Due to her unusual filming experience on Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead, Tig Notaro has yet to meet her costar Dave Bautista in real-life.
Notaro costars in Army of the Dead as Marianne Peters, a helicopter pilot who joins the movie's protagonists on their mission to steal $200 million from an abandoned Las Vegas casino that's been overrun by zombies. When CBR asked Notaro which of the characters Peters has the most interesting relationship with in the film, she cited Bautista's Scott Ward, a veteran of the zombie war who recruits the movie's various mercenaries (Peters included) to join him on said "zombie heist."
"It's funny to say because I've never even met Dave Bautista, not even during [the press tour] or not in person ever," Notaro added. "I've never met the man! [laughs] But yeah, I always think about the scene in the beginning when he's asking Peters to go on this mission, and just having that history, that connection, with somebody to go do something crazy together."
Army of the Dead's Peters was originally portrayed by actor/comedian Chris D'Elia, but that changed after multiple sexual misconduct allegations emerged against him in June 2020. Three months later, Notaro was recruited to replace D'Elia as Peters during post-production. However, as a result of the safety protocols put into place for filming during the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Snyder shot Notaro's scenes without the rest of the cast and used digital trickery to integrate her into the remainder of the movie.
"It was right in the middle of a pandemic, and my agent called and told me what was going on," Notaro said, explaining that it "took a beat" for her to understand what her Army of the Dead role would require in terms of production. She also revealed that she was the only actor Snyder looked at to replace D'Elia in the movie. "I just assumed he was looking at a few different people because I didn't think that it made sense right off. Like, oh, of course, he'd want me; I just thought, 'Oh, he's probably looking at a bunch of different options,'" she added. After that, all it took was "a great conversation" with Snyder to get Notaro onboard.
Directed and co-written by Zack Snyder, Army of the Dead stars Dave Bautista, Garret Dillahunt, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Raul Castillo, Tig Notaro, Theo Rossi and Ana de la Reguera. The film is now in theaters and is streaming on Netflix.