

Nice outfit, by the way.
Cool gear, hey? I’ve never worked so hard on the outfit before. That’s the stuff I usually don’t put so much time into, but there were so many fittings and attempts to get that right. I looked damn good in the end.

There’s some kick-arse zombie kills in the movie — got a fave?
My favourite kill was the one with the butter knife to the jugular — boy, I loved doing that one! It’s kind weird seeing “Little Miss Sunshine” burling about slaying zombies.

How was it working with young Abigail Breslin?
Well, you know the scene at the start, where she tries to fool my character into thinking she’s been infected, and she starts blubbering away? Well, not only did she summon the tears every time we shot that scene, but even when the camera wasn’t on her, she still did it. She’s brilliant, man.

Either that or you made her cry, you bastard. All through the film, your character is chasing Yank junk food like Twinkies. Surely you don’t actually eat that shit?
That was my biggest acting challenge, man. I’m not a big Twinkie lover at all. So, they made up a bunch of Twinkies that were actually edible for a health-conscious fellow like me, meaning without dairy and sugar, and all that crap. They were made of cornmeal. They were really delicious, good Twinkies. I was thinking maybe the company that make Twinkies could bring out a new healthy version? Think about it — this movie could spark a junk food revolution!

Er, yeah. Moving on, the bit where you go ape-shit in the tourist shop and smash things is very cool.
The whole cast can attest to how cathartic it was just to come in and smash the shit out of that place. I’m serious, with respect to all the items in there, I thought it was helpful for all of us, emotionally, to get that out.

Okay, there’s a zombie invasion. For real. Who would you sacrifice?
I don’t know. We’ve gotta keep Ruben, the director. We have to protect him at all cost. I think I might be more scared than my character was.

Lame answer. Has your mate Paul McCartney seen Zombieland?
I don’t know how psyched he is about seeing the movie. Naturally, I’ve sent him trailers and one-sheets, but I haven’t asked him. I did actually take [co-star] Emma Stone over for dinner with him one night. That was fun.

What music would we find on your iPod? Please don’t say McCartney’s latest album…
Yeah, Paul McCartney’s latest album. But in terms of getting fired up for something? You can’t go past U2’s Pop. I know that’s probably their least popular album, but it’s one of my favourites. It’s really underrated.

McCartney and Bono make up your high rotation?! You really need to listen to some fresh shit, Woody. Anyway, Bill Murray has a cameo playing himself in the film, holed up in a mansion in a dressing gown, and he sits you zombie slayers down and forces you to watch Ghostbusters. It sounds fun.
It was. It was really hard to keep it together. We actually lost some good jokes because of his presence on set.

Really? Why?
They couldn’t use some scenes because we were laughing so hard. If we weren’t in the same frame as him they possibly could’ve cut around it — but we were. So unprofessional of us, but understandable. He’s too funny.

So, are you a car man like Tallahassee?
Well, I exclusively ride motorcycles, or electric or bio-diesel vehicles. Does that make me particular? Guess so.

The director said he’s ready and willing to make a 3D sequel. If you had a choice, where would the next Zombieland be?
Paris, because it’s a place where you wouldn’t expect zombies to roam. And then, maybe, we can have a shot of zombies singing on Broadway?

Um, yeah. Fingers crossed you don’t have any input on the script, then...

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