The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live Star Addresses Shocking Return (Exclusive)

In its seventh season, The Walking Dead introduced Pollyanna McIntosh to the series as Jadis. Jadis came in a Scavenger leader, speaking with minimal words and living in a trash heap outside of the Alexandria community. Since the debut, Jadis has revealed her true name to be Anne, lost her entire community, forged relationships with characters in Alexandra, and gone on to save Rick Grimes’ life in Andrew Lincoln’s final episode of The Walking Dead. Now, audiences know Jadis is a key player in the Civic Republic where Rick was taken to, having appeared on The Walking Dead: World Beyond and now returning for The Ones Who Live. 

McIntosh talked with ComicBook.com in an exclusive interview about her return to the zombie apocalypse, bringing Jadis back into the mix with a performance which is drumming up strong reactions from viewers. Jadis and Rick aren’t exactly getting along these days, prompting tense moments between McIntosh’s character and Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes. 

The notion of coming back to The Walking Dead world is thrilling for McIntosh, who has made her directorial debut and acted in several other projects since joining The Walking Dead franchise. “I think being part of something with such an extraordinary family attached to it has given me great comfort and great joy, and I think that’s good for anyone in any business,” 
McIntosh said. “That’s just good for growth and I’ve kind of gotten to grow up with these folks in a bit more comfort as well than I had as an actor before. I was always picky about the projects I chose and wanting to do good work with good people and things that were on the right side of humanity for me. But there’d never been anything like Walking Dead for me before.”

The full interview with McIntosh, one which includes spoilers for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live through its third episode which has now aired and been made available on AMC+, can be read in its entirety below! A full breakdown of the latest episode of The Ones Who Live can be seen in the video above, with weekly recaps and reviews being release on the ComicBook YouTube channel every week.

ComicBook.Com: Since your time on The Walking Dead, you’ve stayed busy with acting and directing. How do you think the zombie world kind of opened new doors and taught you things to take with you to these projects you’ve been doing over the past few years?

Pollyanna McIntosh: I’ll start with this. So I think being part of something with such an extraordinary family attached to it has given me great comfort and great joy, and I think that’s good for anyone in any business. You know what I mean? That’s just good for growth and I’ve kind of gotten to grow up with these folks in a bit more comfort as well than I had as an actor before. I was always picky about the projects I chose and wanting to do good work with good people and things that were on the right side of humanity for me. But there’d never been anything like Walking Dead for me before. That meant I could just get my teeth into character for so long and be with the same people for so long and experience a fan base this passionate and this smart and this committed and that’s given me great ground, that’s given me great grounding and great energy to continue to choose what I want to do and to learn from other actors, even that were on the show before me, what that can mean for a fan base.

They made the show what it was that we got to come up, that I got to come onto. And a lot of people I really respect and admire and just like Andy [Lincoln], like my God, what number one! You’ve heard this a million times I’m sure, but I wasn’t so much in the TV world before Walking Dead. I was more in films and I’ve continued in films, but I’ve also gone onto other series and I’ve really learned a lot about how things run best and how much it means to be a positive force on a TV set. I think that’s a lot of answers, but that’s what it’s given me overall.

CB: You deserve it. So, let’s talk about getting back into The Walking Dead. How did it feel to hop back into the world? You’re in New Jersey instead of Atlanta, some big changes, new faces, some familiar faces. How was it kind of stepping back into the role for the first time since The Walking Dead: The World Beyond‘s appearances?

PI: So exciting, so like coming home, so new, as well. I’m getting to work with Len, who was the original wardrobe designer on the original show who created so much of the look that was also really cool and we got on really, really well. And she had a lot of stories of old, a lot of connections with friends of ours on the show, getting to be in the room with Andy again. That scene that you saw at the end of episode two is our first scene that we shot together and he is just my ideal kind of actor to work with. So open, so communicative, so ready for whatever comes that every take can be different, but we’re building something together, totally egalitarian and you’ve always got nerves on the first day as an actor on anything. In my experience and in my experience of other actors, no matter how long they’ve been doing it or how confident they are or whatever awards they want or whatever, it’s just the natural state for an actor I think to be like, “Oh, when can I do this?” And then the biggest payoff is working with Andy in your first scene because you’re like, yeah, I can do this. I love this.

And my God, Michonne’s been one of my favorite characters from the show since I started watching it and she does not disappoint. And then these great new actors new to me like Leslie Ann-Brandt and Matthew August Jeffers, just so excited to see their work now as we’re watching it to see how brilliantly they’re portraying these characters. So, I just think it’s really delivering in The Walking Dead universe as we’ve grown to know it and hope for, and it’s so important to me that the fans get what they deserve and everybody’s work combined, I just felt that immediately and went, “Oh yeah, we’re really doing this.” It was super cool.

CB: As a fan, after so much waiting, I felt la sense of almost relief when The Ones Who Live was so good. I would love to hear, when did you learn that your character Anne / Jadis was going to be such an integral part of Rick’s sort of exit and then return and the A’s and the B’s and all those things that we were wondering about many years ago that are part of the CRM now? Did you know from the beginning this was always going to be your role in the universe or has it kind of grown and snowballed into this thing as it’s gone on?

PI: A bit of both really because about five months before I left the flagship, I was told that I was going to be leaving and that I wasn’t going to be dying and that there was a world in which I was going to be carrying on to. So, I knew that this was coming five months before I left, which was a hell of a secret to hold and then all the secrets have since but that’s The Walking Dead world. That’s what we do. We hold on carefully to these secrets so that the fans can get the most out of it when they get to see it. And it is tough as well, even rolling out like this, where not everyone’s getting to watch it at the same time, but it’s super cool to me that they’re doing it single episodes at a time because that’s just the old school way and that’s what’ most exciting. And that gives a breathing space between episodes for the fans to get together and to say, “What do you think is going to happen? What do you think about what just happened?” And that sort of water cooler moment that we don’t generally get in TV these days with binging, so that’s really satisfying for me.

But, yeah, so I knew that a long time ago and then World Beyond was kind of a bonus during the pandemic and Scott giving me a text and going, “Hey, what do you think about this? I think there might be a really great place for you in the World Beyond, and what do you think about coming on to season two?” And I was like, “When can we start? I want to get back in her boots. I want to get back in her whatever new weird haircut I can come up with!” I see the memes, I see them coming!

CB: Speaking of seeing the memes and everything, back when in your trash heap days, there was that moment where there was the thing that flew by in the background and it went viral. Viewers were thinking, “Oh, did they make a movie mistake?” It kind of turns out maybe it was a happy accident or maybe it was intentional all along where there was a helicopter in the background, but it ended up your character was directly connected to helicopters.

PI: Yeah, I was told it was a mistake. It wasn’t a mistake!

CB: I wanted to know what happened in your perspective back in that scene from, I think it was season seven, right? Was that eight? Was it a mistake or was it intentional?

PI: It was season seven. I remember when Andy was up there and they were shooting that moment and they were saying, “It’s going to be green screen, the heap’s going to be really expanded. And I was like, “can’t wait to see. It’s going to look so cool!” And then I watched it and I was like, “Oh no, they screwed up.” And then they made it all work.

I spoke to Scott [Gimple] about it. I went, “Oh, so what happened?” And he was like, “Oh, it’s a real shame. It was just a messy thing and we just didn’t catch it.” It was pre-coffee cup in Game of Thrones. So, it was like our coffee cup moment. It was like, “Oh, that’s such a shame.” Everything’s done so carefully and so well, and what a shame that they missed that. Well, they didn’t bloody miss it. It was a complete plan. And God bless Scott Gimple for being so awesome and such a good actor himself for making me believe that he wasn’t lying to me. It was a white lie. A white lie to protect, protect all the secrets he has to keep and ensure that they could build to this beautiful satisfaction for the fans. But I didn’t even spot the helicopter pad in that episode.

CB: Now, more recently in The Ones Who Live, Rick and Jadis are not getting along. She’s very much protective of the CRM. I’d love to hear your perspective of why Anne is so protective of this community.  I’d love to hear your perspective, maybe things we haven’t heard, what you understand about Anne, her history here and why she’s so protective of the CRM and why she won’t let Rick go back to Alexandria?

PI: She has sacrificed a hell of a lot and lost a hell of a lot in her Scavengers junkyard leadership role. And that was an extraordinary time for me where I got to be really vulnerable as Jadis and really fall apart. And I think there’s a lot, for me anyway, the way I see it is that there was a lot of guilt about that, that she felt she was to protect these people and possibly through some of her own hubris, but she very much thought there was one way to be and it didn’t work out and she lost everybody. And the cruelty of Simon is one thing, but also the failure of her to protect her people is a huge part of her development. And also that recognition that it’s all fleeting. You think you’ve got to go on, anything can happen. And I think that’s one of the strengths of the show and of the universe that really anything can happen.

So, then she sort of morphed and I think they did it beautifully, slowly with the hair, with the language, with the quiet moments in the heaps of her alone with her struggle over whether she would seek revenge with Negan or not, whether she would take Gabriel away or not. And those were hard choices to make. And essentially she chose to go be safe and not lead anymore, be part of the people who she felt protected by and welcomed by initially. And then of course, she wasn’t trusted and she wasn’t really accepted and she didn’t have a place there. I think Jadis is always looking for purpose in a place. I think she’s always looking for where she can in many ways where she can be safe, but also in many ways where she can be of service and she can have a purpose. And she wasn’t one to just sit within inside of a group.

And so even when she came to the Civic Republic, this extraordinary place where humanity could flourish, it wasn’t enough to just be there and benefit from it. She needed to be active in it. She needed to have a purpose, she needed to be a leader. She needed to essentially continue creating. She’s been an artist that is still a part of her, but this is a way that she can create and be truly part of the community in a place of service. And so she really, really believes in what the CRM can do to save the civic republic and to save humanity and all that “last light of the world” stuff is absolutely what she believes to be the right way to go. And Rick comes along with his kind of boyish idealism and kind claiming to be on the right side of things. She’s seen him as a strong leader, but now willing to sacrifice and risk everything for really selfish reasons in her mind.

And that’s twisted because we’re all watching it. I would be watching it going, “Hey, lady, what are you doing? This is so cruel.” But to her, it’s like this really simple choice. You save a bunch of people and you quell your own personal needs and that’s the way to go. And that’s what she feels she’s doing in the CRM. She doesn’t get to have a love story. She’s got work to do. 

CB: There are now three episodes left in The Ones Who Live, Denai Gurira wrote episode four. I thought it was phenomenal, five and six with, when all this wraps up, how do you expect the audiences to the second half and finale for The Ones Who Live?

PI: I can only hope that they’ll be as excited by the journey and as delighted by the ending. But we got a lot of folks watching this and they’re all going to have different opinions. And I also think that’s part of the fun of it. I think part of the fun of it is to go, no, I didn’t want that to happen. I just think that the universe offers so much nuance and such challenges to their audience that I think it’s all just as it should be.