By now a lot of people probably know that Tig Notaro wasn’t initially cast for Army of the Dead, but things have a way of happening when a person isn’t looking and, well, Zack Snyder and his wife Deborah ended up replacing Chris D’Elia after he’d been let go due to sexual misconduct allegations. Looking over the acts he allegedly committed and trying to make sense of it isn’t the easiest thing to do since, on one hand, he denies a lot of the charges being thrown at him, but then admits that there is validity to a charge of exposing himself at one point. The idea that sex took over his life at one point is an excuse that’s been used before and thanks to some folks has gained validity somehow, but for the purpose of this article that’s where I’ll end this part of the explanation. The fact is that D’Elia was booted and Notaro was brought in, but at a notable cost.
The other fact about this is that Notaro didn’t get to meet the rest of the cast since she was inserted into the movie and was helped out by an assistant when it came to interacting with the rest of the cast, so as to make it look genuine. Those that follow the business likely understand that reshoots are a pain in the backside and can be more than a little expensive, but in the end, Notaro was brought into the movie and things appeared to work out. It’s a good thing too since without a pilot, things might not have worked out quite as well given that someone had to fly what was left of the crew out of the city. There were also plenty of scenes in which the pilot was necessary for commentary and comic relief at times since those that watched the movie understand that the helicopter that was to be used wasn’t in the greatest shape and had to be nearly beaten into submission to even start.
The crackdown on sexual misconduct allegations is still continuing obviously as a lot of networks aren’t willing to mess around with the issue considering that many fans have proven that they’ll turn on pretty much anyone who’s been so much as accused by another person in the past ten to twenty years. There are those that are willing to stand up and wonder about how far things will go before people are bound to realize that it doesn’t take much to ruin a career, but in some cases, it is hard to argue for the defendant when something does come to light that’s highly incriminating. The upside of losing an actor for a project is that there are always plenty of actors out there looking for jobs, even those that are well known and might have a continuously busy schedule, so finding someone to fit a role is hardly ever a problem.
Finding the right person to fit the role is the issue since just slapping someone into a movie simply to have another warm body on the set isn’t the best idea, especially when they don’t end up meeting the people they’re working with. This was a risky move on Snyder’s part no matter that it was a necessary one since Tig had no interaction with the rest of her costars, which is something that obviously didn’t sit too well with the star, Dave Bautista. While he didn’t raise a huge stink about it, he was vocal enough to state that he would have liked to meet her just so he knew who he was working with and how they would react to each other.
That part is important after all since on-screen chemistry is needed between the actors most times in order to make things come together. But apart from the trek through Las Vegas and a few other scenes, it’s likely that it wasn’t too much of a bother since once the crew reached the city and their destination Tig’s character disappeared to the roof, where reshoots might have been a lot easier with less interaction from the cast. For the rest of the time though it was likely kind of rough trying to figure out how to reshoot the needed scenes and keep everything running as smooth as it needed to given that replacing an actor wasn’t bound to be the simplest thing in the world when the movie was pretty much done, mostly. But those that have seen it know by now that Tig did a pretty good job at being the snarky pilot that wasn’t exactly a people person but managed to do the job she was hired on for all the same. Plus, she did add a bit to the movie with her attitude, which was a big benefit.
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