Zombieland Director Ruben Fleischer on Woody Harrelson, Pez Dispensers, and Breakdancing Animals

What do you think Woody was afraid of?

I think zombie movies have a certain association, that they're B-movies or schlocky or whatever. He wasn't the only one: pretty much every single actress said the same thing to me when they came into audition. "My agent sent me the script, I didn't want to read it, I avoided it but they kept hounding me saying, 'No, just trust me, you'll love it,' and then as soon as I started reading it I couldn't put it down." That was the recurring theme from pretty much everyone who auditioned. You know actors, they want to do Shakespeare or something. They don't want to do something titled Zombieland.

How did you get your big break in the industry?

I started doing low-budget videos for my friends' bands. Basically, the first video I ever did cost $50, for my friend Gold Chains. We shot it on a subway train in San Francisco, and somehow it got on MTV. I did more videos for indie rock bands like Piebald, and Gold Chains was on a UK label that liked my videos a lot, so they gave me a bunch of other UK artists to do, and that's when I got hooked up with DJ Format and did that video with the breakdancing animals ("We Know Something You Don't Know," below). That was the big break in my career because it led to me getting signed by a production company and I started directing commercials, actually making money and being able to support myself as a director and commit to that as a profession.

DJ Format - "We Know Something You Don't Know" from Ruben Fleischer on Vimeo.

Commercials led to me doing this race across Europe called the Gumball Rally, which I did a documentary about, and through that I met Rob & Big because they were participants in the rally. That led to me doing the television show with them, but all along I was doing commercials and videos and hoping to make a feature. My background was in feature filmmaking -- like, my first job was as an assistant to the director of Chuck & Buck, and working with him again as his assistant on The Good Girl. So it was really by being an assistant/apprentice to Miguel Arteta and him being a very generous mentor that I was inspired to be a director.

Now that you're nearing the finish line on this project, it'll be time to look for the next one -- and Zombieland is a quirky enough film that it wouldn't seem to lock you into one genre. What are you hoping to do next?

Well, I have to say that making a movie is the funnest thing I've ever done in my life, and all I want to do is make more. I can't wait until I have more time so I can read more scripts and find the one that'll be the next movie. What's cool about Zombieland is that it really opens me up to opportunities: I can go do one with real action in it, I could do something that's just a comedy, there's a romantic component to the film so I could do a romantic comedy if that's what I was inspired to do. As a non-writing director, I'm beholden to whatever scripts I find, so really, it's about what's the best script and what gives me the opportunity to learn and stretch my directing muscles.

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