Bonus Features Episode 20: Actor Heartbreak

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Dave

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Bonus Features Cliché Lookout: Actor Heartbreak

While I’ve never seen an actual bonus feature on someone drinking away their sorrows after not being selected for a role (I’d totally watch it, given the opportunity), seeing audition tapes and interviews with other potential actors is something I’ve always enjoy. Take, for instance, the Tom Selleck audition for the role of Han Solo in a little movie called Star Wars. Or Robert DiNiro trying for the role of Sonny in The Godfather. It’s kind of hard to picture any one else playing Han Solo, but DiNiro as Sonny? I could see that, regardless of how awesome James Caan is.

And then there are all the big stars who passed on roles that turned out to be giant. Can you imagine, for instance, Will Smith as Neo in The Matrix? As much as I can’t stand Keanu Reeves, I’d take him over the Fresh Prince in that movie. Hungry for more? TopTenz has a pretty nice list.

About This Episode:

Okay, so I’m probably done dragging this poor EMT through the mud. Probably. Between the ambulance set and that custom zombie minifig that ZombieMutts sent me, I’ve sure been getting a lot of use out of just a handful of items. Time to diversify.

Luckily, the actress who plays Shannon (can you believe we still don’t know her actual name? That’s some shoddy writing right there) is there to help the guy come to terms with the situation. I’m sure she doesn’t have any ulterior motives.

On an unrelated note, I made sure that I carefully placed Shannon’s camera next to her on the ground in front of the bench. I kept accidentally nudging it and then had to move it back. And then the damn thing doesn’t even end up being in a single shot. Yeesh.

62 thoughts on “Bonus Features Episode 20: Actor Heartbreak”

  1. Well that was one heck of a look a like! It’s not on topic but I think 22 long rifles are the best guns for the zombie apocalypse because their light, not as loud, and ammo and the rifles themselves are cheap.

    • Yeah, I really should have used a different hair color.

    • tough guy, a 22 long rifle is wouldn’t pierce the skull unless at a close range and even then what if it was a zombie in a hard hat?

      • Well actually I don’t remember where but I took a hunters safety course and the said that a 22 could go around 3 miles and if someone where hit in the head they were dead and the bullet would go in there and mess up the brain.

        • It’s true that smaller rounds that DON’T penetrate all the way through a human body can “bounce around” and tumble through the target’s brains or innards, shredding them from the inside (instead of passing through cleanly).

          Although I’m not sure if that amount of “shredding” would be enough to stop a zombie, compared to a more powerful, larger caliber round.

          It all goes back to the rules the individual writer has on zombies…

          Yes, a .22 caliber bullet to the head would be enough to kill a human.

          But you have to remember, you have to destroy a zombie’s brain to kill it. A .22 caliber round might only damage a zombie’s brain, and not destroy it sufficiently to put said zombie out of commission.

          I’d certainly feel safer with a larger caliber bullet, to blow significant chunks out of undead brains that are sure to stop them.

          Although this would make a fantastic plot point in a zombie comic, if smaller caliber rounds turned out to ironically be more effective…

        • I’m pretty sure that a .22 to the face will have no problems penetrating, and will swiss cheese a brain just fine. If it has the energy for an exit wound, it will take a good chunk of the brain with it, if not it will bounce around inside the skull doing even more damage.
          @l3m0nm4n – a hard hat isn’t designed to stop even a low velocity bullet, they aren’t nearly as tough as a real helmet, and even a real helmet won’t stop a direct hit.

  2. Wow I feel weird reading this again. This kinda dropped off my daily website list, but now it’s back on! Sorry for leaving! 😀

    • You should be sorry. You’re missing the best damn webcomic out there. At least the best one made out of LEGOs about zombies that also prominently features a character named after Robocop.

      • Long time you do not see, him who steal the car!
        (That was in Engrish, courtesy of an online translator)

        Good to see you around again. While you’re getting back into reading lego-based zombie webcomics again, perhaps you should read more of Zombie Outbrick, too…. 😉

        Well said, Dave. I don’t think anyone can disagree with that.

        • I see neither of you have lost your humor 😀 This is good. I feel welcome.

  3. So when do we find out who won the 16×16 Challenge? I bet someone probably kicked my Zombie Santa’s undead ass.

    • I’m guessing the announcement will be sometime next week. The judges haven’t come to an agreement yet. We’re violently fighting it out now though, so hopefully soon.

    • Did you say Zombie Santa? Awesome!!

      Hey Dave, how about a contest were the users vote? I’m sure that is tough to set up but wanted to throw it out there.

      • Zombie Santa was one of the first entries. Made me laugh.

        A contest where users vote is a cool idea, but we’d need a way to ensure people weren’t voting multiple times. I’m sure there’s a way to do that.

        • I really liked the zombie santa! Of course, I didn’t see it until the other day when I was browsing through the rest of the contest entry pics, so it wasn’t exactly Christmas time anymore…

          But geez, some of those mall santas are sluggish and smell bad enough already, a zombified one must be even worse!

          And I like the voting idea. I think it’d be pretty easy to set up a cookie that would only allow each person (or rather, computer/device) vote once… Although sneaky jerks might just clear their cookies… There’s definitely a way to set up voting somehow…

  4. Hooray!

    • Huzzah!

      • Yippee-Yo Hurron!

        • Wee!

        • It’s a trap!

  5. Shannon may be dead in this webcomic, but she sure is lively in these bonus features! 😀

    As for the guy who actually got the part I was sure it was the same guy after makeup was done with him! Makeup can do some pretty incredible things these days – they even have the job of putting monster suit makeup on! 😀

    • This was a great way of keeping Shannon around a little longer.

      Makeup can be pretty incredible. Did anyone watch that SyFy reality show about it? Seemed like it might be interesting, but I almost immediately forgot about it.

      • Yes, I like Shannon. It was too bad she was the one offed and not one of the others first.

      • Yeah, I always liked Shannon. It just isn’t the same with just Cheryl as far as female characters go…

        And I watched most of the first season, and all of the second season of Face-Off so far. I personally love it, because I’ve dabbled in prosthetics and makeup before (I’m occasionally a filmmaker in my spare time), so seeing how they make everything is cool.

        Some of the “drama” is annoying though, and I don’t think I’ve seen another show where the phrase “thrown under the bus” is used so often by the contestants. So overall, Face-Off is a very interesting show well worth taping/DVRing, especially if you fast-forward through the “drama” bits! 😉

  6. “I’m sure she doesn’t have any ulterior motives.”…yeah right!

    • I’m glad to see there are other people like me out there. People who trust other people without always thinking the worst.

  7. Just as interesting as the people who turned down roles in movies, are the people who got replaced with a different actor after shooting had started. I don’t mean different actor in the role in sequels etc, I mean, replaced (they left, got sacked, got ill/injured) after they’d started shooting the film, so they have to reshoot those scenes with the new actor. A good example (and Trope Namer at TV Tropes) is Back to the Future, where the original Marty McFly was Eric Stoltz — some of the footage of Marty driving to escape the terrorists in the mall are actually Stoltz behind the wheel, not Michael J Fox (you can’t tell from the distance).

    In the TV world, Kate Mulgrew was not the original Capt. Janeway in Voyager and Morena Baccarin was not the oriignal Inarra in Firefly.

    • Oh man, that’s a fantastic idea, Louise. I might just have to steal that.

      It’s funny, I just can’t picture anyone but Michael J Fox as McFly. Or Baccarin as Inarra for the matter. I never watched Voyager though.

      • Steal away!

        • Thanks!

          And to further belabor the point. Every time I see Baccarin in anything else, I think “What the hell is Inarra doing here, and why did she cut her hair?”

  8. I hadn’t really heard about the Neo thing…as you said, Keanu may not be great, but Will may have been a little too much of something else. Though I hate to have to admit it, but for the longest damned time I couldn’t recall Lawrence Fishburne’s real name, and every time I saw him I would turn to my wife and say…”who is morpheus again?”

    • Ok…I don’t remember taking that photo as my avatar…

      • Yeah… that’s not what I would expect.

        • This should have fixed it…all that remains of my 16×16 challenge after my daughter found a way to climb the shelf to it…tricky 3 yr olds.

      • Ok, I am not a black woman, nor was my challenge…where the hell is my zombie supes?

        • We believe you, Tom.

        • Tom – has your 3yr old escaped from the house yet? When my son was 3 he figured out how to unlock the front door. I caught him outside with my shoes on playing in the grass.

          I started using the chain after that but then I found he has stacked up a bunch of his toys and was about to reach the chain. Tricky 3yr olds indeed!

        • Oh and Tom… You’re a HOT black woman and so is your challange. 😉

        • (Until I figure out where I’ve apparantly gone horribly horribly wrong with my avatar..no image for me heh) And she knows how to unlock the chain, the door, and even the windows…all thanks to a friend getting her the ‘you can only open the doors once you figure out how to undue 8 different type of locks’ puzzle. No escaping yet though, she only likes going outside if she has a playmate to keep her entertained.
          And thank you for the compliment, this white boys inner hot black woman appreciates it.

        • “all thanks to a friend getting her the ‘you can only open the doors once you figure out how to undue 8 different type of locks’ puzzle.”

          That’s as good as my brother buying my son one of those really loud machine gun toys for his birthday when he was 4yr old. I still cringe when I think of all the noise that stupid thing made. lol

    • That’s hilarious re: Fishburn/Morpheus.

  9. hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

    • She laughs at other people’s suffering. I love it.

      • That’s what we pirates/elves/office drones do ya know. =)

        • As a fellow office drone, I’d have to agree.

  10. Ah, crushed dreams. Good old schadenfreude.

    • If only there were some sort of German word to describe the delight I feel at others’ suffering…

      • Not sure if it’s the meaning you’re after here, Dave, but insufferable in German translates to unerträglich – maybe that is one way to describe that feeling?

        I’m not sure if Google translate is accurate anyway lol. 😀

  11. I kind of know how this actor feels. Me and my Dad went to try and apply, try out for/as Extras for The Postman. We never got picked. Ah well…. it could have been fun. Pop this movie in and go look guys, there’s me!

    At least he tried. And that actually says a lot instead of never trying.

    • That’s a shame, Fox. I know it’s a terrible movie, but I’ve always kind of liked The Postman.

      • The book is far better and has quite a bit different and vastly shows how the movie deviated to the point they’re not really the same story anymore.

    • I feel your pain, Silver Fox. I made it into a potential Doritos commercial once, but ended up being an indistinguishable blur for 3 frames (the camera was moving fast, and I was only in one shot.)

      I guess it’s all not that bad, since Doritos turned down the commercial anyway!

  12. Dave, since this ‘behind the scenes’ extra is getting so successful, do you think there would be a way to move it off the same list as the main story arc? I mean, whenever I visit the archives to find out if something actually happened the way I remember it or not, every 3rd strip after a certain strip is the bonus features strip, and it sorta breaks continuity, if you know what I’m getting at. 😀

    • Yeah, I was thinking about griping about that. It’s hard to go archive-diving with The Bonus Features in the main list… Although sometimes The Bonus Features makes more sense in context with the rest of BotD, so I don’t know if it’d be better by itself or not.

      • Dave has said previously that they’re not really in the same timeline as the BotD story, I’m waiting to find out what he thinks. 😀

        • The Bonus Features have lasted a little longer than I originall thought they were, so I’m going to see what kind of options I have for stripping them out of the main storyline. Ideally I could setup a couple different navigations:
          1. That has everything, since some of the Bonus Features would with context from the main comic
          2. One with just the comic, and one with guest posts and Bonus Features separated out.

        • Here’s what you do: You make it so people can view it both ways, get opinions on which way turns out to be the best, and then implement whatever way the majority wants! 😀

        • Although, my original reason for wanting it done was because it’s hard to navigate backwards through 221 episodes and bonus features to find a particular scene where something might or might not have happened. I think you should at least break them into pages of about 10-20 strips each and add an index of them in so people can navigate back to the early episodes without having to load a lot of strips in between.

        • There is an index. Comic Archive in the navigation. Right next to home.

  13. That crying face is perfect! Man, I need to buy more minfigs…

    And I’m sure Shannon doesn’t have any ulterior motives, too! After all, I’m sure this man and woman have the purest of intentions: to get incredibly drunk on-set… 😉

    • I think that face came from the Castle jester. Awesome expression.

  14. “Taste the agony of defeat, taste it.”???