(L-R) Jaquel Spivey, Tomas Matos, and Nina West in “Queens of the Dead.” (Photo provided by IFC/Shudder)
It didn’t take Nina West long to decide she wanted to be part of the new movie “Queens of the Dead.” When she heard it was a Tina Romero queer zombie film, that was basically enough.
Opening in theaters this week, “Queens of the Dead” is a zombie apocalypse comedy thriller where club kids and drag queens in Brooklyn have to save themselves and the city. Romero, the daughter of legendary horror filmmaker George A. Romero (“Night of the Living Dead,” “Dawn of the Dead,”) has rounded up a huge queer cast, including Katy O’Brian, Margaret Cho, Cheyenne Jackson, Dominique Jackson, Tomas Matos, and West.
West, who starred in Season 11 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” and Matos, from Andrew Ahn’s “Fire Island,” spoke to Georgia Voice about the project.
West calls her character, Ginsey Tonic, a house mother. She is a queen of a certain age who has been working for a long time and is not used to things disrupting her schedule or flow.
“She calls all the shots, and so when something like this happens in her world, it is completely unsettling,” West said. “She is cool, calm, and collected up until the point where we have some chaos break out. You see her completely crumble. She has a delicious arc. There’s a lot more to her than this stern, rigid drag queen who sees life in a very specific way.”
On the other end of the spectrum, Matos – who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns – calls their character Nico, AKA Scrumptious, the baby queen on the scene. Within the “Queens of the Dead” world, they are the new face on the block.
“They really want the other people in the nightlife community, specifically the ones in the club, to take them seriously and see them for who they are, even during a zombie apocalypse,” Matos said. “They are unapologetically, authentically themselves. I think they experience a bunch of different turmoil within their own intersexual identity and all of that is happening to them during a zombie apocalypse.”
West joked that the loaded cast is like the queer Avengers.
“Thanos, this time, is a group of zombie Brooklynites,” she said. “It’s so fierce.”
When Matos noticed that actress Dominique Jackson was attached to the project, they knew they had to be involved.
“I think seeing her be part of this was what made me realize I needed to be part of this,” Matos said. “Not only am I a huge fan of who she is as a person and the work she has already done in her career, but to share space with her as an icon in the queer community, an icon in the ballroom community and the way she has blazed trails for other trans people is so important. I was really excited just to be in her orbit.”
Like West, Matos was also psyched to be part of a Tina Romero film.
“She has queered the canon, so to speak, within the Romero legacy,” the actor said.
On set, Matos said Romero created a sandbox and allowed the cast to play. As a director, Romero was everything they could have asked for.
“Ultimately as an actor, the thing I appreciated the most is someone who allows me to be me, as exuberant as I am, and allows me to bring a lot of myself into the role while also keeping me in the confines of this sandbox she has created,” they said.
West concurred, admiring the director’s grace and willingness to interact with her cast.
“She led with such grace and was interested in what you brought to the table,” West said. “She had ideas and offered them, but also provided so much space for each of us to also have insight and bring what we wanted to the camera and characters and dynamic. This is an ensemble piece. It’s about the Scooby gang; these core queer zombie fighters.”
Although West and Matos didn’t meet until they were both on set, they were already mutual fans. West had previously seen Matos in “Diana: The Musical” on Broadway and in 2022’s“Fire Island.”
“I think [Matos] is such a fierce talent,” she said. “I knew we’d hit it off and we did.”
Matos called West a “staple” within the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” community.
“Nina was who I thought she’d be – this wholeheartedly authentic, beautiful individual,’ they said.
West said she believes it’s important to have a queer-filled cast in a mainstream project, especially at this moment in time.
“[It celebrates] queer joy, resistance, resilience, identity – and chosen family,” she said.