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Your new movie Not
Another Zombie Movie ... About the Living Dead - in a few words,
what is it about?
Not
Another Zombie Movie ... About the Living Dead
is the story about a group of unconventional
survivors who must learn how to work together when a zombie apocalypse
hits their city. They quickly learn they are in more danger around
each other than around zombies. With Not
Another Zombie Movie ... About the Living Dead being a zombie
movie (duh!), is that a genre at all dear to you, and some of your genre
favourites? And what do you think makes your movie stick out of the zombie
crowd? I
have been a fan of the genre for a long time. Some of
my favorites are Zombieland, Shaun of the
Dead, Dawn
of the Dead (the
original and remake), Night of the
Living Dead (original), I love The Walking
Dead. My film sticks out because it's more real in terms of
human behavior. For example if an apocalypse breaks out, and
you pick up a gun to try and fight them off, chances are you might
accidentally shoot an inoncent person if you never fired a gun before. Since
zombie movies tend to be gory almost by default, do talk about the
violence in your movie for a bit, and was there ever a line you refused to
cross for other than budgetary reasons?
We wanted to make the gory scenes catch people off guard.
One line that I did not cross was the scene where Tony throw the baby over
his head and Oscar caught it. Originally the zombies were supposed
to catch the baby and eat it. The director of the film, Donte Williams [Donte
Williams interview - click here], was like let's not do that because it would change the tone of
the entire movie.
You of course also have to talk about Not
Another Zombie Movie ... About the Living Dead's brand of humour
for a bit? Edgy,
uncut, and raw. I incorporated my particular brand of comedy
with horror. It worked out well because it created a sense of shock
value in almost every scene. What were the challenges of bringing
Not
Another Zombie Movie ... About the Living Dead to the screen on
the production side of things? The
only real issue was finding unique locations and getting actors to show
up at those locations on the days we needed them. Operating on
different people's schedules was a difficult task. What can you tell us
about your directors Donte Williams [Donte
Williams interview - click here] and Black Jack Johnson, and what was
your collaboration with them like?
I
have been working with them for a few years now. It’s very easy working with them because we are like brothers. They understand my
unusual thought process, lol.
Donte
is very good a understanding my vision and transitioning it on to film.
Black Jack's very good at putting fight/action sequences together and
making them look good on film.
You also play one of
the leads in Not
Another Zombie Movie ... About the Living Dead - so what can you
tell us about Mike, what did you draw upon to bring him to life, and can
we find any of Jay Davis in your character? And did you write him with
yourself in mind from the get-go? I did write Mike for
myself. It was easy to play because it was basically 85% me.
So if you are running alongside of me in a zombie apocalypse and zombies
are gaining on us. I’m going to trip you. I’m also going to
shoot first and figure out the rest later, lol. Mike is a borderline
sociopath. He has little to no regard for things going on around
him. He is very irresponsible and self-centered. I wrote the
character because you see this type of person in a lot of zombie films,
but that type of person always ends up getting killed. I wanted to
create a character that people hate so much that they start to love. What can you tell us
about the rest of your cast, and why exactly these people?
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I
worked with Will Cummings III (Mr. Cooper) on my last feature film Shots
Fired. I wanted to have the token “angry old white guy”
which appears in most zombie movies and he was my number one draft pick.
His improv is amazing. Always catches me off guard. David
Perry (Oscar) was incredible. He really made the character his own.
He did not have any dialogue so that entire character was all of his
talent. Calvin Evans (Peanut) is a comedian from Chicago and he also
studied at 2nd City. For him not to drink or smoke
in real life, he played one of the best “stoners” I have ever seen on
film. Black Jack Johnson (Franklin) always delivers. He was
the “hero” and one of the more balanced characters in the movies.
He did his own stunts, and brought a lot of his past acting experience to
the table which really created a great character on screen. Marlon
Hull (Marcus) and Jackie Dallas (Maggie) did not have big roles, but had great
natural chemistry with each other. James Barbee (Capt. Williams) was
a perfect for the role. He had the mercenary type attitude we were
looking for. Do
talk about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere! The
set was very easy going. All of the cast, crew, and extras were very
easy going and fun to be around. There was a ton of good energy
throughout the entire filming of this project.
Anything
you can tell us about audience and critical reception of Not
Another Zombie Movie ... About the Living Dead yet?
We
premiered the film on March 21st at the Patio Theater in
Chicago. We had over 800 people in attendance. The diverse
crowd laughed throughout the entire film.
We
received nothing but inspiring and good reviews.
Any
future projects you'd like to share?
We
are finishing up a comedy sketch project entitled Choke On That Reloaded.
It is uncensored sketch comedy in its purest form. We plan to
release that this fall. In the first quarter of next year we are
going to begin
filming the next feature film entitled Not Another Black Movie.
What got you into
acting and making movies to begin with, and did you receive any formal
training on the subject?
Initially
I just wanted to write. I took a few writing classes in college. I
started coming up with the crazy stories about past dating experiences.
I let a few friends read them and they told me that I should try and film
them.
My
first series of stories were called the MisAdventures of J Davis. It
was 9 episodes loosely based on my life. I developed the characters
from that into a feature film called The Hostile Takeover
What can you tell us about your
filmwork prior to Not
Another Zombie Movie ... About the Living Dead?
My
second feature film was called Shots Fired. It was a buddy cop movie
about two polar opposite cops who are paired together to solve a career
changing case. One cop is a drug addicted drunk while the
other is an overly aggressive hero who runs head first into danger.
My 3rd project was called Choke On That. It was an hour
sketch comedy DVD which received great reviews.
How
would you describe yourself as an actor and as a writer? As
a writer I’m different from anyone that I have ever seen. I try to think
outside of the box with every script to give people something they have
never seen before. As an actor I incorporate a lot of my actual
personality in all of my characters. In most cases I’m the loveable
asshole. Lol. Actors,
writers, filmmakers, whoever else who inspire you?
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Robert
Townsend, Dave
Chappelle, Eddie
Murphey, Spike
Lee, Denzel
Washington, Robert De Niro, Stephen
King.
Your
favourite movies?
Too
Many. I know that I’m going to forget a lot of them:
Harlem
Nights, 48
Hours, Beverly
Hills Cop, Bad
Boys 1 & 2, Goodfellas, The
Dark Night & Dark Knight Rises, Shawshank
Redemption, Dawn
of the Dead, Zombieland, School
Daze, Creepshow.
... and of course, films you really
deplore? I
hate love stories. I’m sorry. I have undiagnosed ADD and I
just lose focus… I might write one just because I don’t like them, lol. Your/your movie's website, Facebook, whatever
else?
www.thejaydavisshow.com
www.nazm2015.com
www.youtube.com/j25davis
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/jay.davistp
Facebook fan page:
https://www.facebook.com/Jay-Davis-142523682492778/timeline/
Instagram:
@jaydavistp
Twitter:
@jaydavistp
Thanks for the interview!
Thank
you!
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