The Walking Dead started its seventh season with one of the most brutal sequences of the entire series. As the story goes which everyone knows by now, Negan bashed Abraham’s skull to carry out the cliffhanger provided by Season 6’s finale, before turning his attention to Glenn.
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While watching these moments play out was tough for fans of the AMC series, the actors involved don’t seem to have had too hard of a time with it.
“The getting killed wasn’t bad,” Cudlitz said. “I was a fan of the show before I came onto the show. I had seen my favorite characters on the show get killed off. I had taken the hardline where, if you came on the show from the third season on and you were surprised when you were told you were gonna die, then you’re a moron.”
One might assume watching yourself get hit in the head with a baseball bat until every bit of it is gone might be a surreal, or even terrifying experience. However, for Cudlitz, it was an easier experience than anyone else who watched because of the process he went through to create it. “It’s hard to separate all the technical stuff. There’s a lot of prosthetics that are involved in that night,” Cudlitz said. “Myself and Steven [Yeun], we would film one baseball bat hit and they would take us out and film another prosthetic piece.”
He goes as far as flat out saying watching the unforgettable sequence “was not a big deal.”
“For us, that moment is broken down into two nights of six hours each night of prosthetics. For us, it’s a very technical thing. We’re looking to see if that technically looks good.”
Filming It
In fact, filming the scene itself was more difficult than anything else — mostly because of the chilly weather conditions and uncomfortable blocking it called for.
“We were in mid to late November, at night, on our knees,” Cudlitz said. “There were multiple takes with multiple cameras and we were pretty much in that semi circle on our knees probably for a good three and a half, four hours straight if you were to put it all together of the course of 12 hours.”
“I chose to be in an upright position on my knees,” Cudliz said. It was his choice to make Abraham appear to be an “offering” to Negan, ready to go out as a soldier in an effort to spare the rest of his group from the dark fate. “I regretted it 30 minutes into it but was happy with the end result. It was taxing.”
“It was an interesting night,” Cudlitz said. “Being a fan of the show, I wanted to make sure that my death didn’t take away from Steven’s death. A lot of people say, ‘Oh, you know, Abraham died, too!’ I’m kind of happy that a majority of the focus leaned on Glenn’s death, Steven Yeun’s death. Abraham had become part of the fabric of the show and become important to the show but I felt that Steven and Glenn made the show.”
Advice
As for the rest of his Walking Dead co-stars, Cudlitz has some simple advice: “Don’t get happy.”
“If I can give any advice to any of the characters there, just stay miserable and you will have a long, long life on the show,” Cudlitz said. “Don’t get happy, don’t be hopeful, don’t have your plans set for the future. Just be miserable, wallow in it, skate it out.”
Though the actor was enjoying his time on the AMC series, he didn’t expect it to last very much longer. “For me, having known the graphic novels, having known the lifespan of Abraham in the graphic novels, knew that my life in the graphic novels had comparatively come to an end,” Cudlitz said. “I was not surprised when I got the phone call.”
“It’s always sad to leave a place where you’re working when the working conditions are fantastic.”
More Walking Dead
MORE WALKING DEAD: Season 8 Trailer Details Revealed / FTWD Teases Mutant Super Zombie / Steven Yeun Breaks Silence Since Leaving TWD / Is Jadis Going To A Whisperer? / FTWD: Who Killed Spoiler Revealed / Ross Marquand Promises A Massive TWD Season 8 / How Fear’s Madison Might Be Connected To TWD
Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on AMC. The Walking Dead will return for its eighth season in October of 2017. The first trailer is expected to arrive at San Diego Comic Con in July. For complete coverage and insider info all off-season long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.
(via LA Times)
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