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Have you ever had your significant other complain that the movies you go to aren’t made for the both of you? Look no further, writer/director Jonathan Levine’s Warm Bodies is a hybrid of a horror-romance story that is perfect for said scenario.  In this flick you get all the gore, all the brain-eating, and also a coming-of-age lovey dovey formula that your better half always yearns for. Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class, Skins, About a Boy) and Teresa Palmer (I Am Number Four) team up for a wild and crazy film that shows there is much more humanism in the zombie genre, much to contrary belief.  R (Hoult) is a zombie that comes upon his prey, Julie (Palmer), with a sudden change of heart.  Instead of brutally murdering her and eating her insides he falls in love.  From then on we enter a world of “mashup genre” that has seemingly taken control of the current Hollywood trends.

Last week, I had the chance to sit down with Nicholas and Teresa to discuss their take on the horror genre, what Warm Bodies means to them, and all the fun they had making the movie.

Interview with Warm Bodies stars Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer
Conducted by Pouya G. Asadi

Pouya G. Asadi: Once upon a time, you guys both sat down and read the Warm Bodies script for the first time…after you finished reading it, what was the first thing you envisioned in your head? Was it your character on the big screen? Or maybe it was the power of the visuals explained?

Teresa Palmer: The power of the visuals for me….well not the visual effects per se, but how it was going to look, what that post-apocalyptic world was going to be. I thought if I could see myself in that world…gosh it was such a strong script wasn’t it? [Looks at Nicholas Hoult who leans over with a bowl of rocks and offers it to me] They’re chocolate by the way, you want to try some?  Everyone thinks they’re stones but they’re not, they’re chocolate.

Yeah. [I take a handful]

Teresa Palmer: Yeah, they really are chocolate by the way, it’s amazing.  But no, I just thought it was a really great mashup of genres, like comedy and romance and action and zombies.

Nicholas Hoult: I think I saw the character first, not really the visuals.  [We're interrupted by a loud squeaking chair, the entire room laughs] Yeah, it was more of the character for me, I didn’t start out really thinking about what [R, Hoult's character] looked like, I was more gravitated to what he’s about.

Teresa Palmer, Rob Corddry and Nicholas Hoult, stars of Warm Bodies

Nicholas, What was some of  the zombie research you did?

Nicholas Hoult: Oh, I watched nearly every film with “dead” in the title.  But we also watched a mixture of other things.  Edward Scissorhands, you know, similar films where the characters don’t really talk as much but have to express themselves in other ways.  And then, what else did we do? [asks Teresa]

Teresa Palmer: You had the Cirque Du Soleil…

Nicholas Hoult: We had a Cirque du Soleil guy come in and kind of practice zombie movements.

Teresa Palmer: And then videotaped them and I got to watch them, it was hilarious. Running through the room.

Nicholas Hoult: Yeah, Rob Corddry and I practicing our zombie runs. [laughs]

Teresa Palmer: Nick was saying that they would all be in a room and the guy was like “pretend there’s brains over there in the corner, now go for the food!”  And they would scramble into the wall.

Nicholas Hoult: [laughs] That would be a good one, and we’d have to be like AAHHH, Yummmm, Brains! [laughter]  There was that and I think getting a consistency to [being a zombie].  Then (director) Jonathan (Levine) and I would have to work and see how to develop that throughout the film.  To be comfortable doing that number, understanding all that so during shooting I wouldn’t have to think about being a zombie, I’d have it down so I could be worried about the characters around me and what THEY’RE thinking.

Teresa Palmer: I didn’t have to do much research at all [laughing].  I just watched Edward Scissorhands, and created a back story for my character.  I really wanted to be present in the scenes and see what [Nick] would be throwing at me without the usage of words, and he gave me a lot to work off of, it was great.

Nicholas Hoult: Who? I didn’t create your back story.

Teresa Palmer: You don’t want me to have a back story because you don’t know what my back story is.

Nicholas Hoult: Exactly, so I was very lazy, and I was like “well the character doesn’t know it, so I don’t have to know it.”

Nicholas Hoult, Rob Corddry & Jonathan Levine on the set of Warm Bodie

Did Jonathan throw any silent films at you guys?

Both:  No.

Nicholas Hoult: No silent films.

Teresa Palmer: I think Jonathan really just trusted us, and cast us and was like “you follow your instincts, and if something doesn’t feel real, switch it around, throw in something that feels more authentic to you.”  Jonathan wanted it to feel grand in reality, despite how extraordinary the circumstances are in the script.  He really wanted regular people to connect to this story.  It’s almost representative to what it does feel like when you first meet someone and it’s that weird awkward beginning of a relationship and the guy doesn’t know how to express himself.  The girl’s overcompensating by talking a lot, which is kind of what I’m doing right now. [laughter]

I was wondering aside from the stunts and other physical feats in this film, What did Jonathan and his team teach you two during the Warm Bodies production?

Teresa Palmer: Just kind of keeping it loose and don’t feel too married to the script.  For me, I’d finish the take and I’d ask him “do you mind if I kind of change this?”, because I’ve been on other sets before where the director is sensitive about the actor changing the words and dialogue around too much, but Jonathan would say “yeah, please! Go for it! Do what feels right to you! Make it genuine!”  That is so liberating and that’s definitely one of the things I loved about working with Jonathan.

Nicholas Hoult: The whole environment on the set, from Jonathan and the producers and everyone, was just to have fun and they taught everyone to be relaxed.  That just makes it very easy.  You know sometimes you go onto a set that’s tense, and they’re struggling for time or people are stressed out, not knowing what to do.  It wasn’t like that all, the crew and everyone just let it all happen.  You know, you mess up, you laugh, “that’s OK, we’ll do another one, we’ll do this.” Just trying other things out.

Teresa Palmer: Yea it’s like being injected with liquid confidence, like “ohhhh this feels GOOD!”

Nicholas Hoult in Warm Bodies

Nicholas Hoult: Yea, it felt really safe.

Teresa Palmer: And your best work comes out of a safe environment…positive, enthusiastic, passionate environment, and then you feel free to explore different things, and find these spontaneous moments that weren’t written in the script.  I really think it’s important for directors to set that tone on set, and when they do they have great results.  I think…I hope.

Throughout all the brilliant auteurs and incredible directors you’ve both worked with in the past year or so, what’s it like to be so young and working with someone as amazing as Terrence Malick, Teresa? And Nicholas, how is it working with Bryan Singer or on a set with George Miller, how does it all add to your craft?

Teresa Palmer: It’s like the best acting school in the entire world. I learn with everyone I work with.  Terrence (Palmer worked on his film Knight of Cups) has been such an incredible inspiration to me.  The experience I had on that film has encouraged me to make my own movie that I’m filming at the moment.  I’m also producing it, it’s a very guerrilla-style way of shooting; blurring the lines of reality and fiction and that’s what Terry does so well.  I just learn from these greats.  I’m in awe when I’m around them, it’s very surreal.

Nicholas Hoult: For me it’s all the different styles of directing and all the different styles of acting around me on these sets.  I love to watch how these all mold together and how people get different results, or even similar results from different methods.  It’s fascinating.  I remember one day I was speaking to George on this movie we were making (Mad Max: Fury Road).  I asked him how he thought the film was coming along and he seemed happy.  But I was like “c’mon man, you pumped about it? You’ve been waiting to make this film a long time.”  And he said to me “yeah, but I try and always keep an outside perspective on everything I make.  I got to try and look at it from an audience point of view.  It would be very easy for me to get swept up in the excitement of it all, to see things better than they are with rose-tinted sunglasses on.  Because it’s my project and I care about it so much so you got to step back from it a little bit.”  And I thought that was a great thing for a director to do, to be so involved and care so much about something but also be able to disengage and see it from the audience point of view and make sure it’s not too self-involved.

Now that Warm Bodies is all done and about to be released to the world, do you think this will be your break out roles?

Nicholas Hoult: If this film does well and people like it then I’d be thrilled because I really enjoyed making it.  And either way, even if it doesn’t do well I had a great time making it with fantastic people and I’m proud of it.  I haven’t even begun to think if it’ll be a break out thing, because you know you don’t want to count your eggs before they hatch, you kind of just go along for the ride, you never know what’s going to happen.  If it did become a role that I was known for, I’d be happy because I really care for it and I like it.

Teresa Palmer: That is exactly the same for me.  I haven’t thought about it in terms of what it will or won’t do for my career. I’m very proud of the movie, I love the character Julie, I’m so connected to her.  I miss R, I miss being in that environment.  I haven’t actually had that in a film before where I walked away and I thought “God I miss being with R, and I missing being in Julie’s shoes.”  And that is really special…and rare.  So that’s fantastic and I hope that that feeling that both of us had can really translate into this film and if it does, and it finds an audience then that just makes it even better.