Spy Films Make Dead Funny Spot For The Canadian Film Festival

Method acting is a committed business: Daniel Day Lewis took up an apprenticeship as a butcher in prep for his role in Gangs Of New York; Christian Bale dropped 63 pounds in weight for his role in The Machinist; Dustin Hoffman stayed up all night in order to convince in Marathon Man (provoking co-star Lawrence Olivier to respond with "Try acting, dear boy"). The latest performer to go to extreme lengths to convince is Antoine Zombé – the star of The Canadian Film Festival's 2014 campaign… and a real-life zombie!

'Canadian Zombie' follows Zombé through the plights and pitfalls of his career, poking fun at the innate politeness of the Canuck spirit all the while, and making the point that despite his choice of jobs anywhere in the world Zombé chooses to work in Canada because of the quality of the films. Directed by Spy Films' Jonathan Bensimon, with a creative concept from JWT Toronto, the spot (along with another, about the top movie extra in the world) played in The Royal Theatre throughout March, and right through the festival.

We were charmed by the happy-go-lucky attitude of Antoine and the plethora of movie references in the spot, so took the chance to chat to Bensimon about directing the living dead.



How did you get involved in the Canadian Film Festival project?

The creatives (Colin and Jim) and I have developed a great working relationship over the years. When they came to me last year with the CFF project we had a great time collaborating on the 2 spots I shot. The collaboration evolved naturally when it came to developing this year's campaign.

How much did you participate in the concept of the film? Where did the idea of a polite zombie actor come from?

The development of the script was a back and forth process; we started by brainstorming together, then Colin and Jim developed the concept, from there I took a pass at the script and we went back and forth until we were ready to go to camera.

How was the shoot? Did you run in to any problems?

IT WAS FUCKING COLD. Usually (if you're lucky) this is the time of year when Canadian productions head to South America to shoot, in this case we obviously needed the snow and we had plenty of it… oh and we barley had enough money to travel to the suburbs.



How intense was the make-up regime for the lead?

Ian Matthews (who also stared in last year's Sin City spot) was amazing, sitting through an hour of prosthetic make-up to morph into Antoine Zombé.

You act as your own cameraman. Does that help you in achieving the precise look you're going for? Do you ever wish you could hand it over to someone else?!

I started as a photographer and cinematographer; lighting is one of my favourite parts of the process. I'm continuously trying to envision the entire picture, creating the look first hand has become a natural part of my process.

Have you always fancied making a zombie movie? How did this compare?

I never imagined myself making a zombie picture, in fact we saw this project as more of a biopic about a character who happens to be a real zombie.



How did you direct the actors? What level of 'zombie' did you want to go for?

The entire cast was great, I had the opportunity to work with a handful of my favourite actors in Toronto. The mom was a caring and worrying mother who does not understand her son's ambitions, and she only speaks in her mother tongue (an anglo-zombie dialect). With Ian we approached the performance in three different ways:
-His early days; as a polite zombie who's dream seems to be continuously out of grasp.
-His true zombie-ness; this starts when he has reached his breaking point, where he has to reach into his 'cold dead heart' and pull out his true zombie.
-Antoine the super star; this is an actor at the top of his game, here Ian let the character's mojo, machismo and gusto shine.

Did you have any zombie movies you used as reference?

I made sure to re-watch a few of the classics. But since this was more of a bio pic I focussed more on referencing Scorsese's biographical films like Casino, Wolf of Wall Street and Goodfellas. Also the film breaks the fourth wall and uses narration as a guide so it was helpful to go back and watch Amadeus, High Fidelity and House of Cards.



Canadians seem very good at poking fun at themselves. Was it important to get some local clichés in there?

At one point it was funny seeing the clichés of Canadian impersonations that include 'Eh' at the end of every sentence and making everyone sound like Bob and Doug McKenzie, but it's gotten incredibly boring, so with this film we wanted to focus on other ways to be self-deprecating.

How much fun was it developing the fake movie names? Is it nice to include subtle easter eggs for film geeks?

It was almost too much fun, at one point we got away from the fact that he should be in more zombie movies. We had him in a spaghetti western, a Face Off-type movie (called Good Zombie / Bad Human) those ended up on the cutting room floor. The entire thing is a ridiculous love letter to cinema.

What's the purpose of the film? How does it relate to the Canadian Film Festival? Did you have that audience in mind whilst making it?

It sounds absurd but it's not easy finding Canadian films in Canadian theatres (less so in Quebec) so it's important for film festivals like the CFF to exists. It's a way for filmmakers have their work exhibited, network and all taking place at an amazing theatre - the Royal Cinema in Toronto.



George Romero's zombies (i.e. the ones from the '… Of The Dead' movies) maintain the characteristics of their living selves. Do you think a Canadian zombie would be more polite than most?

One can only hope for a polite zombie apocalypse in the land where 100 dollar bills are made to smell like maple syrup.

Have you got a survival plan for the advent of a zombie apocalypse?

A lot of batteries for my camera.

What's up next for you?

Totally changing gears I'm working on a spot for an app designed to help communities across Canda help find missing children. Followed by a second go at Hitachi's global campaign… no zombies.