Wesley Klepac: On the Rise with Chemical 12-D’s Zombie Boy Extraordinaire. By Brian Kirst
“It was one of the best two days of my life,” enthuses young Wesley Klepac about his intuitive and sophisticated performance as kidnapped zombie child, Bobby, in Mac Eldridge’s potent short film, Chemical 12-D. “When I found out it was a horror film – I thought, cool! I liked going in the trunk!”
Indeed, Klepac’s Bobby does find himself carted away by the film’s primary character, a concerned scientist determined to alter the course of an infection that has seemingly taken over the world. An admirable scenario, perhaps, – but one that required Klepac to remain still on a table for an entire day (“I was on the table for six hours. I didn’t move.”) and to wear a prosthetic mold on his chest. (“After an hour, I got used it.”)
Klepac was grateful, though, that he was used to co-star, Kelli Clevenger, who plays Bobby’s distraught mother. “I knew Kelli – so it was nice knowing that a friend was going to be my mom.” As for his other co-star, Bill Stoneking, Klepac notes of an operating sequence, “Bill was a surgeon. He was careful to make everything look real.”
Klepac (who recently finished Applesauce, another film project) also recalls that he “practiced gurgling” to make his character’s undead state more realistic and that he thinks Chemical 12-D was a “great project” overall.
Retaining his sense of humor about it, though, Klepac, states in his final words of advice – “Don’t lay on a table for six hours! Your back hurts!”
Hey,
This is Mac Eldridge, director of Chemical 12-D. Love the article. Working with Wes was great, he was considered the "all star" on set as he had the toughest days because of the sfx and make up he had to go through. Its good to see he enjoyed the set as working with him was a blast. His performance is always noted in reviews and comments made to me and, if he keeps at it, he'll continue working for years to come.
Mac Eldridge