Michael Cudlitz Looks Back On His Earliest ‘The Walking Dead’ Days

More than four years ago, Michael Cudlitz began work on The Walking Dead. Now, the actor is fondly recalling those early moments with the AMC series.

Since leaving the series in its Season 7 premiere, Cudlitz has remained close with the cast of AMC’s The Walking Dead. The actor spend many of his weekends touring the country with various stars of the popular zombie drama, enabling him to keep in touch with the close friends he made during the show’s production and it sounds like these bonds were created before Cudlitz ever stepped foot on set.

While speaking to ComicBook.com in preparation of The Walking Dead: The Complete Seventh Season‘s blu-ray release, Cudlitz opened up about his early days, ranging from which cast members were the first to reach out to how flawlessly the family works together.

“Right when we had showed up in Atlanta, I think pretty early on, I got an e-mail message I think, and maybe another voicemail message from [Rick Grimes actor] Andy [Lincoln] just welcoming us,” Cudlitz said.

Cudlitz joined the show in the same moments as Eugene Porter actor Josh McDermitt and Rosita Espinosa actress Christian Serratos.

“I think I heard from Norman [Reedus] and also Steven Yeun,” Cudlitz recalls. “Very welcoming cast. You know, I don’t care what your resume is, what your history is, if you’re coming onto the number one show in the world while it’s in progress, at its height or the very beginning of its height, it’s not an easy thing. There’s nerves, there’s wanting to do it right. You try to make sure you don’t get in your own way.”

Cudlitz compares the experience to “an everyday job is the first day of school,” which comes with a true dedication to the job at hand. “And this is great situation to come into, so far as people, whatever they say about myself, I bury myself in the work,” Cudlitz explained. “The work comes first before anything. I think if you put the work first and the storytelling first, everything else falls into place. If people see that as an example, or a good example, that’s great because that’s how it should be. It should all be about the work. The only drama on set on should the drama being filmed, and that’s not always the case in different productions.”

Cudlitz also offers new perspective of his time on The Walking Dead on commentary tracks and featurettes for The Walking Dead: The Complete Seventh Season which is available on blu-ray on August 22.

The Walking Dead‘s sibling series Fear the Walking Dead returns September 10th. The Walking Dead will return for its eighth season on October 22, 2017. The Season Eight premiere will mark 100 episodes overall for the popular AMC series. For complete coverage and insider info all season long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.