Death Valley: Charlie Sanders Interview

Sanders plays bumbling cop Joe in the bonkers, gory new horror comedy on MTV. But he’d be a Doctor Who companion given half a chance

Armed and dangerous: Charlie Sanders as Joe Stubeck and Bryce Johnson as Billy Pierce in Death Valley

If there’s something weird in your neighbourhood, who ya gonna call?

UTF.

Yeah, ’cos Ghostbusters are little, well, limited. What you need when your neighbourhood is overrun by all manner of supernatural creatures is the Undead Task Force, the LAPD squad at the heart of outrageous new horror comedy Death Valley, which premieres in the UK on Monday 30 January at 10pm on MTV.

SFX talked to one of the show’s stars, Charlie Sanders, and we’ll let him do the introductions…

SFX: Could you fill us in on what the show is about and who your character, Joe, is?

Charlie Sanders: “Yeah, Death Valley follows the adventures of the Undead Task Force. The premise is that the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles is overrun by zombies, werewolves and vampires and the UTF are unleashed to fight the monsters. My character Joe Stubeck is the by-the-book family man of the characters.”

So, is there is a deep, underlying social message to this show?

“Uh no, I don’t think so. Any social commentary is just after-thought. (laughs) But the fans are welcome to extrapolate anything they like.”

You’re paired up with a brash new partner.

“Billy is a bit of a loose cannon – he just wants to shoot first ask questions later. He loves chasing chicks while I think we should do everything by the rules.”

Joe and Billy spend a lot of time covered in blood

The other main aspect of the show is that it’s a mockumentary in style.

“That’s right. It’s about this camera crew following them around to make a news special.”

It looks like a great chance to act like a bunch of grown up school kids playing with big weapons.

“That’s totally true. Me and Bryce, who plays Billy, every chance we’ve got, we go into the arsenal room. It is only really featured in one episode, but it was built at the very beginning, so any chance we got we went in there and grabbed the biggest gun we could find to play with.”

Are you a fan of the genre?

“Oh yeah. Me and my brothers as kids used to watch all the universal horror movies: Frankenstein and The Wolfman and Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman. And I’m a comedian, so getting to do both at the same time is so cool.”

Do you primarily consider yourself an actor or comedian?

“I’ve always considered myself a comedic actor. That’s what I would call myself. I started off doing improv comedy in Minnesota where I’m from and I ended up doing theatre in New York and LA. When I started doing both on Late Night with Conan O’Brien that started me off on TV.”

Next page for more interview and a sneak peek at episode one

The UTF: Joe (Charlie Sanders), Billy (Bryce Johnson), Kirsten (Caity Lotz), Carla (Tania Raymonde), John-John (Texas Battle) and Frank (Bryan Callen)

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