At the TimesCenter in New York, NY Monday night, a new edition of “TimesTalks” commenced, focusing on AMC’s The Walking Dead. Showrunner Scott M. Gimple attended alongside stars Andrew Lincoln (Rick) and Steven Yeun (Glen). Other stars Danai Gurira and Lauren Cohan were unable to attend due to the weather.
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New York Times culture reporter Dave Itzkoff conducted the interview, asking them generally about the show, then specifically about Season 5’s return, Sunday February 8, 2015. The writer and actors gave a few hints and teases to the “back 8” of the season, and talked at length about the experience of working on the show.
Despite the weather, the house was full for The Walking Dead guests. The talent came out to loud applause, and Itzkoff started by congratulating them “for surviving The Walking Dead for so long.” “That goes for all of us,” joked Gimple.
The showrunner received the first question, and noted that he’s actually “preparing and organizing season six” right now, as five is long since in the books for the creators. “This show has incredible source material, which we drawn from pretty directly. I came to this as a reader, and I’d wonder, about the Hunters, for example, in the books they appear and I wanted to know more about them. I wanted to see more about their background, so when it came to telling their story on the show, that’s what we did.
“So what I’m saying is, I approach it as the world’s most expensive fan fiction. Should I post this to the forum? No, I won’t, I might become showrunner some day!”
Gimple noted the “butterfly effect” of having characters like Daryl Dixon involved, and how that changes many of the storylines. He also said they try to “remix” stories to share the focus across their cast, where the comic focuses more heavily on Rick Grimes.
While running down his past career Lincoln joked that he’d be reprising his famous scene from Love, Actually here in New York thanks to the snow. The actor was going to do a film, and he saw the script of this show’s pilot from his agent.
“It said zombie survival horror, and I called my agent and said ‘really?’ Then I read it, and it was the best script I’d ever read. It was bold. I went to the comic book store, and I asked about the comic, and they showed me this big wall full of covers, and I asked which it was, and they said ‘all of them.’ That was when it hit me what this could be.”
Lincoln loves getting to “mess around in cowboy boots” and do something so strictly American.
Yeun said he “never got to read the pilot!” to laughs. “That’s the level of my career that I was at. It wasn’t, take a look at this script and see if you can do this, it was, ‘read this well so you can eat!’ I just put that together.”
Yeun went on to praise the people he works with every day. “I kind of had my grad school on this show, the best ever. I’ve grown and I get to go through a master class every single season. It’s really fun, and I never imagined this would turn into this… because I never read the pilot!”
Asked about the bonding of the actors on set, Lincoln started by saying, “Well, I don’t watch the show…” Gimple interrupted, “Let’s just underline that for a second. We were going to do a DVD Commentary together, and I was excited that he was going to watch an episode! But we were doing it over the phone, and I’d point something out and he’d just say, ‘yeah, yeah,’ and I realized he wasn’t even watching then!”
After clarifying that he doesn’t watch because it “doesn’t help me at all,” Lincoln said amongst the actors, “we’re still mucking about, it’s the same atmosphere. It’s my perfect set. Everything is soย conducive to me being a better actor.”
A clip from the first half of Season five, with the characters discussing their plans in the church, was shown, and Lincoln comically stood up to leave the stage while it aired.
Gimple said there’s noย conscious decision to avoid the gore and zombie aspects of things, just that it’s important to show the “different agendas” that the characters have. “Season 4b was all about the trips to Terminus that everyone had. Glen and Maggie found each other, so that was a very nice moment. Carol and Tyrese had a very different trip that was dark and terrible. Moments like this are about everyone caching up to each other.”
Yeun said being able to be together on set this season was a welcome change after last year. “We had separation anxiety,” Lincoln agreed.
Rick’s brutality has increased, and Lincoln said it’s more about “accepting that it’s part of him.
“The end of Season 4 was the culmination of that, accepting he has the beast and the humane parts. Rick is waiting for people to catch up to him. Now, the back 8 of this season, I don’t know how much we can go into that…”
“In super ambiguous terms that are wildly unsatisfying,” Gimple joked.
“In the back 8, something happens that challenges everything Rick has come to accept and believe,” Lincoln teased. “The thing that struck me about the tone of the comic book and which we’re trying to do here, is you’re following this guy who is the epitome of law and order, and you’re on his side. The thing about Rick that I love is the certainty to him, which people follow. It’s one of his strengths, but also one of his weaknesses.
“There are morally ambiguous decisions that he makes. When Rick bites the guy’s throat out, I read that and called Scott, and asked if we were crossing the line. But it makes sense. As long as it’s grounded in the humane, you can do the incredibly inhumane.”
“Yeah, that is a huge moment form the comic, and it had everything to do with where Rick was at, and where Rick was going,” Gimple said. “Knowing where Rick is going, and finding things to support that is important. The show has sixteen episodes a season, and that goes into how we adapt something from the comic.”
Yuen also teased the second half of season 5. “There’s some stuff coming up that we had so much fun choreographing. We are just idiots, smiling idiots! We’re so happy to hack and slash! A great memory is from episode 3, when we’re hiding out in the woods. It was like we were playing cops and robbers – Andy turned around to me and said, ‘this is AWESOME!’”
Asked about the sound effects and the moments of actually attacking them, Lincoln and Yuen joked that they stand off-camera doing foley themselves.
“I imagine the foley is the grape lady, on the internet… google it,” Yuen said.
Gimple praised the work of the stunt people, and noted that yes, sometimes people are actually fighting people, and need to be very careful for that.
“Greg Nicotero, at the beginning of each season, does a walker school. It’s something to behold. It would be a great TV show all on its own – America’s Next Top Walker. But he’s very good at getting them into that state of mind and what they have to do.”
Yuen called Lincoln’s intensity “awesome. He sets the bar at the beginning of a scene, and it saves us all from ever feeling embarrassed about anything we could try.”
“What’s to lose? There’s everything to gain,” Lincoln said. “It’s funny, I went for a casting this afternoon, my first in five years, and I think they probably thought I was absolutely insane!”
Another scene was shown, again in the church, but between just Rick and Carl.
“We got incredibly lucky with Chandler Riggs. He’s more mature than any of us,” Lincoln said of the actor who plays his son.
Of course, there is death on this show. “The story dictates when characters don’t make it. It’s a very dangerous world,” Gimple explained. “We try to make is make sense for everybody that survives. When someone is taken away from these characters, they die a little. To paraphrase the comic, they are the walking dead. It’s a very affirmative story in my mind, that’s about human experience and people surviving.”
When it comes to telling an actor their time is over, “I’ve been doing it for two years and I’ve never come away from it thinking ‘okay, I got that right. I did that well.’ I’ve worked on other shows, and there have been divas and people that don’t get along well, but it’s not the case on this show. Everyone is really amazing, and everyone loves being on it.”
When that time does come for a character, “We all get together and celebrate the work they’ve done,”Yuen said. “You never want to go, but you also realize that the show has become so big, and made such an impact on the zeitgeist, you feel like if you’re part of this, you’ve made an indelible mark. What ever your fate is, your mark is left and you’ve served your purpose.”
Lincoln talked about missing Scott Wilson and Sarah Wayne Callies and Jon Bernthal, and that Gimple and others tell him, “that’s the point!”
“I hope that when my time comes I’ll be as gracious” as the other actors, Lincoln joked.
Does he think he’s at risk?
“Yeah, yeah.” the actor said with a certainty. “Sure, the show is through Rick’s eyes, and long may that continue, but that may not be the case forever.”
Another clip, focused on Glenn and Maggie, was next.
Yuen joked that he did get bruised slightly when Abraham jammed a gun into his chest repeatedly in the scene shown. Itzkoff asked him if that pairing can last.
“I think that is a question we’re exploring at this point. Not just their relationship, but what does this constant world do to you? Everyone responds differently on a spectrum – Rick will tear out someone’s throat for his son; we don’t know what Glenn would do to protect Maggie. We explore what their moral compass is, what they’re made of as the world continues to batter them.”
The actor really enjoys the way he’s gotten “to transform this character.” He played “plucky, comic relief in the beginning. And now to be considered a romantic lead or a leader, I’ve gotten to play that entire gamut. To even speak on another level, to be an Asian-American male and be able to play that is a big deal. Because, we also have sex… let’s just play it out it is!” he said to laughter. “I’m glad I get to be a part of this, be a part of this shift, and that someone like Scott, and Frank, and Robert Kirkman, can dig into a truth and show people what the world is.”
Lincoln teased that “Steven’s work in the back 8 has been magnificent. I really think he’s the hero of this back 8. Watching him and watching Chandler Riggs is really a pleasure for me.”
Overall, Gimple said, “the comic is about the people trying to survive,” and he wants to keep the show that way.
Yuen thinks it’s fun to “identify yourself with someone when you see everything stripped away.”
Itzkoff asked about some of the other cast members, saying “Norman Reedus is an enigma to me,” and Lincoln joked, “You and me both!”
He went on to talk about Reedus’s “extraordinary spirit. He bleeds for this show – literally, every season he gets hurt. He’s a fascinating man and he’s become a dear friend to us. You always know if you’re doing a good scene, because Norman will make eye contact with you. He gets physically offended by bad acting, and won’t look at you!”
Gimple said he’s “always surprising,” with different directions from where he first saw a scene going.
Yuen gave some praise to the casting directors, and executive producers who bring them all together. “There’s a learning curve, because it is an intense show. For some reason, they always bring in the right people at the right time. You can see how great they all are right away.”
“Every character that comes onto the cast, i want them to be able to carry and episode,” Gimple said. “I was so thrilled to do the episode this year with Emily Kinney, who was the only conscious character for an episode from the main cast. I think that anyone on this cast can do that, and if I had a lot more time they would!
“To AMC’s credit as well, they want to see new faces. It can be tougher to get established faces on there sometimes. I remember the Josh McDermitt process, which was wonderful. We don’t use sides from the show during casting, we use phony sides that don’t happen in the zombie apocalypse. His sides were a guy at a high school reunion – he killed them, and working with him on it and honing it, was such an exciting thing. It was a guy at his reunion confronting the popular kids.”
Asked about awards and critical reception, Gimple said that it’s “all about the audience. They’re so great, and so creative, the way they express their love of the show.”
“Norman sent me fanart, that included me and Norman as the motorcycle driver and the gimp from Mad Max, then me as Leonardo and him in Titanic, and my wife was sure it was him doing it himself!” Lincoln joked.
From there, an audience Q&A began.
One fan asked if Morgan would be coming back in a major way at all?
“It’s just going to be credit tags, which get bigger and bigger until he gets the full hour,” Gimple joked. “What we’ve seen of Morgan so far has absolutely been leading somewhere. That’s a little ambiguous, but all I can say.”
A fan asked Lincoln to answer her question in Rick’s voice (he didn’t), who he felt more betrayed by, his wife or best friend when he found out the characters were having an affair. “I mean, I did stab him in the end, so there was some conflict, probably! I think there was a moment where it shifted, and Rick was a bigger man than probably me. It was extraordinary circumstances though.”
Lincoln and Yuen said there’s a responsibility with a show like this, to not just be “pornographic violence,” and both praised the writers for their work in doing that.
Lincoln said that, “This season, all the decisions Rick has made seem to be pretty good, but no one’s listening! I think, certainly, we meet the gang at their lowest ebb [in the back 8]. We’re dealing with the death of Beth, and we have to drag people forward. I think that 9 and 10 are two of my favorite episodes, because they’re very raw, and beautiful, and kind of sad. It reminds me of The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Then something happens that just changes it all, kind of resets things a bit.”
The actor also talked about the difference between the big, violent, gory scenes and the small, quiet, dramatic scene. “Those are the bits I love, the moments you work hard for. The silence and beauty and simplicity and friendship that pulls you along. That’s what I love and think is most elegant about this show. We do all the cool s***, then we get that, that’s the payoff.”
Yuen teased that an upcoming episode will “really test them and see what they’re capable of, what they’re not capable of, and what they choose not to be.” Gimple interrupted and said, “careful…”
Lincoln likewise is excited to explore more of the “psychology” and “the places the comic book moves into… which we could be entering into that area… soon…”
Favorite scene? “The one that just painted into my head was riding a horse into Atlanta,” Lincoln said. “If someone had told me I’d film that scene when I was in drama school, I would have laughed.”
Yuen, “One of my favorite scenes is definitely coming up… But one of my favorites, the turning point for Glen was the chair scene for him. They let me free roam, and the scream at the end was not scripted, it just came out, and we kept it. It was an awesome moment, and really indicative of where Glen was going.”
Gimple said, “Man, I could not even… one of the most important for me was before i was running the show, the mid-season finale to season 2, when Sophia came out of the barn. I was so deeply into that script. I still have the bullet casing from Andy, you know, shooting a little girl. It means a lot to me.”
