Lori Grimes has caused her fair share of issues for Rick and the group at the prison, and her pregnancy isn’t helping. Sarah Wayne Callies talks about her character’s emotional role in The Walking Dead season 3. Beware of spoilers from Sunday’s episode.
Lori’s emotional departure from The Walking Dead on Sunday caused more than a few tears – maybe not necessarily because she died, but how her death affects Rick and Carl. Sarah Wayne Callies shares with AMC what it was like to leave the familial atmosphere of the show.
When she received the news from showrunner Glen Mazzara that Lori was getting the boot, Callies had just returned from a service trip to the Philippines.
“[My mind] was wrapped up with issues about medical care and gender safety in this refugee camp. I think it put it in its proper perspective: which is that it’s very hard and very sad and it’s a television show. I’m grateful I got to do this for two and a half seasons.”
It has to be so hard to leave a show you’ve become so attached to. So how did Callies keep Lori’s death a secret?
“Most of what I told people was true, which was that this season has such a big cast that it takes place in two locations — and every character has time off. But I was also deliberately misleading people…There have been a lot of questions that I’ve had to answer really creatively. I’m really relieved that I can stop doing that now.”
Since the cast members of the show get so close during filming, and since so many major characters end up getting killed off on a show like The Walking Dead, they decided to do “death dinners” for actors whose characters don’t make it.
“We started having death dinners for everyone who got killed off the show beginning in Season 1. After some one’s last episode, all the actors would go out to dinner together and raise a glass to them. Those dinners became a big tradition. We’re a bigger cast so we have to be a bit more private.”
When asked about her favorite moments from filming The Walking Dead, Callies remembers Andrew Lincoln’s shaky driving skills.
“One of my favorite movements was watching Andy Lincoln drive! I think he got his license about a year before we started the show. And he’s English. Watching Andy try and drive the Cherokee was hilarious.”
As someone who has been through a real-life pregnancy, Callies was able to compare the real thing versus wearing the fake belly on the show. AMC asked her how much acting pregnant was like the real thing.
“They had the belly in foam originally, but I told them to put the fifteen pounds in — the way a baby would weigh — so I don’t have to act it. It jacked up my back pretty good. But playing a pregnant woman is way easier, because you can take it off.”
We’re glad Callies is such a trooper about Lori’s death. Even though Lori wasn’t our favorite, we’re still sad to see her go.