Interview Part III: Devon Bostick of George A. Romero's "Survival of the Dead"

Interview: Part II

Devon Bostick

By our guest blogger, Joel Crabtree

At age 18, actor Devon Bostick's star is rising. Just within the past few years, he has starred in the successful horror franchise "Saw," worked with prolific Canadian writer-director Atom Egoyan, and gained a massive following of kids with his role as the evil older brother Rodrick in "Diary of a Wimpy Kid."

What more could an up-and-coming actor ask for? How about another chance to work with legendary filmmaker George Romero?

Bostick's latest film, "Survival of the Dead," is his second go-around with Romero (he had a small part in 2005's "Land of the Dead"). The Toronto native took a time-out out of his busy acting schedule--and from "doing some taxes"--to discuss his latest film, his career and his fart machines with Week in Rewind.

This is part two of a three-part interview. You can read part one here and part two here. 

Joel Crabtree: What got you into acting in the first place?

Devon Bostick: It's funny--I come from an industry family, sort of. My brother and my dad are actors, my mom's in casting, and so people think I got in because of that. I actually started in grade one, at a children's theater camp. I moved to a new area and I was really shy. My friend asked me if I wanted to go to this camp with him. And I had no idea what I was getting myself into really. At that point I didn't even know what my mom did.  As for my dad, I knew that he was a fight choreographer, but that was about it.

So, I just joined this theater camp, and I played the Old Man in Jack and the Beanstalk, did the theater camp for four years and the passion for this art grew as time went on. I eventually asked my parents in grade five, 'How do I do this professionally?' Because, I guess, I had enough of just doing it on stage, and I wanted to do it on set and in movies and stuff like that. My goals grew, and so did I, and then I just hung with it. It's been eight years, so it's been a long journey even though I'm still only 18. It just feels like I've gone through a lot. Tiny things to big things.

JC: Are there any actors whose careers you kind of emulate, or would like to?

DB: Sean Penn's a big one. I love him as an actor. When you watch him it's just hard to take your eyes off him. So, he's a big one up there, because he really chooses interesting roles and I love ... the projects he chooses as well. And also Robert Downey Jr., recently, is blowing my mind. He's a very interesting character actor. (Laughs) I wouldn't mind following in either of their footsteps.

JC: Some actors have a dream role or character that they're just dying to play. Do you have any characters like that? Or roles like that?

DB: For sure. I want to play the everyman superhero. One thing I want to do is a superhero role, and not like Captain America. I'm talking like Kick-Ass ... or like Spider-Man or whatever. So, that's one. Also, I wanted to do, like an alien sort of film. Like a Spielberg-type of alien in the real-world film, sort of like that. I was up for one recently that really made me want to do an alien film.

And then — I don't know, there's tons of roles. That's the thing, there are so many and they just keep on being created. So ... every role. I'll take every role, please. Side order of fries.

JC: Having so much success in the movie industry at such a young age, have you had to sacrifice a lot of normal teenager activities?

DB: Totally. I guess over high school, as well.  It's tough because I've got auditions, so when I'm not filming, I'm learning lines or trying to craft what I'm doing even more. So, it's been tough. Schoolwise, I'm no longer in school, but high school was the toughest. Just trying to make time between going there and filming, and then also friends and stuff. But my main thing is that whenever I'm not filming, I just have to surround myself with friends to keep sanity.

So, I mean, I still live a normal life. I'm not a ... well, lately I've been ... I was going to say I'm not flying all over the world, but I'm flying all over Canada. Right now. But yeah, it's tough, it's really about just keeping in touch with everyone around you that you care about and trying to keep it normal in a strange world of acting.

JC: What do you have planned in the future?

DB: Well, in four days, I'm moving to a place in L.A. that I just got. So, going there, I'll be traveling back and forth between Toronto and L.A., trying to get jobs and make it a bit easier for me to pick some projects. I've got an episode of "Being Erica" coming up soon--Season 3 for that. I'm up for this one film ... I'm going down for that. I don't know. You see, the thing is, I just filmed two films back-to-back, so I'm kind of just hanging out right now. I've been writing a script as well, me and my brother are writing a script. We have, like, 90 pages.

I don't know, I don't have any projects lined up right now, unfortunately. I just finished a Cuba Gooding Jr. movie, with Christian Slater. And I got to play, like, the second lead for that, which was really cool. Hopefully, the Toronto Film Festival, as well, which will be my fifth year in a row having a film in it.

JC: Is there anything else you'd like to mention?

DB: I mean, "Survival of the Dead" is the one I've been mentioning — "Survival of the Dead" is coming out. Just go see it. That's the tagline: "Survival of the Dead" — just go see it.

"Survival of the Dead" is available Friday, April 30, on Amazon, Xbox Live and Playstation 3 video on demand. The film hits theaters Friday, May 28.

View the trailer for "Survival of the Dead" below.  Are you planning on seeing the movie?