iZombie debuted on the CW last week, introducing viewers to Liv, played by Rose McIver (Power Rangers RPM, Masters of Sex, Once Upon a Time) - a functioning member of the undead with some interesting talents (beyond the obvious), which include temporarily gaining the memories and skills of those whose brains she devours.

Rose McIver in iZombie.

Loading

Loading

While iZombie was still in production on its first season (it’s since wrapped), I sat down with McIver to discuss her character, her abilities, her allies and more about the world of iZombie – including how her gamer costars Robert Buckley and Rahul Kohli became a big asset to her for one upcoming episode.Not as much as I’ve been doing! What was appealing was I’d done so much drama lately, it was fun to see something that had a lot of comedy in it. She’s very droll, and there was sarcasm about her that I really liked. I knew it would be different than what I played but I thought that occasionally there’d be hints that we’d see but the fact that every week there’s been a totally new set of behaviors has been really -- I probably would have been quite intimidated. It’s been lucky that I didn’t know because I’ve just been doing it. You can’t complain or compare or anything you just do it. Hopefully, it all translates as well as it feels. I didn’t realize I’d been wearing as many hats as I have. It’s been a pleasure.You know what? Someone asked me that earlier and I didn’t know - but I just realized! The intimidating one is in one episode, I know a lot about gaming. In my own life, I played Crash Bandicoot non-stop until my thumbs got blisters. Other than that, I didn’t really know a lot about the gaming world but working with Rahul [Kohli] and [Robert] Buckley, just the criticism, I’ve never felt so monitored on set. Like when I was talking about things and playing I was like “They know I’m faking it!” But hopefully their professional understanding of it all was very helpful. They told me what did and didn’t work and where you would be looking on the screen at that time. It was quite fun.Yeah, they were my consultants. My gaming consultants and they did a lot of research in their own time, which is gaming, gaming, gaming.I would say it’s not acceptance but self-awareness, definitely, and an ability to know where she’s at and what she can and can’t do that is very appealing to me and people in general. She’s not self-indulgent and wallowing anymore. She’s initially in a very dark place about her situation and through her relationship with Ravi and various revelations in the first few episodes, she starts to see that there could be a positive side. So while she doesn’t want to be a zombie, by any stretch, she does acknowledge the good things about it and where she can and can’t go.Ravi becomes her real confidant and partner in it all and emotional support in many ways and her champion. It feels like she’s boxing and he’s in her corner. Her relationship with Babinaux is very different because while she has this big secret from him, they grow very close and they work together a lot and she really respects him and he respects her. It’s an interesting one. But yeah, I think she starts to realize that even though there’s this big secret that she has from Babinaux, for example, she can be close to him and can really rely on him in other ways. It becomes interesting. It’s a good point of conflict for the show that there is this trust missing. He doesn’t know the truth. That makes her feel guilty. I think it makes her feel guilty in lots of respects, but she’s doing the best that she can to be a good zombie. [Laughs]

Continue to Page 2 as McIver discusses the show’s tricky tone, a zombie love interest and the show’s gore.