by Larry Richman
March 18, 2008 11:13 PM

The World Premiere of Dance of the Dead took place on Sunday, March 9 at the 2008 SXSW Film Festival. Earlier, I posted my review and pictures from the Q&A following the screening, along with a video interview with lead actor Jared Kusnitz. After seeing 20 films, I chose Dance of the Dead as one of my 3 Top Picks of this year's festival.

It's a groundbreaking combination of high school mayhem and zombies -- think John Hughes meets John Carpenter meets George Romero. A big part of the film's appeal stems from the relationship between Lindsey and Jimmy (Greyson Chadwick and Jared Kusnitz). I had the great pleasure of sitting down with these two wonderful young actors to discuss Dance of the Dead as well as the festival experience in general.

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LR: I’m here with Jared Kusnitz and Greyson Chadwick from Dance of the Dead, which is having its World Premiere here at the 2008 SXSW Film Festival. So first of all, guys, tell me a little bit about your characters.

Greyson: Lindsey is super-animated. She is very passionate and she cares a lot about high school, her appearance, and what’s going on, and she really likes this boy but isn’t quite getting what she wants from him.

Jared: Yeah, that’s where I would come in because I’m like the complete opposite, so I think opposites do attract because I could really care less about school and academics. I don’t have a four-year plan or anything like that. I’m just kind of living in the moment, not anything else. I joke about everything… I don’t take anything serious. I take our relationship serious but not in the way that she would like it to be…kind of a screw-up, I guess you could call me, but at the end of the day I think I’m loveable...maybe.

LR: Loveable?

Jared: Yeah, I think I’m like that kid in school who’s the class clown that people like to have around. But sometimes they take him for granted.

Greyson: Interesting.

Jared: Yeah, sometimes people think I’ll always be around but I’m not always going to be around.

LR: Tell me how you came to this project.

Greyson: Just auditioning in Atlanta. Our agent set it up. We auditioned a few times and a few more times and then we did a stunt training audition and a month and a half later, I guess, we just sort of got it. It was a process, and it was an emotional process because it was something I was really passionate about and I felt really connected to the character just instantly, and I really wanted it desperately.

Jared: I actually auditioned on tape, and tapes and I never mix well. I never think I do well on tape. When you walk into a casting office you have the interaction with the casting director and they can see your personality, but in a tape you have to just say like name, age, agency…you can’t really show your personality through that so you really have to just be the character the entire time throughout the tape. Then they called me and said that they wanted me in Atlanta, so I drove to Atlanta and had a good little improvisation audition. We went completely off book with Jonathan Spencer, who plays Principal Hammond, and he was just throwing things at me and I was like, “uhh how am I going to keep up?”

Greyson: He was throwing things at all of us, like crazy stuff.

Jared: Yeah, from left field…I think he threw in a “your mom” once, where it didn’t even belong, and it’s just like, “what???”

Greyson: I had to dance to Black Eyed Peas, just right there on camera, just start dancing. It was the most awkward thing ever.

Jared: You had to dance in your audition?

Greyson: Yeah, totally. But Jonathan was so much in the forefront on the casting process. He was just really slaving over the casting.

LR: And this is who?

Greyson: Jonathan Spencer, Casting Director and Mr. Hammond.

Jared: Actor extraordinaire.

Greyson: I know he really fought for us. He wanted it to be perfectly cast.

Jared: I think he did an excellent job.

Greyson: Yeah.

LR: So this is obviously a genre film…it’s in the ‘Round Midnight section. Is this your favorite genre…or one of them? Does it appeal to you?

Greyson: It’s kind of become one of my favorite genres after doing it. When I first heard about auditioning for a horror project I thought, “ohh another horror film,” but I read the script and it just it’s so much more than blood and guts and gore, and I really I liked it a lot. The comedy is just very catchy and subtle at points, and as far as shooting it I just liked it a lot and it was a lot of hard work but really worth it.

LR: What kind of films do you like to watch?

Greyson: I like romantic comedies, so it had a lot of that in there.

LR: Was that your influence?

Greyson: (Laughing) Maybe a little bit…that was my part of the film I guess.

Jared: I can see that…I can see it being a romantic comedy. Then you have those outside forces that pull you from the relationship…literally.

Greyson: Yeah, yeah.

Jared: It’s a good way of looking at it.

LR: Well, there are universal themes that cross all genres.

Greyson: I like period pieces, so that’s the one thing we’re not. We’re not like a period piece.

LR: They’re expensive, too.

Jared: We will be in like 40 years, though. In 40 years we’ll be a period piece...in 70 years.

LR: It costs a lot of money to get the music and the cars and the sets and make sure that everything looks right.

Greyson: So what about you, Jared?

Jared: Not me, my favorite genres are probably comedies like Steve Carell. I like funny…well Steve Carell is both out there and subtle at the same time. That’s really a hard trait to master and play it real because you know Jim Carrey, when he does comedy he’s over here but in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind he’s also very brilliant in that movie and nobody really saw that coming. The Truman Show, again. So my favorite genre would probably be comedy and that’s what this movie had. It definitely had comedy, which I enjoyed, and it was sort of subtle humor, which I also like, and I have to be sarcastic which I very much enjoy.

Greyson: And do well.

Jared: Yeah, I love sarcasm. But my favorite movies lately to watch are the Saw movies. Is that weird?

LR: Speaking of which…you actually have two films here.

Jared: Yes.

LR: Which is not common. I’ve been here for several years and to have two films, two World Premieres at a festival is pretty unusual. I saw Otis, your other film, which was also a World Premiere here at SXSW. How is it for you to come here and have both films here at the same time knowing that, for you, they were very different experiences, done at different times…you’re sitting there…you’re watching yourself onscreen…can you remove yourself from that? Or are you just another moviegoer? What is that like for you?

Jared: No, I have a really hard time removing myself and forgetting all the experiences that I had. Like, watching Otis I’ll laugh at parts that aren’t funny but it’s just because it reminds me of something that happened on set and it’s probably like the most inappropriate…

LR: Oh, that was you laughing back there. I heard you.

Jared: Yeah. No, that was actually also [I have removed this portion of the interview on the grounds that it might incriminate someone who was a bit “gone” that night]. Yeah, I can’t remove myself completely. I’ve always said that I’m going to be like one of those actors who can’t really watch themselves and really truly appreciate the work that I did, because I always think that I can do better, and as soon as it’s done you start thinking of other things you could have done in the movie but you can’t do it now, so you’re like, “oh I’ll get ‘em next time.” So it’s kind of all in watching myself. I don’t like when I watch movies with people I know, either, because that just creeps me out, like my parents. It’s weird to be in the same room with them as I’m saying like “F you.”

LR: Which you do a few times.

Jared: Yup, yup, I get to drop a few F-bombs. I didn’t get to drop any F-bombs in Dance of the Dead. I think we reserved that for one specific character.

LR: So you’re both what I guess would be described in the industry as up-and-coming young actors.

Jared: Sure.

LR: So you have more projects on your plate? What do you have coming up that we can look forward to?

Greyson: Well, the strike just ended so, hopefully, we will have some stuff coming up. I just did something for Sony. It’s a webisode series and it’s still on there. Go check it out! It’s on fearnet.com but nothing right now, just auditioning like crazy, you know the life of an actor.

Jared: There are a lot of broken promises out there, so just kind of have to keep plugging on.

LR: Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

Jared: Yeah, it is.

LR: So the festival experience…is this your first time here in Austin at this festival?

Greyson: Yeah.

LR: What do you think so far?

Greyson: It’s pretty cool…it’s like unreal. There’s that excitement of getting ready to see our film, which is just a little bit overwhelming, and it’s awesome, and Gregg the director and Joe the writer…they’re just so cool to hang out with and it’s neat to see everyone and everything. It’s a great festival to premiere at.

Jared: They’re saying it’s like the up-and-coming Sundance.

LR: It’s what Sundance originally hoped to be and is no longer.

Jared: Yeah, Sundance has kind of gone way too commercial.

LR: It’s a market. This is a festival. Sundance is a market.

Jared: Yeah, it’s like the free swag. That’s really what draws people to Sundance. They get to go into the [sponsor] booth. A lot of the movies are coming out of the really small festivals and the really small studios too, like Fox Searchlight with Juno. Good movie.

LR: Well, hopefully Dance of the Dead will help put you both on the map a little bit more and get your names out there, and you’ll have some projects to really get excited about and you’ll come back at SXSW and we’ll see you again.

[Dance of the Dead will be at the Atlanta Film Festival in April]