{"id":15141,"date":"2025-10-24T16:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T16:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/15141\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T16:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T16:46:10","slug":"all-queens-no-divas-tina-romero-on-queens-of-the-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/15141\/","title":{"rendered":"All Queens, No Divas: Tina Romero on Queens of the Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following in a famous parent\u2019s footsteps isn\u2019t easy. Do you embrace the legacy? Do you carve out something new entirely? What happens when that famous parent is ostensibly the guy behind an entire genre? For Tina Romero, director of Queens of the Dead<\/a> and daughter of the late, great George Romero, the answer seems to fall somewhere in the middle. A clear continuation of her father\u2019s iconic \u2026of the Dead series, Romero\u2019s Queens isn\u2019t shying away from her famous lineage at all. Instead, by infusing the always societally and politically charged series with a queer sensibility, she brings the shambling, fetid zombie into the 21st century.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Set over one night in Brooklyn, Queens of the Dead follows a disparate group of friends, enemies, and acquaintances in the queer club scene as a zombie outbreak descends on the world. As is tradition, our ragtag group of misfits must abandon all ego and preconceived notions of one another if they\u2019re going to band together and survive the night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While housing the bones of a basic zombie movie structure, Queens of the Dead thrives because of Romero\u2019s own sensibility. Exploding with hot pinks, neon greens, and candy purples, packed with slapstick and one-liners, and pumping with a lovely heart, her film is a delightful balm to the more self-serious zombie pictures. That isn\u2019t to say there are no stakes \u2014 she has quite a few gut punches up her sleeve \u2014 but hers is a refreshing voice in a genre packed full of imitators. Helped by a positively stacked cast featuring Katy O\u2019Brian, Jaquel Spivey, Jack Haven, Riki Lindhome, Nina West, Dominique Jackson, Margaret Cho, and more, Romero doesn\u2019t just tap into the tried and true tropes of \u201cfound family.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inspired by a sign she saw while DJing queer clubs that said \u201cWhen will the queer community stop devouring our own?\u201d<\/a>, Romero takes the backdrop of a zombie outbreak and digs into ageism in queer community, the ostracization in larger society, and how that forces folks to sometimes harden and become bitter, and the disease that is influencer culture. As funny and light as Queens of the Dead often is, its subversion of how we ingest the world around us with a focused queer lens is so insightful and biting. A gooey, bloody, and sweet addition to her father\u2019s canon, Tina Romero\u2019s Queens of the Dead offers a bright light forward. Whether she continues or someone else takes her lead, the \u2026of the Dead series is in great hands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ahead of its release, I sat down for a fun chat with Tina Romero on Queens of the Dead, that stacked cast, our shared Pittsburgh history, and striking out on her own.<\/p>\n

Brandon Streussnig: This cast is full of queer icons from every generation. You have Katy O\u2019Brian and Jack Haven representing newer queers, Margaret Cho and Nina West showing up for older queers. How did you bring them all together?<\/p>\n

Tina Romero: This cast is a miracle. It\u2019s a dream come true. For every single one of them, it feels like the stars aligned perfectly, and I knew the cast was going to be essential to this ensemble piece. Cast was everything. I started writing letters to people years before I had any business doing so, before we had the money, before we had a green light. I was writing letters to people asking them if they would consider being in this movie. Some of those people were on my mood board from the beginning, like Katy, Nina West, and others. All I knew was that I wanted to cast this movie as authentically queer as possible. I wanted queer people in these queer roles. It was very, very important to me. Dominique Jackson was my first official \u201cYes.\u201d I feel like that \u201cyes\u201d was a very powerful one because when you get a script that Dominique Jackson is attached to as a queer person, I think you take it a little more seriously.<\/p>\n

Then, of course, I got the casual \u201cyeses.\u201d I got the yes, \u201cwe\u2019ll attach,\u201d and then when you get the green light, you have to sort of reconfirm that everyone\u2019s schedule still works and that people can do it. So there was some shuffling, and Jack Haven was a last-minute add-on. The person who was asked to play Kelsey could no longer do it. We were down to the wire, and at the time, they were going by their deadname. I was a big fan, but I also knew that their gender journey was not one that was hyper-femme. I really wanted the role of Kelsey to be a hyper femme young lesbian, representing those young ones who are so comfortable in their femininity and also such proud lesbians. So we had a Zoom, and I was like, \u201cJack, are you cool to do this? It is a girly girl role.\u201d And they were like, \u201cyeah, I have an alter ego that I pull out sometimes. She\u2019s a Russian drag queen. I\u2019m going to channel her.\u201d I just love that there is a whole other layer of drag in the character of Kelsey. That role was not written with drag on my mind, but I love that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

BS: Queens is obviously following a tradition that your father laid the groundwork for, one where the \u201cDead\u201d represent something politically or socially. Was centering this on the queer community always the initial kernel?<\/p>\n

TR: Totally, totally. It felt like a no-brainer mashup to me. The idea of taking drag and queer nightlife and mashing it up with zombies, I was like, that\u2019s delicious. What a delicious, yummy way to do a zombie film, and also how special to be my dad\u2019s kid and carry his torch and the monster forward into 2025. But to make it queer, it feels so right. Especially now in 2025, I\u2019m so grateful that IFC and Shudder are putting this film out this year, specifically. If you make an indie film, you take it to a festival, and it can take years to get it into the world. But, with the year that we\u2019ve had and with the shit that\u2019s going on in the queer community, specifically in the ways that we\u2019re feeling erased and under attack and afraid, I\u2019m so happy that this film, the vibe of it, isn\u2019t bleak. It\u2019s hopeful, it\u2019s joyful, it\u2019s fun. I just feel really happy that this can be out in the world right now.<\/p>\n

\"Queens\"QueensCredit: IFC Films<\/p>\n

BS: There\u2019s a scene that\u2019s stuck with me since Tribeca<\/a> months ago, and it\u2019s so small, but it\u2019s of Katy [O\u2019Brian] hiding away a friend who\u2019s died, sitting on a couch for a moment, squeezing her knee in quiet anguish, and then jumping right back into the fray. It\u2019s so representative of not only how great an actor she is, but the film\u2019s excellent balance of wacky and dire. How did you thread that?<\/p>\n

TR: I really love how Katy and Jaquel are so grounded. I feel like those two are rooted in the seriousness, and then they have these big, larger-than-life characters swirling around them. Katy and Jaquel, their story is the one that has the most tension. Their platonic friendship is the main drama of the film, and they are the co-leads. They share the same scene count, they\u2019re such good actors, and they really understood my intent. They were able to maintain the seriousness of everything amidst all the chaos. I think that helps the balance of it all a lot. I also think that on the page, my co-writer Erin Judge and I started with, \u201cokay, what is all the dark shit that we want to dig into?\u201d I can\u2019t be a Romero without trying to say some shit, as I\u2019m doing a zombie film.<\/p>\n

So that was our starting place. What\u2019s the tapestry of social commentary that we want to make? We had our list of phones, device addiction, too much information in a crisis, tech, social media, all that junk, and then opioid and drug use in the queer community, infighting within the community, ageism from both young gays and old gays, not seeing eye to eye, not getting along. Then, the corporate poaching of queer talent. So once we had all that stuff and we were able to put that on the page, I think that it left room for the characters to come in and play a little bit. Together with the cast, we were able to find the balance of \u201cokay, now it\u2019s time to hit our marks and say the lines and get the script done\u201d vs \u201cnow it\u2019s time to play and have fun and improvise.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was really just a dance with the cast and the script and figuring out where those moments were where we could breathe and be light and playful and where we needed to focus and get it done. They just did such a good job, and they understood what we needed to do. I\u2019ve been saying it a lot: it was all queens, no divas. This was a family-style shoot. We didn\u2019t have private trailers, we didn\u2019t have dressing rooms, we ate meals together. We were all on a first-name basis, the crew and the cast.\u00a0 I also think that having an incredibly gay and queer crew made on on-set experience very, very queer. That made everybody feel safe and welcome and able to just be themselves. I think that comes through in the ways that these people brought themselves to their characters.<\/p>\n

BS: I live in New York now, but like you, I\u2019m from Pittsburgh and spent most of my life there. I loved the little nods, like the Iron City Beer sign, to our city throughout the film.<\/p>\n

TR: Oh my god! Did you see the Steelers jacket?<\/p>\n

BS:I did, yeah!<\/p>\n

TR: That was me! That was my cameo!<\/p>\n

BS: Oh wow! Amazing. Was there ever an iteration of the script that set the film in Pittsburgh, like some of the previous entries?<\/p>\n

TR: I did think about it, yeah. Do you know the town of Monessen?\u00a0<\/p>\n

BS:I do, yeah. I played football against them in high school.<\/p>\n

TR: Okay, so you know it\u2019s a little bit of a depressing town, but it\u2019s also the home of Tom Savini\u2019s School of Makeup. I\u2019ve visited there, I\u2019ve done some guest teaching there, and for one second, I was like, \u201cthis would be an interesting location for this film.\u201d However, at the end of the day, I needed to tell a story that I could tell in a world that I knew, and the world that I know is Brooklyn nightlife.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something so unique and special about queer nightlife in New York City. I wanted them to be stuck in Brooklyn, because what a mess! To be in Brooklyn or Manhattan in the event of a zombie apocalypse, what a nightmare. I knew I wasn\u2019t going to have the budget to do a World War Z version of this, where the Brooklyn Bridge is covered in zombies. I knew that wasn\u2019t going to happen. But the problem of being in an urban environment with the zombies rising creates a very immediate problem: do you stay, or do you go?\u00a0 I just love the idea of them having to get to Queens to get to a boat in Queens of the Dead. It felt more right to me to tell a story in a place where I consider home now. Even though I did consider the possibility of setting it in Pittsburgh, I quickly pivoted, and I was like, \u201cNo, I need to tell a story that I can tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sham\"ShamCredit: Fantasia Festival\/IFC Films<\/p>\n

BS: This is so clearly your own vision. It\u2019s so colorful and funny and leans into the camp a bit, but it\u2019s also extending the path your father laid. What was the approach to taking what you might have learned from him or from Savini while still keeping a vision that\u2019s truly your own?<\/p>\n

TR: Oh, thank you. That means a lot to hear. Thank you. Well, the first part of that, I think one of the biggest lessons I learned from my dad observing him on set was he was the kind of guy who, if a wardrobe department came to him and said, \u201cGeorge, we have two options. Do you like this one or this one?\u201d He would say, \u201cWhat do you think?\u201d He was really unafraid to collaborate with the genius minds around him. He treated everybody like family. He said, \u201cplease,\u201d and \u201cthank you.\u201d He was a nice guy. And as simple as that is, I don\u2019t know, I think that means a lot when you\u2019re on a film set and collaborating to work with incredible talent. Making a film is so cool. You have all of these incredible minds coming together to solve a problem. He was just an amazing collaborator. He was also playful, and Tom Savini is, too. They\u2019re both big kids.<\/p>\n

On the most stressful days on set, when we were running out of time and shit was falling apart was during the scooter scene, where we had Nina West, T\u00f3mas, and Jaquel on scooters and a fog machine and a big light, and 60 zombies \u2014 it was so incredible. But I had three minutes to shoot it, and I was so stressed out and pissed that I only had three minutes. And I would hear my dad telling me to chill out and flip the perspective and say, \u201cTina, look how amazing this is. Look how lucky you are that you get to do this. You\u2019re making a zombie movie at 4:00 AM in the streets of New Jersey. Have fun. Don\u2019t forget to play.\u201d At the end of the day, I think what\u2019s so special about my dad\u2019s zombies is that they\u2019re slow, they\u2019re sympathetic, and they\u2019re silly.<\/p>\n

Those are the things I really wanted to take over from him, to make sure that the spirit of these zombies was all of those things. And then, I mean, I am a homosexual, and I have a penchant for pink, and I like production design, and I like colorful things. So then I just wanted to stay true to my own aesthetics and my own sensibilities when it came to the look of it and the feel of it. I didn\u2019t want this film to feel bleak and hopeless. I wanted it to be victorious and hopeful and fun. So I think it was like, yeah, I tried to channel my dad, but also stay true to myself.<\/p>\n

BS: Where do you see the Dead heading next?<\/p>\n

TR: Oh my god, that\u2019s a great question. I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about where are they going on this boat? Are they going to Fire Island, maybe they\u2019re going to Iceland? That would be cool, too. But I guess I want to see them keep fighting. We left a lot of survivors, and I think it\u2019s begging. I would like to do a sequel. I would like to see what happens to his characters. I\u2019m very curious about what happens to Nico specifically. What about the rest of the queer community? What are the gays doing to deal with the zombies in the future? How are they hanging on to their undead in the ways that we\u2019ve seen my dad do that in Survival [of the Dead]? How are they keeping the undead around? So that\u2019s kind of what I\u2019m chewing on right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following in a famous parent\u2019s footsteps isn\u2019t easy. Do you embrace the legacy? Do you carve out something…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[2482,9,24,63,122,124,123,11095,5233],"class_list":["post-15141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-interviews","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-slider","tag-tina-romero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}