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Living with zombies - Sarah Wayne Callies

Written by TVSA Team from the blog Interviews on 15 Feb 2012
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Sarah Wayne Callies 3
 
The Walking Dead returned from hiatus on Fox FX on Tuesday night after the shocking mid-season finale.

The aftermath of the killing of the zombies in the barn hit everyone in different ways: Hershel Greene lost hope and attacked a bar, Shane scrubbed Carol's hands when he should have scrubbed his own and Lori ended up in grimey danger on her way to town.

In between things unfolding on TV, I caught up with Lori Sarah Wayne Callies for apocalyptic girl talk:

Sarah Waybe Callies 40

Go-go-go

Tashi:
If there were a zombie apocalypse and you had to leave your home in a rush, what three things would you take with you?
Sarah: Well I have a Go Bag .. do you know what a Go Bag is?

Tashi: No.
Sarah: It's basically like a backpack, it's packed all the time as if you were gonna spend an evening in the woods so I'd take that and I wouldn't need much else because it's got all the basics. We do a lot of backpacking so it's got flint, matches, iodine tablets, knife sharpener, that kind of thing.

Tashi: So you're actually sorted if it were to happen.
Sarah: Yeah, my husband’s family and the community we live in in Canada, they're pretty practical, outdoorsy communities - I think it would probably be different if I were still living in New York City but we live in the country and most people hunt and fish and grow food.

Tashi: If you were to take one luxury in your Go Bag - what would it be?
Sarah: Moisturiser. We're building a studio right now and even on a day when I'm up on the roof with hammer all day, I still put on moisturiser, on my face and my hands, in the mornings and evening. My husband and the guys building with us, they make fun of me for it.

Tashi: Yes, I was thinking about the apocalypse and men, that it's easier for them. It's so much easier to be rugged - it would be a very inconvenient thing for girls. I'd struggle with having no choice of what to wear because you have to wear the same thing every day.
Sarah: My life has the built-in luxury of a day for me to just go: "No, I'm not making dinner tonight."

An apocalyse now? Really?

Sarah Wayne Callies 20

Tashi: Is that what you'd find most inconvenient?
Sarah: Yeah, we have the luxury, in most of our lives, for a day where you just go: "No, I'm not, you know. We're gonna order a pizza tonight, I'm not gonna make dinner." or "You know what, I'm not gonna fold the laundry." Whatever our responsibilities are.

When I'm working that's different because if I'm at work on a day when I'm feeling bad, it doesn't matter, you just sort of forget about it. I think one of the hardest things would be that unrelenting anxiety and exhaustion and the inability to ever take a step back and just have a bath or a glass of wine.

When Frank Darabont (developer of the show) and I were first talking about this character I said: "I would be willing to bet that Lori Grimes could sail through the apocalypse with no problem if she could end her day with a beer and a cigarette."

Just one beer and one smoke at the end of her awful day and she'd get through it but it's the lack of those little, tiny things. The greatest inconvenience would be lack of beer - not to sound like I have a problem but just, you know -

Tashi: - yes. And the choice to have one when you want one. I've been wondering ... what's the mood like behind-the-scenes? The show's so squelchy and dangerous and brutal - do you guys chat and laugh with the zombies between scenes?
Sarah: Well the zombies are quite often sequestered because their make-up and costumes are more vulnerable than ours.

If we sweat we just get sweaty but if they sweat their prosthetics come off so they're often kept in these big - they look like tour busses. They're big giant busses for the zombies and they're air conditioned to keep them cool.

How to store zombies in busses

Sarah Wayne Callies 30

Tashi: Do they keep them in there?
Sarah: They do, for the most part. There are 200 of them - you've got to have a place where they can all get a drink, Gatorade and whatever.

The mood on set - it's a very unique set because the level of co-operation and commitment and genuine affection - in my experience it's unprecedented, partly because it's not just a cast, we've become a family.

The premiere in the States was on Sunday and we were e-mailing each other all day long, with like: "I love you guys, I miss you, let's get back to shooting." - the kind of things you'd never do as actors on other sets.

Even more than that, our crew has really become a part of that family. The relationships that exist between us and the grips and the camera department - it's 80 people who are killing themselves to work together but who absolutely love it.

I think it's why so many people keep coming back even though the working conditions are the most extreme I've ever been in - everyone wants to be there because it's such a great environment.

Ha!

Sarah Waybe Callies 50

Tashi: Do you guys laugh? Is it very serious?
Sarah: There are definitely scenes that get really dark, you can feel people start to go down their own little rabbit hole - sometimes you have to.

When Andy (Rick Grimes) and I were shooting those scenes around Carl's sick bed - we've both got children and it was very quiet. I remember he turned to me one day and said: "This is absolutely the worst thing I've ever had to do." and I said, "I know, me too," but other days - we've got some really wonderful, natural comedians on the show.

It can get serious during the takes but between the takes, the natural human thing to do is to laugh. In the first season Andy Rothenberg was one of the funniest people I've ever known in my life. He played Jim and he had us rolling.

 

Tashi:
What was it like filming the mid-season finale - it was so hectic I wondered if you could even speak afterwards?
Sarah: I think everybody's biggest concern on that set was Madison, the girl who plays Sofia. This was her first big job and she became a real part of the family.

Losing her from the show broke all of our hearts but I think we were also aware that she's a young women, this is her first real professional job - that's the weird thing about our jobs.

You meet people, you fall in love with them, you create these great communities and then the job ends and you don't get to see those people.

There's a compendium of the first 50 issues of The Walking Dead so I got that at Comic-Con and everyone signed so she could feel that we loved her and appreciated her and that she would always be part of the family.

That was a really hard day - it was a day that everyone arrived with really heavy hearts but she was chipper. She stayed positive and committed and cheerful and grateful with a lot of grace.

When the real world turns nightmare

Tashi: Do you have any zombie nightmares?
Sarah: I do, I actually have really bad ones. I don't watch zombie movies - they really scare me. The only one I've been able to watch all the way through is Dawn of the Dead and it's you know, it's a comedy.

I don't have as many now - I used to have them about twice a week. The really intense creepy ones I'd call Frank (Darabont) and be like: "I've got a great idea!" He was very indulging about it but also reminded me that I was not a writer on the show. *laughs*



1 Comment

Sobza
16 Feb 2012 10:29

Nice one Tashi, The Walking Dead has to be one of my all time favourite tv series...my family can't bear to watch it so I watch it alone. 

The actors are great and Sarah is doing a good job there


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