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(Frequently Asked Questions about Night of the Living Dead and Bosco™)
Q. What did your friends think of you being in the movie?
A. They thought it was cool!
I was able to invite
some of them to the premiere. One of my friends almost jumped out of her skin when the hands came through the window. I giggled about that for a long time. I spent more time watching their reactions than I did the movie.
Q. Is it true that the zombie extras were paid $1 and got a T-shirt that said "I was a Zombie in Night of the Living Dead?"
A. NO. I saw this bogus anecdote in print just last summer in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but it's not true, and I'll enumerate the reasons why it couldn't be true. In 1967, T-shirts were primarily underwear, not the ubiquitous "fashion statement" they are today. I'd be surprised if the extras had been paid anything at all. The "Z" word was never used on the set; that term came later. Besides, during filming, the movie's title was Night of the Flesh-Eaters; the title wasn't changed until after the production was completed and the film was delivered to the distributor, thus rendering the t-shirt story a complete impossibility.
On Day of the Dead, the extras were paid $1 and got hats that said "I was a Zombie in Day of the Dead." This never happened on Night, and the belief that it did is simply the result of shoddy, careless "journalism." (Taso Stavrakis's hat is modeled here by Rusty "The Chainsaw.")
Q. Where was the movie filmed?
A. The cemetery scenes were shot in Evans City, PA
(about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, off Interstate 79. Don't ask me
for directions; just go to Mapquest). The farmhouse was near there too, but it no longer exists
and I couldn't find it if my life depended on it. I've heard that it's a sod farm now.
The basement scenes were filmed at George Romero's company Latent Image in downtown Pittsburgh. returned to that basement for an interview for the Autopsy of the Dead documentary, and I was surprised at how quickly I got my bearings down there. It was a strange experience, and considering it had been more than forty years since I'd last been there, I remembered everything like it was yesterday. It was a very weird feeling.
Q. Is it true that you played the body at the top of the stairs in addition to the character of Karen Cooper?
A. Yep.
Q. Where is the cemetery from Tom Savini's 1990 Night of the Living Dead remake located?
A. I have no idea. Ask Tom.
Q. Did you ever dream that the movie would be so popular this many years later?
A. None of us did! But we're all very happy that it
is! Read more FAQs.
Zombies like fast food,
Give me the badonkadonk,
And some thunder thighs.
~Benjamin Capps