Joe Pilato Interview

First of all, I want to thank you for the compliment and sincerely say hello to all my friends in the UK and at Flash Bang Movies for webbing in. George is a magnificent director and author. So in terms of the overview of the movie - don’t forget besides directing it, George also wrote it - He gives actors a great deal of latitude, although, his characters are so well developed they kind of roll off your back, as it were. But, he’ll let you try anything, and if he likes it, you can change his mind about things. And, if he doesn’t like something, he’ll let you know. He’s probably one of the most relaxed but focused directors I’ve ever worked with. I’ve worked three movies with him, Knight Riders, Dawn of the Dead, and of course, Day of the Dead and each time his directing style naturally brings out the best in people.

Did you read Romero's initial screenplay? If so, did you feel a bit of disappointment that it was redrafted due to cost issues?

Excellent question. I did not read it prior to shooting Day of the Dead, as we know it. I did not want to. In fact, it took me many years. I think actually, quite honestly, it wasn’t until last year that I got around to even approaching it. Yeah, it would have been fun. Rhodes was kind of an arch villain, a ‘Doctor No’ figure, and we would have got to spend a lot more time outside as opposed to being underground in the cave. But, on the other hand, I think the budgetary constraints which moved us underground pretty much for the entire shoot added to the tension and the claustrophobic world that all these characters were living in. And, their points of view were colliding and almost literally ricocheting off the cave walls like a gunshot.

Well, thank you for not having me relive the bad memories and for being astute enough to know about all those things. We did get pretty ill, but I said I wasn’t going to dwell on the negative. It’s kind of strange, but one of the most positive things was Sunday was our day off and they had a magnificent brunch at the hotel we were all staying at and most of the cast members would go for the brunch, and being right outside of Pittsburgh - that’s Steeler country - we would watch the Steeler games together and executive producer David Ball, wonderful Englishman, sometimes would buy a couple of rounds. Incidentally, I forgot I was speaking to the UK and I know football is just beginning to make an impact there. The Steelers are the football team Pittsburgh Steelers. The other great memory was the sense of camaraderie because we were confined during the sixteen hour days underground, under pretty stressful environmental factors, we virtually never saw sunlight - So, the memory of people keeping each other positive and happy. The guys on the crew had something called dress up days. They would come in dressed up sometimes in skirts, sometimes as sailors, just different things. The cast really came together, which I think shows in the performances and that was probably the most enjoyable experience that I had.

Did you ever find out who switched off that refrigeration unit?

Well, we don’t know to this day if it was intentionally done or if it was an accident. Nobody seems to know or nobody is owning up to it. So, I don’t know who to blame.

I seem to recall that you ad-libbed the line "Choke on em" based upon the horrible stench coming from the guts. Is this correct?

No. And, one would think that would be the reason. We each had a day to die, each of the Day of the Dead principal characters, that would be DiLeo, Gary Klar and a couple of other soldiers. The effects that Savini and company created demanded quite a bit of time. The morning I walked in which was my day to die, which was also the last day of shooting because it was the most elaborate special effect, I walked in and the continuity person said, ‘morning Joe it’s a good day to die and I said thank you, I need to speak to George’ and she said well he’s quite busy right now. And I said this is kind of important. And, he came over and said what’s up Joe and I said, Well, George, I don’t think that Captain Rhodes would go out without saying something. And, he said well let’s consider the fact that your legs are being torn apart from your torso and your thorax is being ripped open, I’m not quite sure you would be able to talk. And, I said well, if the fans are worried about that then we’re in the wrong movie. And then he said, well what do you think Rhodes would say as they’re dragging your legs away? And, I felt a little bit shy because there were other people in the room, so I said let me whisper it in your ear. And this six foot four guy, and I’m only five eight, leans down and I whisper in his ear, ‘choke on ‘em.’ And, he kind of stood back and thought about it for a second and he said, ‘I like it. You’re right.’ And it’s become one of the most memorable lines. I’m also very proud of ‘pus fuck,’ that was a total ad-lib. ‘Choke on ‘em’ was something thought out, but ‘pus fuck’… I was crawling down the hallway as Bub is chasing me down and I really slammed my head against the concrete very hard and it hurt and I just remember yelling at Bub, ‘you fuck, you pus fuck.’ And when the shot was over the sound man said to George, did he say ‘pus fuck?’ And George said ‘yeah, I like it.’ So we kept it.

Romero comes across as a joy to work with. The late Richard Liberty described him as a "Big Teddy Bear". How was your experience?

I could not agree more with the late, great Richard Liberty, who was a profound joy to work with. I have more the image of a Panda Bear though, I don’t know why, but it’s kind of funny because George just had a baby and between takes of all this blood and gore and zombies and madness he’d be walking around holding his baby. Yeah, he’s a big panda bear. Richard says teddy, I say panda.

,/p>What can you tell us about "Night of the Living Dead: Origins", in which you portray the character Harry Cooper?

Well, first of all, it’s an honor to portray Harry Cooper because I’m very good friends with Kyra from the original Night of the Living Dead and it was her father that played the original Harry Cooper. The next thing that I can tell you is that Zebediah DeSoto, the director, is just a brilliant, brilliant filmmaker. What I can tell you at this point in time is that it is the same story, very, very true to the original screenplay in terms of dialogue, but the setting takes place in contemporary New York City. The country house becomes a brownstone and it’s Manhattan under siege on Christmas Eve. So, it’s a very apocalyptic view of a very simple story. And, it’s all CG. I’ve seen a few of the drafts and it looks phenomenal. Can’t wait for you to see it.

Day of the Dead is released in the UK 29th March 2010