The TV Chick

The Walking Dead has only aired two episodes on AMC and it’s already been picked up for a second season. I think I was right when I said the network had another hit on their hands. The zombie apocalypse drama based on the graphic novels stars Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, a guy who gets shot one day and wakes up in the middle of an apocalypse days later. He goes on a quest to find his family, and any possible survivors of the human variety. Meanwhile, outside of Atlanta, there’s a camp of survivors trying to stay alive. Their paths will mostly likely intersect in this week’s episode, and while Rick might find his family, it probably won’t be all he hoped for. His wife, Lori, (played by Sarah Wayne Callies) has been cheating on him with his former partner and best friend Shane (played by Jon Bernthal). In her defense, she thought Rick was dead, but my guess is that their reunion isn’t going to be the happiest of ones. I have to say that I am not usually into this type of show that forces you to suspend disbelief a little bit, but I have really loved The Walking Dead so far. I recently had the chance to chat with Sarah Wayne Callies, who talked about why you shouldn’t be too quick to judge Lori (and some not so pleasant words aimed towards her at Comic Con), working with Frank Darabont, and why this is the best project she’s ever been a part of.

Tell us a little more about Lori Grimes.
I think Lori is a very intuitive woman. I think she’s somebody who really trusts her gut. I trust her hands. I think she’s someone who cooks and cleans and goes camping and builds fires. I think she’s a pretty traditional woman in a pretty traditional marriage. Someone who interacts with the world physically and intuitively rather than intellectually and theoretically. But above all of that, she’s a mom. And there’s a very clear line drawn throughout the story, to protect herself and to be a mom. Her need to keep this boy alive and help him retain as much innocence as he possibly can.

What originally drew you to the role?
I have a lot of respect for Lori. And I think that she’s a really flawed, really honest woman. I always look for the flaws in a character first, and you don’t have to look very far. She does seem to have a very strong sense of humanity, and I think over the course of the first season, she becomes kind of a matriarch. To watch someone with such a sense of right and wrong who’s unable to stop herself from doing the wrong thing, is a really interesting exploration.

Are there any pieces of you in Lori? Are you anything like her at all?
I think there is probably pieces in everybody an actor plays in them somewhere. I certainly relate to her as a wife and a mother, and I see how clearly — this is the first time I’ve played a mom and there’s a clarity to her motivations and her drive that I certainly understand.

In the books, Lori has quite an interesting story and in the first episode we see her with Shane. How do you think viewers are going to react to her? Do you think they are going to sympathize with her or perhaps they might be less sympathetic at the beginning?
I saw the pilot for the first time in London with a bunch of the English cast and I’m pretty sure everyone that walked out of the room was furious with me. In fact, I was sitting next to Andy Lincoln’s wife, a really extraordinary woman in her own right, and she laughed and she turned to me and she said “You know Sarah, I was mad at you for cheating on my husband.” And I think that makes a lot of sense. The pilot is the story of Rick’s courage and strength and fight to get to his family. Most of what you see of Lori makes the audience wonder quite rightly if she’s worth fighting for. My concerns about her too is that I read the comic books and from the outset, Frank Darabont [Executive Producer] and I talked a lot about making sure that this was a character we could draw with enough compassion and enough humanity that people would understand if not support her perspective, and that she would be somebody who was not shrill or alienating or angry all the time but who had a real heart and a real sense of compassion to her. When we were at San Diego Comic Con, somebody who interviewed me at a certain point, we were sort of going down the line and I met him and I said “I’m Sarah Wayne Callies, I’m playing Lori,” and he sort of instantly came out with this sort of invective. In his own words, I think he said something like “I fucking hate Lori, she’s such a bitch.” (laughs) And I was like “Wow, thank you. I totally appreciate where you’re coming from.” My visit next year if we meet again at Comic Con, she’ll make a little more sense to you. You will be able to have a little compassion for her. But certainly not right off the bat.

Lori is an extremely strong female character in a land of men. What has it been like playing a character who — whether or not you sympathize with her — has a real voice.
It’s been lovely and I think I’ve been privileged enough to play characters with that in common for a good portion of my career. I guess I’m drawn to them. I think Lori is probably someone who – before all the craziness came down in her life, before Rick was shot, before the world went to hell – I don’t know if she would have been as assertive as she is now. I don’t know if she would have raised her voice the way she’s willing to now. Maybe one of the interesting fall outs of this apocalypse is that Lori cannot stay silent about how passionately she feels about some of these things. And she’s wrong some of the time, the way I think anyone is when you’re shooting from the heads and irrational and scared and exhausted and overwhelmed. But I think she’s also sometimes very right emotionally about the need to dig deep for as much humanity as we can find and as much community as we can find.

Yeah. And you have great chemistry with Jon Bernthal, and I assume you will be having some chemistry with Andrew Lincoln. Was that instant when you started filming the show?
Well you know Andy and Jon and I felt really similarly that it was important for the three of us to get to know one another very well because in our story, these friendships go back even beyond high school. I think these people have known each other most of their lives, and all grew up in the same small town. Our families all went to church together. We all came out early to Atlanta. I was incredibly relieved. The two of them had been hanging out for about a week when I showed up and they came and picked me up to take me to a barbeque. And I got in the back of the car and I just watched the two of them try to find the barbeque. Jon had just had surgery on his knee so he couldn’t drive, which meant that Andy had to drive, and Andy’s English and hasn’t had a driver’s license for very long. And it was one of the best shows I’d ever seen. The Jon and Andy show was a brilliant spectacle, and one of the things that struck me immediately was that these are two lavishly talented, very handsome men without an ego between them. And they have such respect for each other. I think we all really enjoy working together and we’ve made it a really safe place to work together I think. We all take risks, and sometimes we all look really stupid and we all do things that feel a little dangerous sometimes and that is something that I think is important to do good work but it’s kind of alchemy to put together people that you can really feel safe with, and yet who you want to feel dangerous with, and want to challenge and be challenged by. I adore working with these two. I think they’re powerhouse actors and maybe even more surprisingly, or just something I’m even more grateful for, is that they are such extraordinary human beings. That’s fun.

Yeah, well that’s good to hear. And you’ve wrapped the season already, so what would you say was your biggest challenge filming the show?
You know it’s a tricky question to answer. The environment certainly was our biggest enemy and our best friend in a lot of ways. I’m sure you’ve heard other actors talk about it. It was ungodly hot and I think in some ways that actually did us favors because it was so overwhelming that it just put you instantly in a sort of apocalyptic, exhausted, overwhelmed place. (laughs) And I’ll be honest, this is one of the greatest jobs I’ve ever done, so any challenges were so overshadowed by huge gratitude to be working on such a great project with so many amazing people. I look back on it, and I don’t see challenges. I see the fun, I see the danger, I see the excitement.

It comes across very well on screen. And what has it been like working with Frank Darabont, Gale Ann Hurd and Robert Kirkman who are masters of their respective crafts.
It’s been an incredible education. Another reason I came out early — weeks and months in advance of when I was called to set — was because I wanted to watch Frank work. I’d just go to set everyday and I called it Frank Darabont film school. And I really see how it is that Frank has been able to create such incredible pieces of drama. He infuses an entire set with a sense of adventure. His delight is sort of boyish. He seems to show up and say “Let’s see what cool things we can do today. Let’s see how we can scare ourselves and surprise ourselves today,” as opposed to showing up with sort of a dictatorial sense like “This is mind, and you will bend to my will.” (laughs) Most of the people that were working as our department heads, whether it was set designers or special effects, or makeup artists, they’ve been working with Frank sometimes for a dozen years or more. And I think he’s the kind of person who really engenders that kind of loyalty. Certainly, I’ll work with Frank at any point, forever, because he brings out the best.

And zombies shows have been done before to varying degrees of success. What do you think sets The Walking Dead apart from other genre shows, and if you could give a little teaser of what’s coming up for Lori.
I actually don’t think this is a zombie show. I don’t think we’re really competing with genre shows. I think this is a story about people, about survivors, and the struggle to define humanity in the absence of culture, and the ways in which extreme circumstances change us. This is the story of people trying not to become monsters and failing as often as they succeed. The special effects and makeup team came to us straight from George Romero and they’re the godfathers of zombie. They’re superlative. And I think visually the show will be really satisfying to people who know the genre, obviously much more than I do. And that’s partly my perspective because of who I play. Lori’s a person who I think becomes the beating heart of the survivors to a large extent in a flawed way and a good way. And in a way that may come from her sense of guilt and wrong and loss as much as her sense of righteousness and truth. But we’re not really in a world where (laughs) that necessarily matters anymore. I think that’s where the show lives.

The Walking Dead airs Sunday nights at 10 pm on AMC. Be sure to tune in tonight for an all new episode.