Tig Notaro didn’t join the cast of Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead in the most traditional way. The film wrapped principal photography in late 2019, but Notaro’s casting wasn’t announced until August 2020. Following allegations of sexual assault against Chris D’Elia, the Army of the Dead team chose to remove him from the film entirely and have Notaro play the part by using “green screen and CG technology to blend her in.”
Vinnie Mancuso said it back when he reported on the matter in August 2020 and I’ll say it again now; a net positive decision, but one that required an extremely complex process to pull off successfully. But now that I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Army of the Dead in full, I can confirm that whatever combination of performance magic and technical wizardry they utilized was a massive success. Not only does the footage blend seamless from a visual standpoint, but Notaro truly does pop in the all-around stellar ensemble.
The movie sees Las Vegas completely walled off from the rest of the world due to a zombie outbreak. When Dave Bautista’s Scott Ward is pitched a heist plan with a massive payday, he puts together a team to venture into Vegas, evade the zombies, get the money and take off. A key part of that plan? The getaway helicopter, of course, and that’s where Notaro’s Marianne Peters comes in.
With Army of the Dead now playing in theaters and set to hit Netflix on May 21st, I got the chance to chat with Notaro who spoke highly of Snyder while discussing how they nailed her green screen-heavy portion of the film. Here’s what she said:
“I think it was just [Zack Snyder’s] authenticity, his talents, the script, the enthusiasm behind it all, the excitement that I had for trying something so - not just a new genre for me, but to be green screened in. You know how a lot of people say, ‘Look, I’m not here to make friends?’ I am solely showing up places to make friends and so this felt like the best chance that I could show up and have what could be a ridiculous time. And I was asking Zack, ‘Can you promise me that you will laugh in the moments that this seems so utterly insane?’ And he promised me all of those things and delivered and it was just really, really fun and he’s a huge selling point. Not just because he’s Zack Snyder, but because he’s Zack Snyder. He’s so solid.”
If you’re looking for more from the cast of Army of the Dead, we’ll have you well covered over here on Collider. Our Collider Connected episode with Bautista is already up and running, and we’ll have chats with Omari Hardwick, Matthias Schweighöfer and more coming your way very soon.
