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Your new movie
Zombies of the Third
Reich - in a few words, what's it about, and what can you tell us
about your character in it?
It is an action horror set in Nazi-occupied France
during WWII. A squad of British and US soldiers head deep into Nazi
territory to extract an Allied spy from a secret Nazi bunker. They
discover the Nazis have been conducting experiments to create a super
soldier and find the bunker in disarray and seemingly abandoned. But
as they delve deeper the true horror is unleashed. I play grizzled
Sergeant West, a highly experienced commando, who is bitter and jaded
from multiple campaigns, including Dunkirk, North Africa and France.
What did you draw upon to bring your character to life, and how much Rod Glenn can we find in
Matthew West? I took part of a real WWII soldier's
experience, who had to leave his own brother at Dunkirk to be captured by
the Germans (he had been badly injured, so leaving him was the only
option). This became the essence of who West had become by the time the
film starts. He has taken that guilt and self-loathing and channelled it
into killing Nazis. He's angry and distrustful, but through the course of
the film, he begins to care for the others in the team. I poured a lot of
me into West, his dry sarcasm in particular.
Playing an army man - was this much of a stretch for you, and to what extent did you prepare for that aspect
of your role? I have played military characters quite a few
times and had previous training in close quarters combat and firearms. It
was a very physical role with stunts, so I made sure I stepped up my
physical training for weeks before filming. My partner, Kathryn also
worked on the film as a German doctor and stunts, so it was great to have
a training partner, pushing each other. How did you get involved with the
project in the first place, what drew you to it? The
casting described the film as a gritty WWII action horror. That was enough
to get me applying right away. I'm a huge fan of WWII movies anyway (Where
Eagles Dare is a particular favourite), but throw in horror and zombies
and I'm there! I had worked with the producer, Becca Hirani, previously on
It Be an Evil Moon, so she was already aware of my work, which helped. I
got the job and had lengthy discussions with director, David Gregory about
my character, building up a solid backstory for West and talking about
how he wanted it to be more a gritty WWII story with horror - aiming for
realism, rather than making it silly, and I was totally on board with that. To
what extent could you identify with
Zombies of the Third Reich's approach to the zombie genre? And is that a genre you're at
all fond of to begin with? I loved David's vision for the
film - gritty realism. I love WWII movies and I love horror movies, in
particular zombie movies, so I loved everything about it. I love all of
Romero's movies, the Dawn of the Dead remake,
28 Days Later,
Zombieland,
Train
to Busan,
Shaun of the Dead and loads more. I liked
Overlord, but felt it
missed the mark a little, so I thought we could have a good crack at it
with this (on a much smaller budget though).
What can you tell us
about Zombies of the Third
Reich's director David Gregory, and what was your collaboration like?
He was great to work with - very collaborative, always open to ideas.
I loved his process of building up back stories - things that don't even
come out in the film, but were there in the back of our minds.
Do talk about the shoot as such, and the on-set atmosphere!
The shoot was a blast. We had so much fun, especially filming most of
the film in an old cold war bunker complex. It's always great to work with
my partner Kathryn as well, so it was great to have her with me for most
of the shoot. The bunker was such a cool location, with masses of history,
and also a resident cat called Goulash, who was such a cutie and loved to
sit on Kathryn, even when she was in full zombie makeup!
Any future projects you'd like to share?
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Kathryn and I are in pre-production of a folk horror
feature that is scheduled to shoot next year, so we're doing a lot of prep on that at the mo, which is exciting.
Your website, social media, whatever else?
https://www.facebook.com/rodglennauthoractorhttps://www.instagram.com/roddglenn/ ://www.instagram.com/roddglenn/" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/roddglenn/
Anything else you're dying to mention and I have merely forgotten to ask?
Thank you for the interview - pleasure chatting with you.
And so glad you enjoyed the film. Thanks for the interview!
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