Based on the New York Times bestseller, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies takes Jane Austen’s timeless story of love and power, and adds zombies. The Oakland Post participated in a college conference call with four of the actors from the film (Matt Smith, Lily James, Douglas Booth and Bella Heathcote) and they shared their experience making the movie.

Question: How surprised were you when you saw the title?

Matt Smith: I think, actually, it’s quite interesting if you add zombies to any story, somehow it makes the stakes more dynamic and then we picked up—well I picked up the script and I read it and I thought it was an interesting spin on a classic tale.

Lily James: Yes, I was pretty surprised, I thought how could this possibly work and then I read it and I loved it.  And I loved the film as well so all’s well that ends well.

Douglas Booth: Quite surprised.  But I had heard of the book because it was a New York Times best seller so a lot of my American friends were big fans of it so I’d heard of it but I hadn’t read it.

Lily James:  I thought it sounded terrible and then I read it and thought it was wonderful.  It’s bizarre how it works and it’s rare that you get a script that you sort of love that much.  It was pretty exciting.

Question: A lot of people will go see a movie if it has the words Pride & Prejudice.  But how do you sell the concept of & Zombies to those Austen purists?

Lily James: Well, I think that there’s been a lot of Pride & Prejudice’s before in the past.  It’s been done very, very well and I think it’s always interesting, especially if you love something to see it done in a different way and what we all found was kind of crazy; was that put something so, so surreal and strange as zombies in Pride & Prejudice and somehow some of like the scenes and relationships in the book become heightened, become really clear, like Liz Bennet gets to beat the crap out of Darcy which is really a sort of a physical expression of all her sexual frustration and I mean that’s a very basic analysis but it was just interesting how the zombies kind of contributed.

Bella Heathcote: Yes.  Look, it’s just—Jane Austen’s all about female empowerment and this film is too and it just has a cynical expression because we get to beat the crap out of zombies so there you go.  I think they’d like it.

Matt Smith: And also they’ve probably seen it done so many times.  It has been done and near perfectly a few times as well so it’s kind of cool for them to like just see it in a different way.

Question: What are you hoping that audiences, mainly students that are fans of Jane Austen, what are you hoping they’ll take away from such a modern twist on a very classic story?

Bella Heathcote: That it’ll kick a**.

Matt Smith: I’m hoping that what they’ll take away is—well I just hope they have fun, really. It’s a really fun movie.

Lily James: And also the zombies—what’s cool is that you get both.  You get Jane Austen and you get Pride & Prejudice and that story, especially the love story, Liz and Darcy and Jane and Bingley, like that all really remains the heart of the story and it’s a romance, it’s a drama, but then throw into that every time you’re maybe getting a bit bored, a big zombie attack so it really just makes it very, a sort of exciting romp and quite scary and funny.

Question: What was it like to act among fantasy-like creatures and what kind of training did you guys have to go through to fight off all those zombies in the movie?

Bella Heathcote: The girls went through quite a bit of training; I know because I trained with them.  I did about three months by myself in L.A. and got really into Kung Fu and then came to London and met up with all the other girls and we did lots of different skill training with weapons and choreography and got very into it and I liked being on set with the zombies even when they scared me.

Lily James: Yes. I did like boxing and swung a bat against a punch bag for months and I was very unfit and very lazy prior to shooting so I had to do a lot to get into shape and I loved it.  We had such a fun time just yes, beating the crap out of zombies who were very frightening on set, especially when you’re trying to eat your lunch and the person opposite you face is melting into their meal.

Question: What was different or what were the similarities from other projects that you all have done in the past?

Douglas Booth: There was actually quite a lot of us who knew each other before.  I had worked with Matt before, I had known Lily through drama school and we actually really get on, we’re really good friends and made really great new friends, Bella, I think, here and everyone so it was just such a joyous job really. So it’s not that the other jobs are not fun but this is particularly a really, a really cool, young fun cast.

Matt Smith: Yes.  I second that.

Lily James: Yes.  We had riot and especially because we got to like fight and stuff and we all—like sisters, we all became like a girl band.

Bella Heathcote: Ninja Spices.  Now, I wanted to take it on because it’s pretty rare that I get to kick a**.  I usually get casted like the girl next door wallflower or something so it was nice to be, have a physical role and actually get to beat the crap out of someone and get to rescue the boy for once.

Lily James: Yes. And especially for me because I had done Cinderella—is obviously—her strength came from within but was very peaceful and so it was fun to sort of scream and scratch and bite and kick and beat—strong in a different way.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is rated PG-13 for zombie violence and action, and brief suggestive material. It is in theaters everywhere Feb. 5.