Exclusive Interview with The Walking Dead’s Laurie Holden

2013/03/20 23:19:09 +00:00 | Jonathan James

Andrea has been a central figure in the growing conflict between the Woodbury and prison groups in the second half of The Walking Dead Season 3, and over the last couple of episodes, she's beginning to discover who The Governor really is. During a recent interview with Laurie Holden, we talked about Andrea's storyline polarizing fans, killing zombies, and she told me about dislocating multiple ribs in a zombie fight last season.

*Spoiler Warning: There are minor spoilers mentioned from Episode 314.

Andrea has been a polarizing character for fans of the show. While some understand that the audience knows much more about The Governor, others can't understand her reasons for staying in Woodbury. Have you enjoyed reading all of the different reactions from fans online?

Laurie Holden: I have a great deal of respect for the audience and everyone is entitled to their opinion. Obviously, this has worked wonderfully for the show, because there has been so much controversy surrounding this storyline. I haven't watched this season, so it's a little tricky for me at times during interviews because what we shoot doesn't always make it into the final episode.

When people are unclear about Andrea's motivations, that is the thing that I find a bit unsettling, because to me they are crystal clear. Again, if they cut lines of dialogue to make it intentionally more ambiguous, I have no control of that. And if that's what they wanted, then that's great. Bring it!

This situation reminds me of people who scream at the screen while watching a scary movie. They know the killer is in the room, but the unsuspecting victim doesn't have as much information as the audience.

Laurie Holden: I think when people watch the season back-to-back, they would perhaps understand that a little bit better, but this is the storytelling. Andrea was supposed to be kept in the dark and she's just catching up to what the audience has known from the very beginning.

Robert Kirkman and Glen Mazzara are always talking about building to a big payoff on the show, and got to see that in The Walking Dead Episode 314. I really enjoyed seeing your character catching up and all of your zombie killing scenes. Do you enjoy filming those zombie killing and more physical scenes?

Laurie Holden: I love that and it was a long time coming. I was itching to do that many episodes back and reminded me of the Season 2 finale. I absolutely loved being out in the world fighting the elements and killing zombies. This cat and mouse game really heated up in 314 with The Governor, and I loved it.

In particular, I loved how this episode switched up something that fans of the comic book series may have been expecting. Are you someone who keeps up with the comic book series?

Laurie Holden: I read Compendium One, so I know all about The Governor and how evil he is. We really made a major departure from the graphic novel, and I knew it was going to be very controversial to have Andrea hook up with the sociopathic villain of the piece. There's nothing wrong with controversy. The way the story was structured, the audience did know things that Andrea didn't, and I know there were questions about why she went back to Woodbury. Do you understand why she went back to Woodbury?

Andrea was stuck at that moment and her choice was part of keeping the peace. If she had gone back with Rick, The Governor could have gone crazy right then and there.

Laurie Holden: He would have gone crazy and it would have been awful. First of all, she didn't know what happened between those two men. It would have been so lame of her to have made a scene without knowing if anything was settled. When she got back in that car, it was "game on." She's a player now and she needs to watch The Governor like a hawk, because she has to make sure the people she loves don't die.

Andrew Lincoln seems to have a bulk of the physical scenes at the prison, and I think you're right up there with him in the second half of season 3. Between all of the running and zombie killing, do you get enough of a workout to film every day or are you regularly training for these scenes?

Laurie Holden: I'm an active person and very athletic. I don't think you need extra training on top of shooting the show, because it's a workout in itself. But, it's been very important for some of us to keep up a training regimen. I'm a swimmer and I swim almost every day. The beauty of that is that it has kept my back very strong, which is necessary for the running and fighting zombies. I need to keep up an exercise regime on the side, so I don't get hurt.

No matter how much you work out, things happen. In Season 2, I dislocated four ribs and didn't know it during the RV zombie fight. For days I couldn't really breathe and didn't know why I was so winded. I had to go to a doctor and they pushed my ribs back in. You can work out as much as you want, but things will still happen. By the same token, I say that with a certain amount of pride, because we feel like you haven't earned your stripes on The Walking Dead unless you've had scrapes, bruises, or something dislocated. We're all kind of warriors in that way and it's a lot of fun.

You have an action figure coming out later this year. Have you seen it yet?

Laurie Holden: I really am excited and just saw it. What's really neat is that they scanned our bodies and our faces anatomically. It's exactly me in a little action figure form. They scanned our head, body, and every limb. It's bizarre, because it's so lifelike.

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I'd like to thank Laurie Holden for taking the time to talk with us, and we plan to follow this up with a second interview between now and the start of Season 4. Over the last two weeks, we’ve published an exclusive interview with Andrew Lincoln and our Season 3 set visit report, so make sure to catch up on both features if you haven’t read them already.

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