Here’s Why Jadis Talks Like That On ‘The Walking Dead’

One of the oddest characters was introduced on The Walking Dead in the show’s seventh season when Pollyanna McIntosh marched into frame as Jadis. When the clothes, bangs, and junkyard home weren’t enough to make the character standout, the writers decided to make Jadis speak with only shortened sentences and unique word choices.

According to McIntosh, the word choices are a tactic used by Jadis to intimidate possible threats. The actress revealed as much during ComicBook.com’s visit to the set of The Walking Dead‘s 100th episode.

“It’s a bit unnerving, you know, which seems to be very much her game,” McIntosh said. “Her manipulation is strong and that’s always a really solid place to start as an actor, you know. Not how it’s delivered but what is being delivered and what you want from the other person.”

Despite the odd choices in dialogue, McIntosh had no trouble picking up Jadis’ methods of speaking.

“It’s really weird to describe how you deal with dialogue as an actor without sounding like a pretentious wanker,” McIntosh joked. “But the honest truth is that as soon as I got the script for the audition, I was surprised by how natural it felt to me to speak that way. Because she is so minimalist with everything, and her people are, and you know nothing is wasted. So it made sense to me already, and she’s very precise about what she wants your response to be.

“And yet I love the way she kind of goes, ‘Alright. We’ll do that then. Let’s see how that goes down.’ You know? So I like the weirdness of the language. I like how it keeps them both cohesive as a group and also the way it keeps a distance from outsiders so that that weirdness is useful because nobody really knows what she’s up to or why she’s speaking like that.”

Still, McIntosh won’t rule out the possibility of Jadis double-crossing Negan and heading back to Team Rick in Season 8.

For more from ComicBook.com’s visit to the set of The Walking Dead, don’t miss ComicBook NOW this week. Exclusive interviews and bonus content will premiere on Thursday at 7 pm ET, exclusively on ComicBook NOW’s official Facebook Page.

The Walking Dead‘s sibling series Fear the Walking Dead airs Sunday nights at 9 pm ET on AMC. The Walking Dead will return for its eighth season on October 22, 2017. The Season 8 premiere will mark 100 episodes overall for the popular AMC series. For complete coverage and insider info all season long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.