The Walking Dead’s zombie wannabes: Walkers gotta walk the walk

IT IS the second most pirated TV show so it is little surprise there are thousands of devoted fans who want to be a zombie extra on the Walking Dead.

IT’S the post-apocalyptic zombie cult hit which sees fans line up to meet its stars, and is the second-most pirated television show on the planet.

But the ultimate display of dedication for diehard fans of The Walking Dead is getting a start in the show’s zombie school.

Yes, zombie school.

The school has been a fixture of the show since its inception, but as The Walking Dead’s cult status has grown, so too has the number of extras and fans dying for a piece of zombie action.

Now, thousands want a crack at being among the 200 to 300 hopefuls who make the cut to attend the annual two-day freak feast.

Zombie bootcamp is led by The Walking Dead’s co-executive producer, special make-up effects supervisor, and occasional director, Greg Nicotero, who turns headmaster to hand-pick his latest team of walkers.

“It’s how we kick off filming every year — with zombie school,” Nicotero says.

Nicotero won’t give tips on how to jump the queue and get a start in the classroom, but if you come under his tutelage, he’ll make you a better zombie.

If you’re a dab hand at replicating the loose-limbed, slack-jawed, part-shuffle, part-stumble of those tottering out of a pub at 2am; have a big mouth; a bit of rhythm; and happen to be in Georgia, USA, where the show films, when auditions are called, you’re ahead of the game.

It also probably helps if you are OK with dentures, and contact lenses and not averse — or allergic to — latex.

A strong stomach to handle all that fake blood and severed limb action is an asset.

He’ll make you a better zombie: The Walking Dead's executive producer, director, and special effects makeup supervisor Greg Nicotero. Picture: Paul Morigi/Getty Images for AMC

“We start around April and people submit photos to the extras casting company that handles the walkers to the show,” Nicotero says.

“Zombie school accomplishes several tasks. Number one is to get measurements of all the performers for their wardrobe, but most importantly it allows me to gauge people’s work.”

Nicotero wants two things in wannabe walkers — looks and performance.

The zombie world is a little sizeist — (ever seen a fat zombie?) – because zombies by definition are generally emaciated, starving and gaunt.

Think more corpselike than curvaceous.

Logistically, the need for thinner people is also related to a specific bone structure, and allows for the addition of the many latex prosthetics the walkers wear. “Make-up is an additive process,” Nicotero explains.

Next, walkers have gotta walk the walk.

“I tell people to ‘disconnect between what your body is doing and what your brain thinks you are doing’,” says Nicotero.

“Stand out front of a bar at 2am and watch people walking down the street because there is the disconnect — their brain thinks they’re walking straight but they are clearly not.”

For zombie death scenes (if you don’t know the only way to kill a zombie is by piercing its brain, go to the bottom of zombie class) Nicotero uses the analogy of a puppet.

“Imagine you are a marionette and your strings are cut — it’s like boom — you drop like a sack,” he says.

The magic of make-up: Greg Nicotero works on a zombie. Picture: Gene Page/AMC

Of the two to three hundred people who audition annually, Nicotero finds about 20 superior zombies ‘who are gung-ho, up for anything’.

“We will use them over and over again. The beauty of the prosthetics is we can change their look every single time,” Nicotero says.

“In this year’s mid-season return there was a girl named Katie who is probably in that episode 10 times as 10 different zombies.

“She’d had some training as a dancer so she knew how to move her body. And she’s really fit and … this will sound weird … but she has a huge mouth — so when we would put a prosthetic on and she would smile and open her mouth it looked like her jaw was unhinging and she could bite your head off.”

Nicotero, 52, is a long-time fan of the zombie genre, who turned a teen obsession with becoming a special effects make-up artist into a career after working on George Romero’s (the filmmaker who made the genre his own) Day of the Dead in 1985 alongside award-winning special effects creator Tom Savini.

Despite the fact he’s now EP of The Walking Dead, he still adopts the staggering walk and vacant stare, and plays zombie on-screen at least once a season.

“Sometimes, myself and my makeup effects crew are dealing with a schedule in which there isn’t a lot of leeway and it makes more sense to put ourselves through prosthetics to execute what we need,” he says.

“This season, I was the walker that tore Nicholas (Michael Traynor) open.

“We’d built this big stomach prosthetic with gallons of blood and fake entrails and I was kneeling down above the actor choreographing everything that happened.

“So two people worked on my left and I would puncture and say ‘push here, push there, rip the guts out’ … it was like being a conductor and creating a symphony of gore.”

The Walking Dead screens Mondays 1.30pm on FX

Originally published as The Walking Dead’s zombie wannabes: Walkers gotta walk the walk