Land of the Dead (2005)

For Grunwald, Argento fits the mold: “She’s very much a Romero heroine in that she fends for herself. She’s as tough as anybody else in the movie. Tougher.”

Argento, who has appeared in three horror films by her father, Italy’s foremost horror director, describes Romero as “a god. I was incredibly flattered George called me to do the film. I’ve been a fan since I was about eight—I remember sneaking the Beta of Dawn of the Dead. I grew up with his movies and they meant a lot to me. By feeling fear so young, I became a more courageous person. There’s something about zombies that touches us very deeply. It’s something very ancient in us—the fear of dead people coming back to life,” comments Argento.

Romero had previously worked with Robert Joy on his film The Dark Half and offered him the role of Charlie, Riley’s protective and loyal friend. Joy’s acceptance of the role was largely based on his past experience working with Romero. He explains, “George likes working with actors—whatever you bring to him fires his imagination and makes the collaboration that much more rich. To work on any film with George would be a pleasure. But since the first time I worked with him was not a zombie movie—well, it made it even more exciting to work with him again on this project.”

Charlie’s close-knit relationship with Riley begins when Riley saves his life. Joy offers, “That act starts and defines the relationship between them, and Charlie feels that he has to protect Riley unto death. It’s the fiercest kind of loyalty because Charlie really would give up his life for Riley.”

“It’s as if I created the character of Cholo with John Leguizamo in mind, but I wasn’t sure that it would happen,” says Romero. “John projects a sense of being roguish, yet is sympathetic at the same time. I also thought that he could bring a dose of droll humor to the film.” After the film’s producers connected with the prolific actor, they discovered that Leguizamo was a huge fan of Romero’s work—so his role as Cholo was, in some ways, meant to be.

On reading the script, Leguizamo readily responded to the multi-layered story. He explains, “It had political undertones, well-defined characters, action, conflict and racism. My character is full of self-hate, and has ambitions to take over Riley’s job. Then, there’s Kaufman world, which is right-wing, neo-conservative and rich. The script shows the haves, have-nots, the have-mores…and then the zombies. I just loved the many levels to this movie.”

Producer Goldmann observes, “We ended up with our amazing cast because of their passion to work with George. He instills that kind of excitement, which gives us the best of worlds when it comes to putting the film together. It’s like we’re choosing from this great pool of talent, all of whom really want the experience of being in a Romero film.”

Once cast, Baker, Argento, Joy and Leguizamo began a period of weapons training prior to filming. Additionally, Leguizamo had to learn to ride a motorbike. To prepare for the arena sequence, where her character is pitted against two zombies in chains, Argento also trained in martial arts, boxing and weights. “Even before this project, I trained pretty hard. Now, doing this, I finally got to show all that I’ve worked for all these years. It had never really been asked of me. The physical part of Slack has been really fun to do.”

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