Interview: Sonequa Martin-Green and Natalie Morales on Channeling the Veteran Experience with ‘My Dead Friend Zoe’

In director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes’ My Dead Friend Zoe, Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green) returns home from Afghanistan accompanied by the very vocal presence of her friend Zoe (Natalie Morales), who won’t leave her side even after she was killed. Merit has trouble adjusting back to normal life and communicating what she’s going through as she deals with pressure from her VA group counselor (Morgan Freeman) and her grandfather (Ed Harris), whose memory is fading but hasn’t forgotten about his own very different experience in the war.

Awards Buzz spoke with Martin-Green and Morales about what they felt they needed to know about being in the military to play these roles and what they learned. Watch the video above to hear them praise Haussman-Stokes’ feature directorial debut and the experience of making this film.

My Dead Friend Zoe had its world premiere at the 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival and will be released in theaters on February 28^th.