Danai Gurira Almost Missed Out on Playing Michonne in ‘The Walking Dead’

Danai Gurira nearly missed the opportunity to audition for the role of katana-wielding zombie slayer Michonne in The Walking Dead, the actress recalls on PBS’ Breaking Big.

“When it came, it became the role that I really felt called to,” Gurira said of the iconic sword-swinging warrior who evolved from stoic outsider to a core member of the group and one of The Walking Dead‘s most esteemed characters.

“I’d never seen anything like her. But the year before, I had a TV job being offered to me that wasn’t where my heart was. If I had taken it, I would not have been available to audition for Michonne.”

In 2012, Gurira joined the cast, first appearing in 3×01, ‘Seed.’ Gurira found a real-life anchor for Michonne, who audiences later learned was a mother mourning the loss of her only child.

“To me, what I loved about The Walking Dead was that it felt like a war zone. It felt like you could take out the zombies and you could replace it with a society that collapses,” said Gurira, who scripted Eclipsed, a Broadway play centered on five Liberian women survivors near the end of the Second Liberian Civil War.

“When I watched it and read the graphic novel, and started to research Michonne, she felt like one of the women I’d researched during my time creating Eclipsed. It felt like what I researched when I was looking at Liberia. Because she felt like a woman of war who, like some women in Liberian war, turned themselves into their own weapon, into their own army. And found a whole different type of strength in themselves as result.”

“Look, she’s got dreads and a katana. She comes with her own badassery, that’s a given,” says Andrew Lincoln, who plays Michonne’s lover, Rick Grimes. “What Danai brought to it was the three dimensions and the depth and the trauma, and that’s what really made people fall in love with this character.”

The actress-slash-playwright has gone on to find even bigger success for her role in smash hit Marvel Studios blockbusters Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War, where Gurira portrays take-no-shit Wakandan general Okoye.

Gurira’s scene-stealing turn in Black Panther just won the star Best Supporting Actress at the 44th Saturn Awards, where Gurira was also nominated for Best Actress on Television for Michonne. The win comes after the actress was invited by the Academy to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Gurira returns as Michonne in The Walking Dead season 9, premiering this fall on AMC. Breaking Big airs Fridays at 8:30/7:30c on PBS.