"iZombie" Star Rose McIver on Eating Brains & the Zombie Trend

Georgie, don't get scared. She's not really a zombie. She's not really a zombie. Honestly, I don't eat. I don't eat animals. She doesn't she doesn't eat brains. She got really worried then for a minute. I'm Oliver Trevena on the Young Hollywood sofa with the lovely Rose McIver. How are you?

I'm well, thank you. How are you?

Wonderful. That doesn't sound like a name from New Zealand.

Uh, it's not. It's Scottish. Just clarifying that. But that was a few generations back now.

I'm here with Georgie.

With Georgie. The little the little dog, my little sidekick, who's been very well behaved now, isn't he? She's passed gas. Nothing. Oh, it's so good of her.

I bring him around 'cause I have someone to blame it on. No, that's terrible. I can't believe I just said that. Um, more important things. iZombie. This is great. CW it's exciting.

Thank you. Yeah.

I I said you were my Sunday evening. I watched it last night. With frozen yogurt.

With frozen yogurt. You gotta have frozen yogurt when you're watching TV.

Nice little plug there. But yeah, so you live or Olivia. Live Moore. That's you. Live Moore. Get it? I didn't get that. Oh, very subtle. Live Moore. Just 'cause you're a zombie.

I was a cardiologist. From I was training to be a cardiologist, and then I got turned into a zombie and so we kick off the show with me six months deep in zombiism. My name is Liv. I'm a zombie. And when I eat a brain, I get visions.

What did she see?

I saw who killed her.

And the lovely handsome Robert Buckley's in it as well. Correct. Promise me that when you bring him in you'll bring him in shirtless because we

Thank you. Because that'll make me feel really good about myself. It's exactly what I wanted to do. Just to give myself a complex by the end of the day. It's Georgie on one side and shirtless Buckley on the other. Just keeping it objective. I'm probably not gonna not gonna do that one. I like to like myself by the end of the day's work.

But yeah, so you start off, you're a cardiologist, turn into a zombie, end up working in a coroner's office, dead bodies everywhere. Correct.

Yeah. Quite a strange job that, coroner's office. We went to a morgue in preparation. And they have some of the best senses of humor because they have to. So it was actually really interesting.

Dead funny. I like that. You did this for a living?

No. No, I just wrote a letter and they let me do this interview. That was it.

And yeah, so you you eat brains as well. Just gets better. Correct.

I eat brains and when I eat brains, I am able to still look and pass as kind of human. A little sickly looking but nobody else I do with some sun.

You look British. You look British.

Exactly. I know. Well, in New Zealand we have the whole ozone layer so I'm slathered in sunscreen anyway. Um, looking for a sunscreen endorsement by the way.

Great. Well, well done again. We've got frozen yogurt sunscreen. Let's Let's put a car in this at some point.

Yeah, at some point.

But yeah, so she eats brains and when she eats brains, she takes on some of the skills uh that that person had and some of the characteristics. And she also has visions of what happened to them before they died. So, she can inadvertently solve murders. And you start helping the police. That's great. Isn't it for the best?

Exactly. She's an ethical zombie.

So, you have these powers, you can psychic. Georgie, don't get scared. She's not really a zombie. She's not really a zombie. Honestly, I don't eat. I don't eat animals. She doesn't she doesn't eat brains. She got really worried then for a minute. Yeah. She's smart. If you could have any power, if you were on the show, you could you could eat a brain of anyone, it would give you any power. Oh. She's a good one. You take a moment. You haven't got an answer straight away.

The brain of a magician. Okay. 'Cause I get to, yeah, learn their sort of skill sets and then I get to kind of keep them afterwards to an a certain extent. So that would be quite a good one I think. Actually know what goes on behind the cape, you know.

I think I'd do like a really good dancer. Like Chris Brown. I'd only take the dancing part of Chris Brown's brain. Just to clarify. Or uh like let's say Michael Jackson. Because he's not He's not I'd only take the dancing part of Michael Jackson's brain. God, there's Is there any good dancers out there that aren't doing anything else? I'd rather do a little girl from the um Sia. The girl from the Sia video. The little white wig. I just feel bad taking a child's brain. She's good though. She's good for it I reckon. She's probably programmed now. She doesn't eat it. That's what I'd like. Just to bust a move. Is there a favorite episode of yours that we should look out for?

I actually think the second to last episode. So you guys are really gonna have to watch it.

She's smart. She's had media training.

The second to last episode is my favorite because I eat two brains and they're kind of playing off against each other. By all accounts it's one of our strongest episodes and it's a lot of fun. It's exciting because I mean Rob Thomas is behind it, which is amazing too.

Yeah. I mean if you're going into a show. I know you see Rob Thomas's name on a pilot and you think, this is the one I'm gonna.

Yes. Yeah. This is gonna go. This is gonna go.

And what do you think this obsession is? 'Cause I mean zombies these zombie shows in general over the last I guess five 10 years have just gone massive.

I I think like, yeah, zombies and vampires. They're not even Just when you think but the reason is they're not even new. Night of the Living Dead is an old film. Right. This is true. But what we've been doing over the years is subverting these ideas and changing them and reimagining them and things like 28 Days Later is a very different zombie film to Night of the Living Dead. And our show is very, very different again. And it's very self-aware about the pop culture element of zombies and you know, Liv watches zombie movies to research. So how she's supposed to live. So there's yeah, there's like um a whole kind of trajectory of the zombie genre, which is really interesting.

Mentioning Liv, it's it's nice because she's a really she's a friendly zombie. You like you like Liv.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, she tries. She tries her best.

You do you do it very well. We love it. We hope that you live more. I'm so I didn't notice that. It's so clever. It's so clever. CW. Watch it. This girl. She's great. You just won't recognize her but it is her. I promise. We are interviewing the girl from the show.