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To commemorate that anniversary, “Dawn of the Dead” returns to theaters, including a handful of shows — including on May 24 at Los Angeles’ Orpheum Theatre — featuring a live performance of the film’s original score by Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin. Ross recently spoke to Variety to discuss her role in what has now become an indisputable classic of the genre, from her first memories of its visionary filmmaker to the mischief made in the Pennsylvania mall where it was mostly shot to the lasting impact it has made on her life.

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How collegial the set was in general? Were you hanging out at all with the zombies?

The zombies were made up separately, and we didn’t have much interaction with them. Most of them were working for a dollar a day, and they were so happy to be zombies, and they would often keep their makeup on — they were engaged completely. But we would shoot at night, and then at six in the morning, the mall would be turned back over to the owners of the mall and the Muzak would come on. And that’s when we would wrap. And Pittsburgh was icy and cold, so many people would use the mall to exercise. I remember a time the Muzak came on, and I see this group of people just walking in the mall, and I remember turning to them and saying, “no, we’ve wrapped. You can go home now,” thinking that they were zombies. They weren’t made up, but the way they were moving through the mall was exactly what George was depicting.

It feels unimaginable now to have the freedoms that it seems like you did in this mall. Were there any restrictions that you remember facing as you ran through these department stores?

We had complete free range. The guys that were running through Penneys with the guns and the cash — well fake cash, of course — it was just open-door. And then George brought in the motorcycle gang. They were really a motorcycle gang, and they had no idea, or any constraints about making films. I think they ended up having to repave the floor of the mall after the film because the motorcycles just destroyed it. And then there were certain effects that were not supposed to happen, like too many explosives when the door breaks. But nobody got killed.

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I understand there was a much more pessimistic ending George originally wrote.

We shot it! I prepared all day for it. George was going to kill us off — Peter was going to put a gun to his head, and I was going to put my head through the blades of the helicopter. We had already cast the head for that effect, so I think Savini used in another shop, because he wouldn’t want to waste that effect. But then the decision was that this was too dark an ending and that somebody had to survive. Whether or not anybody believes that we survived if I was driving a helicopter or not is another story.