Tig Notaro revealed she completed her gun training over Zoom while preparing for her role in Army of the Dead and shared the funny story of how it all went down. The genre-bending Zack Snyder film follows a group of mercenaries attempting a Las Vegas heist in spite of challenges not limited to a zombie outbreak and a heavily guarded military quarantine. The on-screen situations that demanded extensive firearm knowledge required outside training made more difficult as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Netflix film, set to be released on May 21, has a worthy cast set to go against the group of formidable zombies that stray away from the traditional depiction of the genre. Dave Bautista stars as Scott Ward, the leader of the group of mercenaries reentering the outbreak. Other members of the cast include Omari Hardwick as Vanderohe, who brings his obvious strength to the team, and Ella Purnell, who plays Scott’s daughter, Kate, a character with ulterior motives for breaking into the military zone. Notaro’s casting came earlier this year when it was announced she would be replacing Chris D’Elia, who was let go when multiple women came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct toward him in June 2020. During this time it was also announced that Notaro would shoot her scenes in front of a green screen alongside an acting partner, due to pandemic restrictions.
Notaro spoke about her unique experience during a panel with the female cast members for the virtual Justice Con convention. She detailed the ways in which her training was far from normal due to filming during the ongoing pandemic. Read what Notaro said about the experience below:
My training was very different because I was filming my part in the pandemic, and so I was home in my office on Zoom with a machine gun pointed at my computer while my children were playing in their bedroom. My wife wasn’t home and I was like ‘hold on guys, I’ll be out in a minute, just give me ten minutes.’ I just didn’t want my kids to walk into my office, but I was by myself just doing machine gun training over Zoom while my kids were building Legos.
Though Notaro is beloved for her stand-up, her experience also comes from shows like One Mississippi and Star Trek: Discovery. Still, Notaro admits to having never been in an action film before. Yet, when she received the call from her agent about Army of the Dead, Notaro agreed to work around COVID-19 restrictions for her own safety, as a cancer survivor, and to preserve the humanity and decency of the project.
Watching Notaro handle her machine gun in the movie’s trailer becomes all the more impressive given her limited resources for training, but fans of the comedian know she’s overcome much more. It’ll be interesting to see someone known for telling jokes with dry humor and little urgency work in the fast-paced environment of zombie killing, but it seems as though Snyder made the right choice in calling on Notaro to pull off the requirements of Army of the Dead.
Source: Justice Con