Former ‘The Walking Dead’ Star Explains Why She Doesn’t Watch The Show

Former The Walking Dead star Laurie Holden, who played tough survivor Andrea across three seasons, admitted it’s “too hard” for her to watch the show.

“I don’t [watch it] but I didn’t watch it when I was on it so no disrespect,” Laurie told Express.co.uk. “I don’t like seeing myself on film and I grew to love my co-stars so much that I don’t want to see them on film, I don’t want to see them tortured.”

“It’s too hard on my spirit,” Holden said. “I can’t do it.”

Andrea perished at the end of season 3, shooting herself in the head before she could succumb to a grisly and incurable walker bite to her neck.

The character lasted much longer in Robert Kirkman’s ongoing comic books, where Andrea reached Alexandria and became Rick Grimes’ new lover.

If Andrea were still around in the show, Holden said, “she would be fighting against the evil and the people that are trying to bring civilization down. I think she would be doing the best that she could to protect her friends and she would hold it together.”

“I like to think of Andrea as a little angel looking down and making sure that everything is okay,” Holden added, “and she’d totally bless the whole Michonne and Rick situation.”

Holden acknowledged Andrea’s death came as a surprise, but she has no regrets in taking on the role.

“It’s a show where every single character is going to die at some point, some sooner than others,” Holden said. “I think that mine was a bit controversial because it happened much sooner.”

“I put everything I had into the character of Andrea and it means a lot to me that it still resonates with so many people,” she added. “I travel all over the world and people are still not over that death.”

During a Walker Stalker Con New Jersey appearance in 2016, Holden told fans she had an eight year deal, saying “I was supposed to be there until the end.”

“I was supposed to end up with Rick. I was supposed to save Woodbury on a horse, and I was buying a house in Atlanta,” Holden said.

“I got the call at 10 o’ clock the night before, while I was shooting, from the show runner [Glen Mazzara] who is no longer a part of The Walking Dead, saying that they couldn’t write the episode and that he was killing my character. So we all got the script everybody on the set was sobbing. I felt like I got shot. None of it was supposed to happen the way it did.”

In another appearance at Walker Stalker Con Philadelphia in September, Holden admitted she felt the way comic book Andrea was translated to screen was “a mistake.” The actress called Andrea’s storyline and romance with the Governor “complete and utter nonsense.”

Holden had been on the receiving end of death threats from her time with the show, mostly a result of the time Andrea erroneously shot Daryl in season 2.

The actress most recently starred in horror thriller Pyewacket.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.