“There’s a lot more fighting, self-doubt and not many people make it out alive” - The Walking Dead’s leading man Andrew Lincoln reveals what we can expect from the remainder of season 2. Hear what else he had to say here:
The Walking Dead continues on Fridays at 10pm, only on FX.
Feast your eyes on the next two installments of Andrew Lincoln’s fan Q&A. He reveals what it’s like working with zombies, which ones freak him out and even rates his chances in a zombie outbreak.
The Walking Dead season 2 continues on Fridays at 10pm, exclusively on FX.
Check out the next two installments of Andrew Lincoln’s fan Q&A. He reveals the difference between life on set in the UK and the US and how he perfected his brilliant American accent.
Don’t miss the thrilling second season of The Walking Dead on Fridays at 10pm, only on FX.
Go behind the scenes on the set of The Walking Dead with Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus and Executive Producer Greg Nicotero and see how the zombie guts are made to look so disgusting. Watch here (if you can stomach it!):
The Walking Dead season 2 continues on Fridays at 10pm, exclusively on FX.
Living in Atlanta and slaughtering zombies has become a new way of life for The Walking Dead’s leading man Andrew Lincoln. He chats to the Metro about his “mad life”:
How does it feel to be back home after six months filming in Georgia?
It’s great to be home and to catch up with family and mates. But we got back at the end of November and I immediately contracted some sort of horrible consumption-like illness. I thought it was a zombie virus but it turned out to be a Dickensian disease that lasted all of Christmas and January.
You must need a rest after fending off all those zombies again. Are you getting the chance to put your feet up?
We have just moved house to a place in the countryside, so I am pretty busy planting trees and trying to keep chickens and ducks alive. It’s not going very well so far.
Was it a culture shock to film in the Deep South and get the accent right?
I have this mad sort of life now where I get on a plane, then I get off at the other end and I’m given a new phone – it’s called a cell phone – and I speak in a different dialect, and they give me different currency, and I shoot zombies for a living.
Did you take your wife and your two young children out to Georgia with you?
Yes. I really wouldn’t be able to do it without them being there with me. When we are there, we live in Atlanta, which is a really amazing city, and we have made some incredibly good friends there. I think that is one of the big advantages of being an actor – getting the chance to go to places you would never have gone to otherwise.
Have your children developed southern accents yet?
Yes, they have a bit but we try to slap it out of them. I’m kidding, we don’t. We thought our son’s first words were going to be in American but he’s very slow and lazy and hasn’t started talking yet. My daughter started saying ‘water’ and ‘daughter’ and ‘brother’ with an American accent; her Rs became really American. But since we’ve come back, she’s started at a new school that’s a bit like Hogwarts, and they all keep asking her why she’s talking so strangely.
I understand there were other challenges involved in filming down there, such as the wildlife?
Yes, Steve Yeun, who plays Glenn, got a tick on his dick and Jon Bernthal, who plays Shane, got eaten alive by chiggers [mites]. Seriously, he was eaten alive. Forget zombies. These evil, weevily things burrow into your skin and then eat you from the inside. No horror movie has ever created anything as evil as that. I don’t think they like British blood, though – I didn’t get bitten once. I think I must carry such terrible diseases that the American insects don’t want to eat me.
The Brits seem to be taking over US television; you’re in The Walking Dead, and now your This Life co-star Jack Davenport is in Smash. Do you compare notes?
Jack is a great friend of mine and has been an enormous help and support. There’s also Stephen Mangan, one of my closest and dearest friends, who is doing Episodes, and Shaun Parkes, who is in The River. It’s amazing that these are all really close friends of mine who all doing really well over there. We have this batphone going between us Brits in America. We all call each other up, asking: ‘Did they say that to you? Is this normal? Is this what they do?’ And one of us will say: ‘Yes, it’s normal. You have to work 20 hours a day. That’s what they do here.’
What sort of reception have you received in the US?
We have all been very fortunate that America has been so welcoming to us. I’m not sure we are the same in return in this country. Someone said a really wise thing to me about the cultural difference: in America, you start off in credit; in England, you start off in debit, and that is just so true.
For Halloween, did you raid the wardrobe department and dress up as one of the zombies?
I was gutted about Halloween because we were filming late. But you can now buy these really dodgy Rick Grimes all-in-one outfits in the shops, with a tiny little sheriff’s hat and a plastic gun. My wife, Gael, was insistent that I should put one on and go up and down our street in it. Next year, I’m going to make the whole cast wear them and we can all go trick-or-treating together.
What do you miss the most about England when you are away?
My cat and my surfboard. There aren’t very many waves in Atlanta.
Read the full interview in today’s Metro or online.
Last week we put your questions to The Walking Dead’s Andrew Lincoln, aka the main man himself Rick Grimes. Want to hear what he had to say? We’ll be releasing his answers every Friday before The Walking Dead airs on FX.
First up, he reveals the best thing about playing the lead role on The Walking Dead and the first thing he did when he found out he got the role as Rick.
Check out the first installment below:
Head over to our website for more on The Walking Dead.
Andrew Lincoln reveals more about the return of season 2, his character’s conflicts, and why he has “the coolest job in town”. Check out what else he had to say when he met Digital Spy:
On The Walking Dead set, Clark Johnson was directing episode nine in a saloon bar and the episode has a Western feel. Do you feel like a Wild West gunslinger sometimes on set? Is that a fantasy come true?
“Every morning that I go to work and put on my cowboy boots and sheriff’s hat, it’s very hard not to feel like Yul Brynner in The Magnificent Seven. Whenever I’m not killing zombies you can always find me outside my trailer with Norman (Reedus), Steven (Yeun) and Jon Bernthal firing my BB gun… So, in short, yes this is a dream come true and the coolest job in town. It’s great to play a character with an itchy trigger finger.”
Clark Johnson said American actors need to “step up” as there are now so many successful Brits on US shows beating them at their own game, for example Damian Lewis, Ioan Gruffudd, Jack Davenport. How does it feel to be spear-heading that group?
“Clark is not only a brilliant director, but an equally talented actor so that is high praise. But I’m not sure anyone needs to ‘step up’, certainly not anyone I’ve had the privilege of working with in America. Just to have the opportunity to play an American in America is a dream come true for me. The list of other British actors all happen to be people I know and like, and they all have built great careers for themselves in Hollywood. I think slip-streaming rather than spear-heading would be more appropriate.”
Events between Rick and Shane would test the deepest of friendships. Do you and Jon Bernthal keep out of each other’s way in the run-up to any confrontation scenes? Who’d win in a fight between you two?
“We don’t keep out of each other’s way, we actively keep in each other’s way. It’s like Rocky crossed with The Wrestler, with a dash of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’. And I know he would say otherwise, but Jon would probably just scrape it… on points.”
How important has The Walking Dead been in establishing you internationally as a dramatic lead?
“I think my wife has always been aware, whatever country we have been in, of my dramatic leading man status; a little too dramatic she would probably say.”
Break it down for us, are you mostly approached by fans because of The Walking Dead now or because of This Life or Love Actually? How do those fans differ?
“OK… If they are in the first decade or the last decade of their life, it’s pretty much a shoe in Love Actually. If they are going grey and dying their hair it’s This Life. If they are dressing younger than their age and have a twinkle in their eye, it’s Teachers. And if they come from Paraguay… it’s The Walking Dead!”
Were you eager to return home to the UK after shooting season two in Georgia? What had you missed from back home? And work-wise, what’s your next project outside of the show?
“I was eager to return to see family and friends of course. I missed my cat and my surf boards. My next project outside of the show is the school run.”
Where is Rick headed as the season moves on to the next one? How strong is his leadership?
“I am very excited about where we are going next with Rick and the group! Another pivotal event happens in the penultimate episode of this season which is going to have a profound effect on Rick and his nearest and dearest. This could spin him off in any number of directions and I look forward to seeing where the writing team take the show.”
Read the full interview here.
The Walking Dead Season 2 returns to FX on Friday 17th February at 10pm.
Got a burning question for Andrew Lincoln? We’re giving you the chance to put it to the man himself!
Head over to our Facebook or Twitter page to submit your questions now.
The best 10 will be chosen and his answers will be posted right here on our Walking Dead blog.
The Walking Dead has been Nominated for 9 Scream Awards!
The show has been selected in 9 categories including ‘The Ultimate Scream’ and ‘Best TV Show’ at the 2011 award ceremony held in Los Angeles.
Andrew Lincoln, Sarah Wayne Callies, John Bernthal and Laurie Holden have all been recognised for their top class acting.
Likewise, Robert Kirkman is up for ‘Best Comic Book Writer and ‘Best Comic Book or Graphic Novel’ category.
The annual awards show devoted to horror, sci-fi, and fantasy allows fans to vote for their favourites, based on nominations from some of the biggest and baddest in genre filmmaking.
This year’s shortlists were selected by an advisory board including Neil Gaiman, Wes Craven, Tim Burton, Damon Lindelof, George A Romero, Robert Rodriguez and Rob Zombie.
Wired recently caught up with the cast of The Walking Dead to talk about the upcoming second season of the hit drama. The acting troupe discuss the ways in which zombies are just the backdrop of a story that is really about how people interact with each other to survive and reveal more about season 2.
Scroll down to watch the full interview:
