Paul with Lynn Lowry and Martina McClements |
Your new movie Talk
of the Dead - in a few words, what is it about, and what can you
tell us about your character in it?
Talk
of the Dead
is a short comedy horror looking at how a supposed ‘wonder
drug’, Troxadil, appears to be having some quite spectacular side effects!
It’s very tongue in cheek, with several commercials and infomercials around
the main ‘news programme’ showing life in the post-Troxadil world!
What did you draw upon to bring your character to life, and how much Paul
Sutton can we actually find in Jake Reynolds?
Well Jake is from Doncaster, which is my
home town of course! It’s strange, because I teach accents and
dialects for Northern Star Acting -
http://www.northernstaracting.co.uk/
- I’ve almost lost my broad Yorkshire accent and had to re-learn how to
speak my native tongue! Jake’s a bit of a starstruck idiot to be
honest (not at all like me!), he’s so happy to be on TV he doesn’t
realise how silly he looks – the bit that is definitely me is the short
fuse when things don’t go his way!
You are not exactly a stranger to the zombie genre - how come, and what can
you tell us about your previous zombie outings?
It all started when I stumbled onto the set of a
micro budget horror film called The Eschatrilogy – Book of the Dead
about 4 years ago! I played a zombie in that and since then have
appeared in Zombie Hood,
the award-winning short Ascension (playing a
zombie naturally!) and have even worked with Alice Cooper on his Halloween
show at Wembley Arena as a zombie. This is actually a nice change for me
to be a zombie hunter, I’m normally the flesh eating monster!
To what extent could you identify with the Talk
of the Dead's brand of
comedy?
It’s very tongue in cheek – like
everyone KNOWS there’s a zombie problem but the media and corporations
are in denial even in the face of overwhelming evidence. The mock
insurance commercial and the Troxadil ad itself are very funny, but I have
to mention Layla Randle-Conde [Layla
Randle-Conde interview - click here] for this bit as the humour of her ‘Hi honey
I’m home’ ad had me crying with laughter. Never has a taser been
used so funnily!
How did you get involved with Talk
of the Dead in the
first place?
I’m blessed to have worked with Eirian Cohen [Eirian
Cohen interview - click here] before on many
occasions – she’s my acting guru and the person I go to for advice in
this crazy acting world we live in. Eirian asked if I’d be
interested in auditioning for the zombie initially but I also asked if I
could read for the part of Jake Reynolds because he sounded such an
awesome character. I did a self tape and got a call saying ‘A lot
of good people auditioned for this role….and they’re all going to be
really annoyed because you nailed it!’
with Lynn Lowry |
On Talk
of the Dead you worked with horror icon Lynn Lowry - so what was
it like acting opposite her?
I am so proud and honoured to call Lynn a friend.
She’s such a lovely, quiet and polite lady you’d barely know she was
around on set, but wow when that red light goes on she transforms!
Lynn’s character in
Talk
of the Dead
is a real bitch – a power hungry,
ballsy woman with no fear and a big mouth – which is amazing coming from
such a delicate lady like Lynn. As an actress she gives so much –
there’s no diva, no ‘I’m famous you’re not’, she’s a true
collaborator and made my job so much easier. We go face to face, toe to
toe in Talk
of the Dead
and we just totally verbally crucified each other, ad
libs and random insults and the hard part was not laughing because some of it
was so over the top ridiculous I had to bite my lip. I love working
with Lynn and have done so twice now – and if all I’m remembered for is
being ‘that guy who stars in Lynn Lowry movies’ I’m more than happy with
that.
Do talk about Talk
of the Dead's director Eddie Bammeke [Eddie
Bammeke interview - click here], and what was your collaboration
like?
Eddie is an energy whirlwind, as soon as he
bounces onto set his mouth is running ten to the dozen with ideas and
directions – he OWNS that set. He’s a funny guy but when it’s
time for business he’s got serious tunnel vision and a director needs
that – there’s no crossing the boss when he’s making a movie!
He’s also very smart, he knew exactly what he wanted, how he wanted it
but gave us space to try ideas out – if it worked, it stayed – if it
didn’t then we started again and did it another way but the end result
is a damn good film and a large part of that is Eddie’s drive and
commitment.
behind the scenes with Lynn Lowry on the set of
First Impressions Can Kill |
A few words about the shoot as such, and the
on-set atmosphere? I’ve worked with some of the cast and
crew before so for me it was a family reunion! The atmosphere was
always hyper positive and creative – we all chipped in to get things
done including the cooking and coffee making, between takes everyone was
super chatty and while I’ll admit to be a little bit of a fanboy at
first with Lynn she was so down to Earth we got on like a house on fire
straight away as did everyone else. Hey, you can judge a shoot
sometimes by how many people you ask to be friends on Facebook with right?
From the lovely Rachel Betteridge (makeup) to Lynn herself, everyone got
added and we’re all still in touch – and I wouldn’t stay friends
just out of politeness you know? You have since Talk
of the Dead shot another film, First Impressions Can Kill,
with pretty much the same team - so
do talk about that one for a bit, and how did that shoot compare to Talk
of the Dead? First
Impressions Can Kill is my second outing with Lynn, and this time we’re
on the same side! We’re basically a bit of a Bonnie and Clyde
couple, I don’t want to say too much because we’re still in the
editing stage but let’s just say we ramp up the body count and blood
levels and I am definitely NOT a nice guy! Shoot-wise it was much
harder as we filmed overnight, so didn’t start until about 7pm and
finished at 6am. Once again the energy of the cast and crew got us
through and Eirian [Eirian Cohen
interview - click here] provided enough food to feed a small army! Any
time I felt like I was flagging, Lynn would put her arm round my waist and
give me a little kiss on the cheek and ask how I was doing. It’s
the little things that keep you going. Any other current/future projects
you'd like to share?
I’ve written a short and a full length
film in the past year, that I’m hoping to get filmed in 2017. The Pact (my short) is first to do, with Eirian
Cohen [Eirian Cohen interview
- click here], Jessica
Messenger [Jessica Messenger
interview - click here] and Eloise Daye starring as 3 downtrodden housewives who decide
on a pact that will give them some freedom from their husbands.
Clue: it isn’t a spa weekend in the Lake District! Choices
is next, with Kate Buckley as the female lead and some bloke called Paul
Sutton as the male lead. Yeah I wrote a film and cast myself as the
lead, why the Hell not? At the moment I’m location scouting for
The Pact and can be seen in A Monster Calls with Liam Neeson
Your website, Facebook, whatever
else?
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If you search for Paul
Sutton – Actor on Facebook you’ll get all the latest news, same goes
for my Twitter @realpaulsutton. I’m also on IMDb (Paul Sutton
VII)
and available for hire any time after January J Anything else you're trying to mention and I have
merely forgotten to ask? Yes,
you forgot to mention that Talk
of the Dead won 8 out of 13 nominations at
the FANtastic Horror Film Festival in San Diego recently! I didn’t
win the Best Actor gong this time but MY TIME WILL COME!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Mwahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaa!) Thanks for the interview!
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