Deadline spoke with The Walking Dead special effects make-up artist Greg Nicotero about his Emmy nomination and why he selected the first episode of the series as his submission to be considered.

Quotage:

But unlike many contenders he had no trouble choosing his prosthetic makeup submission episode: he picked the season premiere. Because there are lots of goodies in the opening episode — like zombies devouring a live horse and a shocking scene in which the sheriff shoots a little zombie girl still clutching her teddy bear. The premiere also features the infamous Bicycle Girl, a half body FX so realistic that it sparked an Internet controversy over how it was achieved.

Nicotero explains: “We did a whole life casting on Melissa Cowan, who has a great face for zombie makeup. We took our guide from the graphic novel to simulate that classic walking dead desiccated and rotting look. She just looked like she was whittling away. We did a one-piece foam latex face and neck, two more for chest and back. We put the custom dentures in first and then applied the latex over it so you could see her rotting gums and part of her skull. Her makeup application took a little over 3 hours.”

We think The Walking Dead has a great shot at picking up Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Series considering how everyone was blown away by the show’s life-like zombies!

Read more of Deadline’s interview with Nicotero at this link.