Movies - TV
Why Shaun of the Dead Had To Change One Line For American Viewers
By ETHAN ANDERTON
Some words have different meanings in the U.K. than they do in the U.S. and bringing a film with certain dialogue needs to be altered before sharing it.
That's exactly why Edgar Wright's horror comedy "Shaun of the Dead" had to change just one line for American audiences.
Simon Pegg described the scene Shaun and Ed encounter a zombie girl in their garden. When they manage to get her attention, they briefly look concerned at her condition.
Pegg said, “We assume they're about to be terrified by her undead presence. Instead, Shaun says, "Oh my God. She's so drunk." However, the original script had a different line.
"Initially, in the script it said, 'Oh my God, she's pissed.' And in America, pissed means annoyed,” Pegg explained. He knew U.S. viewers wouldn’t get the joke.
Pegg suggested changing the words as the joke was paramount to the scene: “So in an optimistic moment, we changed it to 'drunk,' but that was the only concession we made."