Oz Comic Con Melbourne decided it would go full zombie this year bringing three guests out from the cult hit series iZombie – Rahul Kohli, Robert Buckley and Aly Michalka. The show follows the story of Olivia “Liv” Moore (Rose McIver) who gets turned into a zombie, however in order to remain somewhat human she periodically eats the brains of dead patients in the morgue where she works. After eating those brains she briefly inherits some of the traits of the deceased person and experiences flashbacks of their life. Using this she begins to assist the local police detective Clive Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin).
Rahul Kohli plays Dr Ravi Chakrabarti, Liv’s boss who discovers her condition and tries to help her find a cure. Robert Buckley plays Major Lilywhite, Liv’s ex fiance and amongst other things a former zombie. Whilst Aly Michalka plays Peyton Reed, Liv’s best friend and roommate and also working for the Attorney’s Office investigating the zombie outbreak. For fans having all three of these cast members together was a treat, and a perfect opportunity to grill them about the show.
If they could eat anybody’s brains who would it be
Rahul went straight into weird territory, saying he’d like to eat his girlfriend’s brains because then he would know what it was like to kiss himself and what it would be like to be with himself.
Aly suggested Stanley Kubrick because he’s a cinematic genius and she’d like to see how twisted his mind is.
Robert would eat his mum’s brain because he always wanted to be good at crossword puzzles and whether or not he’s the favourite child.
Gaming and VR is the past time of choice for Rahul, Aly and Robert
When they’re not filming all three of them enjoying playing games or getting into virtual reality platforms. Rahul has been playing Doom, Aly was enjoying some VR experiences, whilst Robert was playing some Uncharted because Rahul thinks he should also play Nathan Drake. Though Robert’s favourite game is Red Dead Redemption and also Breath Of The Wild. Aly also loved Super Mario Bros when it first came out, and she enjoyed playing Grand Theft Auto for the first time.
Would they consider doing a musical episode?
Aly: Everybody asks this, these two would be fantastic. I am open to it, Rose and David are very pro the idea. I’m kinda somewhere in the middle, these two are against it.
Rahul: Can he (David) sing? I’ve never seen it, or him do it. He never sings around any of us, I don’t know if he can do it, he’s like a little fragile bird..
Robert Heeeeeelll Noooooooooooooooooo
Rahul: *abruptly* No.
Fake brains can take a while to get right
Robert: In Season 1 they couldn’t find a good way to make fake brains, so we actually made us eat cattle brains. *long pause* No I’m kidding.
They’re like a gelatin thing from day one, in Season 1 and apparently tasted pretty rank I didn’t have to eat any then In Season 2, they’re like flavourless jello but just a bit thicker. And when they’re in the ‘brain tubes’ it’s like go-gurt. They don’t taste bad, and sometimes they’re mixed in with other things like the chili in the hot dogs.
Rahul: Rose didn’t like the taste of it, so just to one-up her I ate it in front of everyone, coz she was spitting it out into a bucket, but I tasted it and it was awful.
Aly: I’ve never tried it, it just looks vile, the BLT one really creeped me out coz the little brain chunks were falling out of the sandwich.
Rahul: The blue one looks good, it’s like a slushie
Do they ever get advised on particular story directions or arcs for their characters ahead of time, and how far in advance they’re told?
Robert: In Season One I had a bit of a heads up about the character story for Major, whilst we were at San Diego Comic Con, Rob Thomas (show producer) pulled me aside and gave me a little info about where the character was heading, it was like a Travis Bickle decline into madness. But ever since then, nothing.
Aly: We find out when we basically read the script.
Rahul: I found out that the biggest change for my character that happens in the season finale, and I don’t want to spoil it coz some people haven’t watched it. I found it out from the hair person told me coz they had read the production draft and I was all “I what??”
iZombie Season One, Two and Three is available to stream on STAN
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