We Were the Zombies in ‘Shaun of the Dead’

On March 29, 2004, the people of London were hit by a virus known as Shaun of the Dead. It spread quickly, reaching all of the U.K. on April 9th and the U.S. on September 24th. It was just a low-budget zombie movie from the creators of a British sitcom named Spaced — primarily, actor Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright — but it became a massive success on both sides of the Atlantic. Now, two decades later, Shaun of the Dead is a genuine zombie classic, mentioned in the same breath as the George A. Romero films it was sending up.

But you can’t have a zombie movie without the zombies — especially a zombie movie like Shaun of the Dead, where the zombies aren’t only half the battle, but half the fun, too. And so, because Shaun of the Dead will be returning to theaters this weekend to mark the 20th anniversary of its American release, we thought we’d get all brainy (or BRAAAAAAAAAAAAINY!) and track down the undead mob tasked with trying to get inside of Pegg’s — and the rest of the cast’s — heads. 

Andy Diggle, comic book writer: I had my first contact with the producers and Edgar Wright years before Shaun of the Dead, when they were working on Spaced. Spaced was huge in the U.K., especially among nerd culture. At the time, I was working at 2000 AD, a British weekly sci-fi comic, and before Season Two of Spaced, we reached out to them and said, “Is there anything we can do to help?” Because they had scenes set in a comic shop, and Simon Pegg’s character was trying to get into the comics industry. Eventually, they came by to see what a comic office looked like.

Later, when they needed extras for Shaun of the Dead, they got in touch with us because they knew we had a direct line to the fans of Spaced. We were active on various fan forums, and we put the word out there that we’d heard from the producers and that extras were needed. It spread like wildfire through London’s nerd subculture.

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As for me, there’s that big shot in the film where they’re trying to get into The Winchester and the camera cranes up over the hedge and you see that entire street full of zombies. That was the day they needed as many extras as possible, and I went down and got zombied up. Most of us just had a few bloodstains and white makeup, and we were ordered to shamble around a little bit. 

There’s a red public phone box right outside The Winchester, and I was pretending to try to figure out how to get into the phone box. But I’d forgotten how to use my arms, so I’m just staggering into the glass and bouncing off and staggering into it again. 

I chose that spot so I could find myself later by looking for the phone box, but I don’t think I’ve actually ever spotted myself. 

Rich Johnston, founder of Bleeding Cool: It was Andy Diggle who did a shout-out on some message boards, saying, “They need zombies. I’m going along. Anyone else coming?” Nobody knew anything about Shaun of the Dead; we were just fans of Spaced. 

We showed up at this spot in London, outside the location for The Winchester. It was a really low-budget film, put together with anyone they could get. We got made up with a very quick makeup job and did the scene for the big wide shot. I decided I was going to walk sideways. That way I’d take up maximum space on the screen so that I could find myself later — which I did, I’m visible for a good three seconds. 

Altogether, it was like a three-hour shoot. At the end, we were supposed to get our makeup taken off, but no one did. So a whole bunch of people were wandering down the streets of South London as zombies afterward. We weren’t being paid or anything, it would have been a waste not to go home like that.

Elvira Khanaveral, public speaker, author and comedian: In 2003, my friend Rich Johnston had introduced me to Spaced. It was fantastic, and a couple of weeks later, I got a call from Andy Diggle, who said, “Do you want to be a zombie extra in a movie?” 

I’d already known this film was happening, so I asked, “Is it Shaun of the Dead?” Andy said, “Yeah!” and I just said, “Tell me where I have to be.”

When I showed up, there was a long line where you signed a consent form and they did their gore-ification process. This was for the first big shot in the film, with all the zombies outside The Winchester. From what I heard, doing this shot very early on was a way for Edgar Wright to prove himself to a crew questioning his capacity. They did the big, tough shot first, which endeared him to his crew.

It was quite the logistical feat they pulled off. There were a lot of people there and there was a lot of goodwill, but it was like herding cats. During some downtime, I remember someone shouting, “What do we want?” and everyone responded, “Brains!” “When do we want it?” “Brains!” 

There was a palpable energy on set — a lot of humor and a lot of excitement.

When we were leaving, they had a strict policy of making everybody de-gore-ify because the day before, they’d let people go without making them remove their makeup, which resulted in a lot of calls to emergency services. 

Jason Read, musician and filmmaker: I had to go to an audition first, and I did a day of zombie-walking and pretending to eat people and falling over and getting back up again. They got a choreographer who showed us videos of zombie-walking. 

I did two weeks as a zombie. The first day of shooting was good fun. There’s a TV game show in the U.K. called It’s a Knockout with very physical things like running with buckets of water through obstacles and falling over. The first day was a version of that with zombies versus humans. It didn’t make it into the film, but there’s a clip of it at the end of the film on the TV. Still, it was a good warm-up for the first day of filming.

I didn’t know what Edgar Wright looked like at the time because this was in the days before you knew who everyone was because of the internet. The assistant director was directing a lot of the stuff on camera while Edgar was running about, doing all kinds of things, so I thought he was a runner. At one point, I was a zombie doing this game, and I fell back and got covered in water. He comes up and says, “That was really funny! You look soaked so I brought you a towel.” 

I didn’t realize until the second day that that was actually Edgar Wright.

The first day wasn’t full makeup. Full makeup was when there was more detail and we had the contacts in. Those days took about half an hour. I had that some days, but day one was just quick, grayish paint, and they’d just drip blood on you. They did that kind of makeup for long shots.

Another fun day of filming was when we were instructed to show up in 1970s gear. It was for that scene where they were discussing different plans to rescue Barbara and get to the pub and it’s flashing forwards to the different plans. Originally, the idea was that, in the characters’ heads, we’d all look like zombies from Dawn of the Dead, because that’s how they’d imagine us. They didn’t end up using the idea though, probably because it was too niche.

After filming was done, they asked me back to DJ the wrap party, which was quite fun. It was just a pub in West London. There was nothing too showbiz or glamorous about it. 

Antonia Campbell-Hughes, actress and writer: I was like 19, doing a fashion internship in London, and I went to this casting thing just because someone had mentioned it to me. There was a casting director, and I had to audition as a zombie. I think I fit the bill because I was a goth kid with a grown-out black mohawk. 

I remember being so intrigued by Edgar Wright because he was so young. I thought, “Is that normal?” In my mind, directors of films were old men, but these were all young people. 

In the film, I’m in the garden eating a body in someone’s backyard. It was a silicone body, and they poured in blood glycerin and watermelon chunks. It tasted like sugary dish soap with chunks of moldy, horrible watermelon.

Tom Hodge, The Dude Designs film poster artist: I was a big fan of Spaced and of zombies, so when I saw the advert on a Yahoo! message board looking for extras, I showed up and auditioned. They had a bunch of us get up on stage and act like zombies, just to see that you weren’t crazy. But then they did end up giving it to quite a few crazy people.

I did a few days, including the big shot outside The Winchester. That’s when I found out that I’m not a good extra because I’m tall. I’m 6-foot-5, so they kept having to move me to the back of every scene I was in. I also showed up for the interior scenes at The Winchester. There’s the scene in there where Simon Pegg falls on the ground and all of the zombies pile in on top of him. One of the unpaid extras got overzealous and actually did bite Simon on his leg. 

Paul Putner, actor: In the U.K., there was a show in the mid-1990s called Spoofovision, which was a parody of TV shows with little, five-minute skits. They were very cheap, and the director of them was Edgar Wright. I used to be in those sketches, playing a stooge and whatnot. I got friendly with Edgar, and he put me in a few things. Eventually, I got the call from him asking, “Do you want to be in this horror film we’re making?”

Originally, I had a speaking role as a taxi driver, but the scene was cut. I still got to be a zombie though. There’s that scene in The Winchester when Dylan Moran gets pulled through the window. I’m the zombie who pulls his head off.

Lorna Rees, artist: A friend of mine was one of the more featured zombies on Shaun of the Dead, and he told me they were looking for people to be zombies. My friends and I loved Spaced. I was also slightly in love with Simon Pegg. 

When I arrived, it was quite a random bunch of people, and they did makeup very quickly. This was for the scene outside The Winchester, and it was quite the thrill to see Simon in this throng of zombies. These guys were like our folk heroes, and suddenly they’re making a film. We were so proud of them, and we were so invested. 

During the shoot, I was near one of Simon’s friends from drama school. I hung out with her most of the day. She was so lovely, and she knew how starstruck I was. So, at one point, she says, “Simon! come over here!” He was in the middle of this massive crowd, but he was so lovely and he came over and said hi. I responded by gasping and saying, “Hello, I think you’re brilliant” in a breathless, pathetic way. He was like, “Really nice to meet you” and had to get on with filming. I spent the next year thinking, “I’m such a dick.”

Aside from that, though, being in Shaun of the Dead is still my most dined-out-on dinner party story. It’s such a brag.