Interview with 'The Walking Dead' cast at San Diego Comic-Con

When “The Walking Dead” fan favorite Norman Reedus greeted a portion of the San Diego Comic-Con press, he was donning his own Comic-Con bag, “Hey guys! I’m wearing a cape!” The night before, Executive Producer Greg Nicotero had shown Reedus the season four trailer that debuted at Comic-Con. “I got chills. My hair was sticking up on my arms,” said Reedus. And what would our favorite crossbow-toting hero listen to if he had salvaged an MP3 player? “Motörhead. Definitely.”

As seen in the season four trailer, Executive Producer Gale Anne Hurd pointed out, “Definitely time has elapsed.” Showrunner Scott Gimple spoke about a brand new character “Zach,” who will be played by Kyle Gallner (“Beaver” from “Veronica Mars”). “He has a romantic relationship with one of the characters. He comes from this group of essentially college students. A lot of people have been picked up on the way since Woodbury and he has a big impact on the group.”

Chad Coleman is a famous face from two landmark TV shows, “The Wire” and now “The Walking Dead.” Which character is he best known for? “Well now I’m Tyrese. Or dual.” Andrew Lincoln (“Rick Grimes”) chimed in, “Tutty?”

When asked if there is much of a crossover between the two fan bases, Coleman said, “I’ve experienced it on Twitter. It’s cool. I will always have profound appreciation for that experience and part of that experience helped pave the way for me to have this amazing new experience.”Chad Coleman is a famous face from two landmark TV shows, “The Wire” and now “The Walking Dead.” Which character is he best known for? “Well now I’m Tyrese. Or dual.” Andrew Lincoln (“Rick Grimes”) chimed in, “Tutty?”

“That’s how we knew who you were and that we wanted to work with you,” noted Hurd. “We have a lot of crossover with ‘The Wire,” added Executive Producer David Alpert. “Ernest Dickerson is one of our main directors on the show, but we also have Lawrence Gilliard (“D’Angelo Barksdale” on “The Wire”). We’re big ‘Wire’ fans.”

Speaking of another huge TV series, I asked David Morrissey what he thought of Matt Smith (“Doctor Who”) telling fans during the “Entertainment Weekly’s Brave New Warriors” panel that he’s terrified of Morrissey’s character “The Governor.” Morrissey played “Jackson Lake,” a man who thought he was Doctor Who. My question for Morrissey: “Does that mean that the Doctor is afraid of himself?” “That’s a very heady question!” exclaimed Morrissey, “Maybe there could be a merger [of “Doctor Who” and “The Walking Dead]?”

Morrissey explained to the other journalists, “I did the Christmas special where I played ‘the next Doctor.’ We filmed the Christmas special in February [2008] and then David Tennant announced that he was going to leave. Russell [T. Davies, showrunner] phoned me up and said, ‘Do you mind if we do a thing where we say you’re going to be the next Doctor?’ which I wasn’t, but I said sure. After that, it was nine months of complete craziness. There were people camping outside my house. Russell said, “But you can’t tell anyone.’ I said, ‘Okay, but I can tell my kids.’ He went, ‘Noooo! You can’t tell anyone. Not even your kids because they’ll tell people at school.”

“So, my kids kept asking, ‘Are you Doctor Who?’ It was great because I was able to say to my son then, ‘Well, if you do your homework, I’ll tell ya.’”

Which fans are more fervent? “’The Walking Dead’ fans are the best. But the ‘Doctor Who’ fans can all fit in one little box!” said Morrissey, referencing Who’s “bigger on the inside” TARDIS. “I’m very flattered to be associated with ‘Doctor Who.’ It’s a great show.”

During the “New Warriors” panel that Smith shared his fear of the Governor, Steven Yeun spoke about his own “warrior” moment in season three’s “When the Dead Come Knocking,” when he fought a zombie while strapped to a chair. I asked Yeun how he prepared for that memorable scene. “It was really great because Dan Sackheim, who directed that, made it such an organic, great, fun experience. We had a little bit of choreography. I had a lot of ideas, too. What I think was great about that particular moment was that it opened me up as an actor. It really kinda liberated me to understand that a lot of this is what you bring to the table and it’s not what’s on the page. It’s not what directors are telling you. I always understood that, but never fully grasped it. What was cool was we were actually running out of time so Dan was like, ‘Listen, I can only Steadicam you. I can only shoot you.’ I said, ‘That’s the way I prefer. Let’s just do this in one take.’ We did it in five, six times and then I just went balls out. Even the scream, that was improvised at the end, ‘cause it just felt right.”

“It was such an awesome experience. When I was saying it was my warrior moment, that was not only for Glenn, it was also for myself. I loved that scene.”

“The Walking Dead” is scheduled to return in October 2013 on AMC.

Source: examiner.com