Interview: Joe Anderson

On his role in The Crazies

Shock: Do you play the sheriff’s deputy?



Joe Anderson: Yeah, Russell Clank.

Rotten: His name is a sound effect?



Anderson: Yeah, no exactly, you squeak whilst you walk. Yeah, Russell Clank, the Deputy. I don’t have my ???? (:28) which is a good thing. He’s the loyal companion really, sort of the young guy trying to prove himself I guess.

Shock: And all appendages are in check after The Ruins?

Anderson: No, no leg issues, legs are fine although I pulled both hamstrings on my second night which was kind of a little bit worrying. It was freezing, we were standing around for hours, I just took off running and it was like, “Oh, no, maybe you’re getting a little too old. You’ve got to stretch out.” You can’t just bounce around anymore. So I did both hamstrings and I was like, “Oh my goodness. How am I going to…Russell Clank is going to be hobbling around.” But they’re better now, so that’s good.

Shock: We were talking about the challenges of this film earlier, has it been the mostly physical?

Anderson: Yeah, it is. Once this movie takes off it really goes. So there’s a lot of stuff technically which is quite hard – explosions, cars, action going on in the foreground, helicopters flying in in the background. It can be quite broad, although it doesn’t feel like that when you read it, but when you’re actually doing it you’re like, “Oh wow, there’s many more pieces to orchestrate other than just what we’re doing.”

Shock: The military presence here is overwhelming…

Anderson: It’s great. I mean, the set out here in the moment is, it’s all that stuff, when you walk around and it’s 360, Apaches or whatever they are, Black Hawks on the field, and Humvees. Actually today is one of the biggest days we’ve had so far I think in terms of orchestration and stuff like that. It is kind of tricky. We had a long sequence in a car wash and it’s incredibly tough just working with water, broken glass, and then trying to get beats and rhythms and what have you and nail those.

Shock: Do the crazies attack in the car wash?

Anderson: Yeah, they do, the crazies attack. And it’s cool because they’re definitely like people. They move, they’re quick, they punch, they think, they act. So it’s not like the zombie dude which is nice ’cause it just means things take off and have a much quicker pace to it, but yeah, it can be tricky.

Shock: How does the military handle this? Aggressively?

Anderson: It’s handled actually the most logical way. It’s very quick. There is a method to see who is infected and who isn’t. That method is deployed and it is one that is quick. Thus, you’re sectioned off into the haves and have not’s, who’s got it and who hasn’t. So, it feels very real and it feels very contemporary. Especially seeing footage of what happens in war situations and prisoner of war camps, so to speak, or holding camps. You know, walking around the set today you suddenly get a real vide of the contemporary nature of it, the army, the government come in and there’s no questions asked, either the numbers say yes or the numbers say no and trying to contain whatever you’re trying to contain. That’s the best way of doing it. That’s the way I’d do it anyway. I probably wouldn’t kill as many people.

Shock: How would you describe Clank?

Anderson: Russell’s not a particularly bright guy, but I think he’s kind of driven. He’s a young kid in a small town who, that’s it for him man. It’s either you’re out going hunting with the bears and the boys, or you make something of yourself. And I think the amount of respect that sheriffs get in these small towns and things, it gives you a sense of purpose in the community.

Shock: How does the military make their presence known? In full force all at once or quietly…

Anderson: It starts from the sky down. They’re checking out the area to see what happens. There’s some lovely moments with [Olyphant’s] Dutton sort of putting these [pieces] together and these wonderful dramatic moments with cars, regular cars in L.A. that may look out of place in Peach County and just using that, playing with that, putting the pieces together. Then it sort of goes from there and then it sort of gathers momentum.

Shock: Does your character provide any comic relief?

Anderson: No, there were some funny moments, but the funny is brought out of the insanity of the situation. Yeah, he’s just a little more gung ho and a little more hot headed than Dutton. Dutton’s really where the audience should be for a lot of it and then he goes through a few doubting moments. But yeah, he needs telling what to do, Russell, otherwise he goes off and does his own thing if you know what I mean. He’s a bit of a loose one.

Shock: For a film called The Crazies, while reading the script, was there anything that made you just go “wow” because of it’s shocking nature?

Anderson: It’s interesting, it’s the way the government handles it that is the most prevalent aspect of it. It’s, “Oh, yes. Oh, of course. I remember being in New York, that was 9/11. Wow, okay, oh, I’m English. I’m being in London when the bombings were going off.” And, how quickly the emergency response services, whatever they were, those tents, those things that come in, and they were there within minutes, man. Especially now, right now with what’s going on, it’s scary. So, it’s that. I think we’re also moving into an age where what we create is definitely out of our hands and it can continue, the electron collider or whatever they’re doing at the moment in Brussels or whatever it is. People are now messing around with things that are getting quite out of hand very, very quickly. So it’s quite scary.

Shock: Can you talk a little bit about your experience with the special makeup involved in this movie with the crazies and how it’s developed?

Anderson: Yeah, it makes you sick. It does. It’s like they’ve gone about it in a really clever way. You don’t look at these people and you don’t say, “Oh, it’s a…” It doesn’t look like a stereotypical anything. It’s very real. I had a friend who had meningitis and looking at what happened to her and looking at what happens to these people, it’s very, very similar. It has definite roots in reality, what happens to their eyes, what happens to their skin. It’s very, very real and it’s pretty understated. There are different levels.

Shock: Do you have the one-liner where you say, “Mothers”?

Anderson: [laughs] No, no, I don’t. They got rid of it. We’ll try, we’ll try. I have been asking Breck. It’s weird. You don’t want to watch something over and over again so, see it once, taste it and leave it alone.

Shock: Many remakes today either stay close to the original or depart from it. Where does this one fit?

Anderson: It’s a taste, it’s a taste and it’s their take on it. The way Breck’s doing it and the way the team are doing it, it has a very cool modern edge which is what’s so appealing about it I think anyway and yet still stays true to the premise of the original movie. So it’s very cool.

Source: Ryan Rotten, Managing Editor