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‘Walking Dead’ zombie actor will appear at event
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
NILES
The vampire craze still has bite, but zombies are crashing the party as top monster in pop culture.
AMC’s breakout hit series “The Walking Dead” is leading the pack, with its hordes of flesh-eating corpses.
Jeremy Ambler of White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., is one of those corpses. The zombie actor from “The Walking Dead” will be one of the guests at the Halloween Horror Expo, which sets up shop this weekend at Eastwood Expo Center.
The expo, produced by local horror filmmaker Travis Bowen, also will get visits from Marilyn Burns, star of the original “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” film, and Eileen Dietz, who played Regan in some “possessed” scenes in “The Exorcist.”
There also will be a vortex tunnel, an exorcism room and even the car from “The Green Hornet” television show.
But let’s face it: Zombies are all the rage.
On the eve of his visit to the Mahoning Valley, The Vindicator talked to the 26-year-old Ambler about “The Walking Dead” and his career.
Q. How does it feel to be part of the runaway hit that is “The Walking Dead”?
A. It feels so cool to be a part of something as big as “Walking Dead,” especially as a featured zombie. I’m very blessed to be a part of it.
Q. How did you get the role? What memorable scenes have you appeared in?
A. I had worked with the casting company before down in Atlanta on the remake of George Romero’s “The Crazies,” and they asked me to also be a part of “Walking Dead” season one last year, but at the time I had a lot going on and couldn’t do it. But this year, they asked me to do it again, and of course I did. In the season opener, I was the “sniffing zombie walker.” I am in the scene where T-Dog is crouched down and Shane and Glenn are underneath the truck. I’m one of the only featured zombies to not be killed.
Q. What is the key to playing a zombie, and how did you impress the casting director?
A. You have to go to zombie school for a few hours for one day and then show off your zombie moves to Greg Nicotero, who is an executive producer and a makeup artist. Based on how good you are, he decides your zombie role. I was in the first episode this season and was asked to do another.
Q. What other roles — zombie or otherwise — have you had?
A. I have been in lots of major motion pictures. Just to name a few, I was the nude dying man in the cellar in “The Road,” starring Viggo Mortensen. I was a Boston massacre soldier in HBO’s “John Adams” miniseries, and an airplane passenger in “Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay.” Next year, I will be in the “Three Stooges Movie” as a protester and in “American Pie: Reunion.” Both movies will be in theaters in April.