JOHNNY MAINS: Does your head still hurt?

LEONARD LIES: It hurts like hell man! I mean every time I see that machete coming swinging through the air when I’m watching the film with an audience at one of the cons, I want to jump out of my seat and saw, run…run..run..and get into another scene. Nineteen seconds on screen just isn’t enough for a modest zombie. Actually I sprained my wrist when I hit the floor, but I didn’t realize it until later in the evening or morning..around Dawn I think!

JM: How did you end up being involved in the biggest zombie film ever made?

LL: I was reading the entertainment section of the newspaper and saw a paragraph that the second Romero zombie flick was being prepared. I whipped a resume together and shot like greased lighting to Zombie headquarters in Downtown Pittsburgh known as Latent Image. Breathlessly I boarded an elevator and exited to an empty production office. The office had a smell like sweet embalming fluid…..it’s what I remember. Then this tall dude walks into the room and I say hi, hey would you please give my resume to George Romero. Well the guy is George…daaaa. He says, I’m George have a seat. So we sit and talk for about 10 or 15 minutes and I’m so damn excited….like wow I’m talking to the man…He was easy to talk to, but I’m just watching every word I say and we’re talking about film, editing, Dawn of the Dead, etc. I’m thrilled…just thrilled. And when I leave I don’t know it, but I’m hired. I got a call about a week or so later and asked to come in to sign a contract and get started. I was bleedin’ pinching myself. I was ‘home’.

JM: How has the years following Dawn of the Dead been, with trying to lead a normal life and getting on with your independent film company, but then having to juggle convention commitments and the demands of fans?

 LL: Following DOTDead I worked crewing for other film companies and producers which was cool. Learning my trade through actual work and of course I was developing my own films, but not just to be an artist, but to make a living! Being a well known walking dead person is cool, but making money to stay alive is very important too especially since I have a family. I’m happily married to a wonderful woman and I have four very active sons. Conventions are fun and easy and a great way to blow off some steam after an intense work week. The fans are always delightful and I love getting to know them and share life stories with them as well as our passion for horror movies and how they’re made. I've made real and lasting friendships with fans who are really now my friends. We write to one another. Some work with me on film productions. With one local guy who works in a pizza shop I trade him photos and autographs for Pizza for lunch occasionally. Some friends are in the US and some in other countries. I've been to Germany twice which was amazing! I've almost made it to the UK three times. Once the show was cancelled, once I had to cancel for work, and once the promoter forgot to send me and Jim Krut airline tickets. I'm planning to make it to the UK and Japan in the next year or two.
JM: How and who decided that you would meet your fate as the ‘machete zombie’?

LL: It was pure timing, good fortune…fate…destiny all rolled into one. It’s 3am in the morning. We, the crew, and George are in the mall on the lower level waiting for the actors to come out of make up. Our equipment set ups are complete for the upcoming shots. I’m just standing there next to George who is busy studying his notes…and I start to realize that there are Production assistants and grips getting into the film as zombies and bikers…It occurs to me, I better open my mouth because we’re nearing the end of the production. So after this epiphany I turn to George and say, excuse me George, I’d really like to play a zombie, ( in my head thinking…something memorable) He says go upstairs and see what they have….right now I say. He says, go ahead. We have a few minutes to wait. So I run upstairs to the community room, the place where we congregate each night to prepare for each nights work. I walk into a darkened room with just one make up light illuminating the entire room. John Amplas aka Martin, was handling casting that night. John doesn’t have to deal with anyone at the moment So he’s trying to catch a few zzzzzzzzs. I say hey John, George said come up and see what you have…as far as me playing a zombie…(.something like that) . John turns around in his chair grabs this real machete with a hole cut into it for his head. He says something like…The blade is cut for my head, but it’ll fit you. I say wow…but you’re supposed to do this. He says I’m burned out. I’ve done so many zombie, bikers, Hispanics, etc you can do it really. I say, thanks and so 24 hours later I’m getting fitted with a machete and Zombie Saint hood. Funny side story. John just did his first horror convention via HorrorHound Magazine In Pittsburgh. His first EVER!. I said to John, quite a phenomenon ha…He says ‘Amazing” So I tell John the story you just read and he doesn’t remember our conversation at all…which is okay.

JM: What are your feelings on the ever growing support for the original film?

LL: It makes sense, really. It's beyond horror. The actors do a wonderful job of playing the survivors straight. I remember being on the set when they were talking over lines. They wanted it to be good....I mean when Scott R. is one step away from becoming a living dead poster boy...and he's suffering...and he says, Peter, I'm gonna try not to come back...)Litany...he says it three times, by the 3rd time you're ready to cry. It's really great acting. It's just not about blood and guts, and blowing zombies heads off. It's about relationships too. When Flyboy wants to propose to fly girl, but she says not now...like talk about feeling jilted...but the message is about let's save our humanity and 'the' humanity before we think about making a commitment to just the 'two of us' Let's make a bloody commitment to the human race. There are so many scenes where you think, I could be them...what the hell would I do...I mean really...I'm not the least bit surprised that it gains new viewers all the time. It's classic because it's so damn good. It's a piece of real cinema...not a throw away b-movie so someone can say, oh yeah i did a movie. Romero put his soul into this thing and it shows. It's like the Planet of the Apes first film. It's just perfect. It knows where it's going and it knows how to take us for the ride while it's pushing our 'save humanity' buttons in the meantime. One of these days we humans are going to get it right. DOTDead is a flag waving to help us see what not to do.
So get the hell out of the mall and start breathing the polluted air again.

JM: What kind of films does your company (Dream Catcher Films) make?

LL: My company Dream Catchers Films, Inc. is going through an evolution of sorts.

For quite a while we primarily produced educational, documentary, training, and mainstream industrial pieces for fortune 100 companies. Hospitals, Law Enforcement and Utility companies. I always planned to move into theatrical films when the moment was right. The moment is right. We have several theatrical films in development.
Like a lot of people today. You find a camera and some film to shoot and stick your name on a business card and hope someone finds you and your work worth caring about. I’ve been in the film industry for about 30 years. That’s a long time, though my appetite to create new productions and meet interesting people is always of paramount importance. It’s important for people to not only communicate to others, but to listen. When you listen you have a chance to understand what people care about, thus outside of pure art films, you may get lucky and hit a universal nerve. Presently my studio in Pittsburgh is a source of great happiness. I’m located on a main artery just southwest of city of Pittsburgh so I get a lot of foot traffic and auto traffic. People see my sign, Dream Catchers Films, and call me while stuck in traffic or while walking passed our shop. It’s an outstanding location for a production company. Visibility is so important for any kind of business so I’m pushing us in every direction, physical location, on the internet, at conventions, newspapers…you name it. There’s an answer in there somewhere.