‘The Walking Dead’s Chandler Riggs: Andrew Lincoln Deserved “Way More Recognition” for Rick Grimes Role

Former Carl Grimes star Chandler Riggs says Andrew Lincoln, who played on-screen father Rick Grimes, deserves "way more recognition than he got" for his eight-year tenure as The Walking Dead's leading man. "I had an audition with this name actor and I was looking through [Wikipedia] just to get more intimidated by the audition and I was like, 'Oh my god, he has all these awards,' and was like, wait a second, Andy doesn't ... I went to look on his IMDB and it's like nothing," Riggs told TooFab.

"Andy was on the same level, if not, definitely had way better stuff than the other actor."

Though Lincoln has received 20 nominations for his role as the former sheriff's deputy-turned-zombie slayer — he's twice won the Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television, also taking home Favorite TV Anti-Hero at the People's Choice Awards in 2014 — Lincoln was never nominated for television's highest honors at the Golden Globes or the Emmy Awards. The Walking Dead earned just one Golden Globe nomination in its nine years on television, for Best Television Series - Drama in 2011, but holds multiple Emmy nominations across several technical categories, with two wins for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup.

"I honestly, I have no idea why Walking Dead was always shunned," Riggs said. "It always won the visual effects awards, which well deserved, they do an incredible job. But I feel like, especially Andy, deserved way more recognition than he got."

same goes for the rest of the leading actors on TWD. so much groundbreaking work to not get recognized for whatever reason

— chandler riggs (@chandlerriggs) March 4, 2019

just to clarify, i'm not taking away from people who have been nominated for these awards - the majority of them are well deserved. just really unfortunate that these incredibly hard-working actors can't get the recognition they deserve for working at a cultural-phenomenon level.

— chandler riggs (@chandlerriggs) March 4, 2019

Riggs, who earlier this month took to Twitter to air his grievances over his co-star's lack of prominent award recognition, reiterated he doesn't intend to take anything away from other nominees and winners, but hopes to see his former co-stars win their rightful recognition. "It's really unfortunate to see the academy lean towards other shows and other things," he added, "but it's frustrating to see they didn't get the recognition they deserved on the show."

Lincoln has since permanently exited the television series but will reprise his role across a trilogy of television movies. Though Riggs has moved on to hit ABC drama A Million Little Things and signed to Steve Aoki's label as an electronic music producer since Carl's Season Eight death, he admitted in recent months it would have been "really interesting" to explore Carl without Rick, who has been believed dead for six years.

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