“From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series” is crossing the boarder to get the Gecko brothers and the Fuller family to The Titty Twister.
Based on the Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino movie From Dusk Till Dawn, the TV series is retelling the story with new depth and a few changes. Don’t worry, they will still encounter vampires when they get to the Twister. We got to speak with D.J. Cotrona and Zane Holtz, who play Seth and Richie Gecko respectively, about what’s coming up on “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series” and where they’ve come so far.
CraveOnline: Zane, do you get to see Richie’s visions on the set, or are those added in later?
Zane Holtz: It’s a mix. A lot of the times, just by the nature of how things are shot, usually if I’m seeing something, the camera is obviously seeing me so I’m probably looking at nothing and I’m just acting. Then the camera turns around and actually sees the vision, a lot of the stuff is put in so far in post, but things that are practical, when I’m holding the dog, that’s a practical effect. Some of the stuff with the hole in my hand, that’s practical, so it’s a mix.
D.J. Cotrona: It’s interesting too as you’re reading scripts, you see the scene description of the different specifics of the visions. On the day, Zane will be standing there doing something pretty ridiculous on his own. You’re just like, oh, okay, I guess that’s the vision part. When you actually get to see the effects after it goes through post, it’s incredible some of the stuff they’re putting in. It really blows you away because it’s easy to pass over, you don’t see it but to actually see the work they’ve done, it’s really cool.
Zane Holtz: Have you seen episode three? Then you’ve seen me in the room twirling my arm around, choking on nothing. Then they add in the vision [of the snake] afterwards. It’s a mix.
D.J., some of the reviews praised you for capturing George Clooney in your performance. Would it be better to say that Seth Gecko inhabits any actor who plays him?
D.J. Cotrona: Look, this is one of the tough and frustrating questions for me. It’s obvious, you can’t step into George Clooney’s shoes. It can’t be done. They’re not going to fit, but the character that Quentin wrote is such a great one, this down and out criminal trying to pretend he’s got it all together as things slowly unravel. As an actor, to get to do a character like this, written like this, with Robert Rodriguez is an absolute no brainer. You go for it. Roles like this are the reason you get into the business in the first place.
I think for the audience, automatically I’m going to get slammed over the head with a hammer because the first guy that did this was George Clooney and he did it in such an amazing fashion. But getting to redo it with Robert and try and take this guy in a different direction has been a fantastic experience. Working with Zane has been a fantastic experience. The film is very much its own thing but as the series goes on, we were able to take the character to so many different areas than they did in the film, from backstory to different character relationships to going into the future, so as we go on, people will get to see this guy, our version of this character be his own thing. Robert always describes it as an alternate universe.
We see so many different versions of a character like Batman and Superman and all these iconic characters we know and love, but this is the first time anyone’s ever tried to revisit the world of Robert and Quentin. No one else can actually do that except Robert and Quentin. That’s why we’re seeing it this time for the first time. You can’t ask for a better job.
I’m trying to give you credit for it too because you’re both doing a great job.
D.J. Cotrona: Thanks, man, thanks. You know, it’s all on the page and Robert knows how to shoot and make you look cool. I think Zane and I work well together so it’s fun to go to work every day.
How monumental was it the day you got to do the camera in the trunk shot?
D.J. Cotrona: Oh man, that was the best.
Zane Holtz: It was very cool. That’s a trademark from a lot of those films and to be able to be part of that in any way was just amazing. Obviously they took a bunch of stills of it and released images as well. To be able to have that be one of the things that I’ve done in my career was just so cool.
D.J. Cotrona: It’s funny, on the day you see Robert crawling on the ground and you see them come in with half of a trunk of a car sawed off, setting up for the shot. It was hard not to geek out on the day.
Zane, your lap dance from Santanico Pandemonium is coming up. What can we look forward to in that scene and what was it like to shoot?
Zane Holtz: It’s cool, man. It felt pretty intimate I guess. We’re in the middle of the bar and it’s packed with other actors, guys playing bikers. It shouldn’t feel like that, but I think we were able to make a moment out of it and connect even though it’s not a personal moment. It kind of became that so I think people will like it. It’s familiar enough to the film and also its own thing in its own way.
D.J. Cotrona: We were with Robert last night and he was talking about the editing process of all that stuff that he’s doing right now. He was just describing certain surprises and different versions that people are going to see of the one that Zane and Eiza [Gonzalez] shot that I think is going to be pretty amazing. People are going to be blown away.
D.J., are you the first ever patron of an actual Big Kahuna Burger?
D.J. Cotrona: Yeah, I believe I am.
Zane Holtz: I think so.
D.J. Cotrona: I think it’s a breakthrough to actually cross the threshold and buy a burger. It was an honor. It’s funny because we built the physical set down in Austin and people started freaking out because there’s an actual facade on a real building. People started calling in to radio stations and cars would stop and screech into the set while we were shooting. They thought it was an actual business that went up.
So yeah, it was very cool, man. Again, Robert and Quentin have their own universe of all these different references and characters and places, Earl McGraw to El Rey to Chango Beer to Big Kahuna, Red Apple cigarettes, it’s this cool heightened world that all of their films live in and cross over. That’s been one of the coolest things just as a fan of theirs to get to bring all those things to life and live in those worlds again.
When you both auditioned for the roles, were there just rooms full of Seths and Richies?
Zane Holtz: Not really, man. Mary Vernieu is that casting director and she really knows who to bring in and who not to bring in.
D.J. Cotrona: She’s very prolific and has been working with Robert forever.
Zane Holtz: She’s been Robert’s casting director forever so really, I don’t know how many other guys were there other than the day that I was there but it wasn’t as many as you would think. She had a hold on who she thought would work from the beginning I think and then just brought her choices to Robert and it went from there.
D.J. Cotrona: The casting process felt very much like Robert’s shooting process. Robert shoots on instinct. He shoots from the gut and he moves quick. The casting process was the same. I had a meeting with Robert and chatted about the project. Then a few days after that we were playing with dialogue. A few days after that I was doing readings with some other actors. Zane and I did some pretty heavy work together, the three of us together. A week after that we were on a plane and we were putting the suits on. It was a pretty quick process.
Talking to everybody down at Troublemaker they all laughed because all the actors say the same things from all of the movies that Robert’s done, Sin City and all the movies he’s done. Everybody feels like it’s just this super quick process and it really is, but it’s good, man. It keeps you on your toes. It just keeps you working from your gut. It doesn’t let you think too much.
Did it ever get close with different combinations of Seth and Richie?
D.J. Cotrona: No, I don’t think so. I sat in with Robert and we read a few other actors that were choices for Richie, some really super talented guys whose names you would definitely recognize and you would know their work.
Zane Holtz: They ended up not being available so they had to give the job to me.
D.J. Cotrona: No, not true at all. The second Zane came in, it just clicked. We had a really good time. Robert was just smiling the whole time and laughing while we were playing. After Zane left the room, I could just see him. He’s got this smirk he does and this little laugh. The second I saw that I was like, “All right, that’s the guy.” There was nobody else for the part. Zane’s crushing it.
There’s already more action on the show than in the movie, with the shootout at the motel. Once you get into the Titty Twister, are there even more vampire encounters than there were in the movie?
D.J. Cotrona: Oh yeah. Oh yeah, man.
Zane Holtz: It’s a thing that’s slowly being introduced into the world that our characters are inhabiting, and then it’ll reach a – –
D.J. Cotrona: Culmination.
Zane Holtz: And then we’ll go from there and we’ll see what happens in future seasons. Definitely there’s more to come, more variety, more gory version of it.
D.J. Cotrona: I know it’s so natural to want to use the film as a guideline, but by the time we get there and the sh*t hits the fan, you’re not going to know what’s coming because a lot of stuff you don’t expect is coming and we go in a lot of places you couldn’t possibly imagine.
Zane Holtz: Pretty much from the moment we arrive at the bar, it’s kind of its own thing.
D.J. Cotrona: Greg Nicotero is doing insane work. He started on Dusk, the first one, and has been doing such amazing work since. Everything he does on “The Walking Dead” is so brilliant, but Robert really let him just go nuts on this show. He gave him no direction, no rules. He said just let it rip so the stuff that he came up with is just insane and I think the fans are going to be super happy.
You’re in the suits this whole season. Do you want different wardrobes for season two?
D.J. Cotrona: No. That’s my vote. I vote no. You don’t break the aesthetic, but we’ll see what happens.
Zane Holtz: I’m going to go reverse. I’m going to go with a white suit and a black shirt.
D.J. Cotrona: Yeah, we’re going to do the photo negative version of it for season two.
Zane Holtz: No, we have no idea about that stuff. We’re not sure what’s going to happen in future seasons. I guess we’ll probably know closer towards shooting obviously, but let alone suits, we don’t know what we’re going to be doing. The writers are working on it but we don’t know.
Zane, they changed Kate’s line to “Richie, would you take of my bikini for me?” I forget now, did you still get to respond with the “Uh, sure?”
Zane Holtz: I forget as well. I think I kind of stand there with my mouth open. It’s really inappropriate obviously. I think it’s a similar kind of response but maybe just not verbalized. I’ll have to go back and watch that scene again. I do not remember. I had my eyes closed and my fingers in my ears because that was an uncomfortable scene for me.
