Despite its many moments of intense horror, AMC's The Walking Dead also has glimmers of hope throughout its sixth season, including a pivotal scene in last night's episode. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes) and Danai Gurira (Michonne) discussed the scene that is no doubt the main subject of many water cooler conversations. *Spoiler Warning for those who haven't seen the latest episode of The Walking Dead.*
Speaking with THR, Lincoln and Guriria discussed their approach to Rick and Michonne's evolving relationship:
Andrew Lincoln: We wanted it to be these two grownups and warriors who love and respect each other. That's a given. And then they get completely surprised in this moment. And then they look at each other and say, "Of course." That was the transition that we wanted: for it to be sexy, committed and key. We wanted it to be different and grown up and very relaxed and natural.
Danai Gurira: The scene on the couch was the first between them in terms of character progression. We both sat there after the first take because it felt natural for the both of us and it felt natural for these characters to be right where they were — like they're exactly where they should be at this point.
Gurira went on to talk about Michonne breaking down her walls and how Deanna helped her to be more open:
Danai Gurira: Her walls started to come down. But there's one wall that she had not let down and that was the wall around her heart. The idea of being romantic with someone, she had had a wall up ever since what happened with her ex with the assault of her child.
What Deanna asks her [in the midseason finale] — "What do you want for yourself?" — that question takes her by surprise. That was getting into the heart area that Michonne had a wall up around ever since her last tragedy. She has a new lease on life: Carl recovered, Alexandria is stable, Rick and Michonne have their home and Rick has now embraced everybody.
Lincoln also touched upon how the Rick and Michonne romance differs from the comic book series, and how he hopes fans of the comic will react:
Andrew Lincoln: It feels absolutely normal, it feels right. It does mean massive repercussions for everybody else... Comic fans, I hope, will love it just as much as I did when I read it because it is one of the great and important things we have to do with our show: separate ourselves from the comic book.
Looking ahead at the rest of season six's second half, Lincoln commented on what's to come for Rick, Michonne, and the rest of their group:
Andrew Lincoln: The pace of these back six episodes is the quickest that I can recall. We meet a lot of characters very soon and [see] a lot of new places. It moves in a brutal and brilliant way right until the final minutes of this season... It's going to be quite shocking to see where the survivors go in these next few episodes. It gets complicated and very scary very quickly.
To read the full interview with Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira, visit:
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Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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