Tag: TWD

Interview with Alexa Mansour, Nicolas Cantu, Hal Cumpston and Julia Ormond

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TV Interview!

Alexa Mansour, Nicolas Cantu, Hal Cumpston and Julia Ormond

Interview with Alexa Mansour, Nicolas Cantu, Hal Cumpston and Julia Ormond of “The Walking Dead: World Beyong” on AMC by Thane 12/3/21

This was my first interview for the site. We had some technical problems, but it worked out well in the end. It was great to listen to the actors talk about the final episode of the show.

Question:   Congratulations on a great season of the show. Now, the show was, as far as I know, entirely filmed in Richmond, Virginia, or if not, mostly filmed there. I was wondering if each of you could give me a recommendation for a great restaurant or spot to do or to go to the next time I’m in Richmond?

Alexa:  The Jefferson Hotel. Go to the Jefferson hotel; get a dirty martini. It’s great.

Hal:  Yeah, the Jefferson hotel is awesome. They’ve got an alligator out at the front, because apparently they used to have alligators walking around the hotel there in the 30s or something. What else is there? Where did we all go for that dinner by the river? That was awesome.

Alexa:  What was it called?

Nick:   The Lilly Pad? I’m pretty sure it’s the Lilly Pad.

Alexa:  It was the Lilly Pad. It was the Lilly Pad.

Hal:  The Lilly Pad. Hell yeah.

Nick:   My shouts out for Richmond are this hot chicken sandwich place called Hot Chick.

Hal:  Yeah, I was about to say “Hot Chick.”

Nick:   Hot Chick sandwich place, and I would go to the skate park a lot called Treasure Island. It’s a DIY; that place is sick. Those are my two shout outs for the city of Richmond. And the river is just beautiful, like just finding little stuff to do along the river. That’s great, too.

Question:   Did ever of you go to GWARbar ever, or that was off limits?

Nick:   What’s GWARbar?

Hal:  I walked past it once.

Question:   The heavy metal band GWAR has a bar/restaurant in Richmond.

Nick:   Wait, what? Do they? My friends just went to a GWAR show. I didn’t know they had a bar in Richmond.

Hal:  [unitelligible] skating now.

Nick:   I didn’t know they had a bar. Man, I missed that. Thank you.

Hal:  You could have taken photos at it and pretended you were cool.

Question:   Congratulations on this amazing season and wrapping up the show. It’s just been fantastic. My question to you, and this is open to anyone, looking back, your character started the series with a very distinct view of how the world worked, and most importantly, how it should work and what those rules should be and how you should function. I’m wondering how your character’s vision changed by the end of the series. Who wants to go?

Nick:   I’ll go. I’ll go. I think Elton has changed was very much from kind of spectating to being a part of everything now, but, also, he saw the gray area of the world more in season two. Season one you see him just kind of being this, I guess, more of a pacifist, but in season two as he accepts the world for what it is, he starts participating in the more gray aspects of apocalypse life.

Hal:  Yeah, that was a real same this season…I also thought growing up was it a theme of the show.

Alexa:  Yeah, I agree with that. I think growing up for sure. I’m just realizing what’s important and what’s worth actually stressing yourself out over, you know, like, I feel like in the first season, at least for Hope, she was really very bitter towards everybody. She just was so ready to destroy anybody that she thought was bad. Second season, she became a little bit more methodical about the way that she approached things, like realizing like sometimes you do have to kind of – not sleep with the enemy, but sleep with the enemy, to get what you want and to get ahead. Nick’s looking at me like –

Nick:   What do you mean by that? Sleep with the enemy?

Alexa:  Like the CRM was the enemy, and she went undercover in that area, which I feel like first season she would have been like, “Screw this; I’m not doing this.”

Nick:   True.

Hal:  I’ve never slept with anyone let alone the enemy.

Alexa:  I’ve never slept with anyone either.

Julia:  I’ve [unintelligible] slept with people, but, I don’t know, I sort of feel with Elizabeth, the pragmatism of being committed to an agenda that was really tough and seemed really clear just became much more complicated for her and clearly hadn’t worked [unintelligible] defeated by that.

Question:   This is what it’s for Alexa, how was it manag[ing] to get the F bomb in on the last episode?

Alexa:  I didn’t even know I had an F bomb in the last episode.

Hal:  Yeah, what the hell? You fully got a fuck in there.

Question:   No, that was the previous episode, sorry.

Alexa:  I didn’t know that that was as big deal. I didn’t know that was like an actual thing that you couldn’t do. I figured because it’s television and whatnot, but people actually think it’s a really big deal, and I say that word all the time.

Hal:  Alexa is awesome like that. She’s such a swear bear.

Alexa:  [laughs]

Hal:   She doesn’t sleep with anyone, but she sure as hell swears a lot.

Alexa:  Yeah. No, I’m actually pretty excited that I got that F bomb in there, because Hal didn’t get it.

Hal:  Yeah, I didn’t even get as much as like a “crap” or a “shit.”

Alexa:  Because Silas doesn’t talk. You have to talk more.

Hal:  It is so weird with the ruling. I think, because there’s so much violence, they’re not really allowed to like swear and have violence, but it’s like is killing someone not a little bit more offensive than swearing?

Alexa:  Not if what you’re killing was a rotting piece of flesh.

Nick:   We kill people in this show.

Hal:  There’re people being killed.

Nick:   Yeah. We don’t shy away from human death.

Hal:  I’ve killed nearly as many people as I’ve killed zombies.

Alexa:  You’ve killed people on the show?

Nick:   People die in the show.

Hal:  I kill two people, I think. Yeah, I do…My two father figures.

Nick:   That’s a shame.

Hal:  That is a shame.

Thane:  Nicholas, tell us how they did the special effects and such at the end, where you lost part of your arm.

Nick:   So, for that last shot, we were kind of coming over the hill in Portland, and they gave me like a blue like sleeve to put my arm through. They just kind of said, “Don’t move it.” So, I just kind of stood with my arm just still. Then, I guess they blue screened it out. But then for one scene where I had my arm chopped off and I’m sitting in that hospital bed, my arm is just a pool noodle. I always thought that was funny that they just put a pool noodle and wrapped and bandaged, like, “That’s his arm,” and my actual arm was under some covers. So, that’s how they achieved the effect of me not having an arm.

Hal:  They toyed with the idea of actually doing that.

Nick:   They were thinking about actually chopping it off. It was not them thing; it was a me thing for the character, where I wanted to go all the way. But my doctor said “no.” So, we had to do blue screen and pool noodles.

Alexa Mansour, Nicolas Cantu, Hal Cumpston and Julia Ormond

Hal:  His therapist said “yes.”

Nick:   Therapist said “yes;” Doctor said “no.”

Alexa:  Did you tell the doctor how much they were gonna pay you for the arm?

Nick:   Ah, it’s a weird thing with me and my doctor. So, I feel like they would raise my prices if I did something like that. So, I just kept it chill.

Hal:  Nick’s sleeping with his doctor.

Nick:   I kept it chill. So, it was able to be figured out basically with special effects and movie magic

Thane:  When you read in your script that you were bitten and then cured, were you disappointed that you didn’t get to be a walker and/or die on screen?

Nick:   A little bit, actually, because ever since I signed on to The Walking Dead thing, I was like, “Okay, the whole experience would be, get in the show, kill some things, and then get killed,” because that’s like the cycle of The Walking Dead universe. So, I was wanting to be a part of it, but, hey, maybe my day will come someday. I got my arm chopped off. That’s part of it. I’m getting like drip fed little apocalyptic checkmarks on a bucket list. So, maybe one day I’ll get to die. It’s a start, but you know, zombies. [laughs]

Question:   Pollyanna came from the main show, The Walking Dead, as Jadis, but now she’s on World Beyond. She’s a completely different character. So, what was it like working with her? Because compared to the main show and this one, she’s a force to be reckoned with.

Alexa:  I didn’t know. I mean, I knew she was on the original one; I didn’t know that she was playing a completely different character. I thought that it was like, maybe just a different side of her of the character. Like maybe the character went through some shit and came out. You know, when you go through a hard time [and] when you come out you’re like a completely different person, but that’s kind of interesting to know. She’s awesome to work with. She’s like, insanely talented. So, regardless of like, different character or not, she was great to work with.

Hal:  Yeah, Pollyanna. Very fun to work with. Yeah.

Alexa:  And it was sick, knowing that someone from the original show was crossing over. Because I was like, “Oh, there’s there’s hope.” Not no pun intended.

Hal:  I like getting to work with my British brothers and sisters. They’re a little bit less American, so it’s fun.

Question:   Julia, the moment at the end of the series finale, it was just so beautiful, and watching Elizabeth, the realization come across Elizabeth, as she kind of gets a sense of what’s going on. I’m curious, do you think she knew that Huck was torn as much as she was between this life she’d been living undercover and her duty to the CRM?

Julia:  I have to confess, I haven’t actually seen how they ended up cutting it together, but I do feel the Elizabeth buried any fears that she had about Jennifer and her relationship. And I know that is something that kind of is in pretty much every scene that they have together, is this question of how much Elizabeth cares or connects and the things that Jennifer’s gone through. But I don’t think Elizabeth, by the time that she’s arrested and put into [a cell], I don’t think she has completely been able to – I think she’s emotionally distracted. I don’t think she’s been completely able to quite admit the degree to which she’s made some – she’s made some legitimate sort of mistakes, as a leader, in terms of the vulnerability. So, it’s understandable to me that Jadis does comes at her with the things that she does, and I think Elizabeth just hasn’t really realized how much of a distraction it’s been, the emotional stuff. So, I think it’s gut wrenching for her that Jennifer’s not connecting with her as a mom as a result of choices that Elizabeth has made and found family in other people to be worthy of being loyal to, and I think that destroys her.

Hal:  Things are so bleak for Elizabeth at the end there.

Alexa:  I mean, she kind of deserves it, no offense.

Hal:  Everyone is throwing hate.

Alexa:  She destroyed our home.

Julia:  Well, she does have to make some tough decisions, but yeah, I guess so.

Question:   For all of you, did any of you get to take home any kind of either weapons, or items from the set?

Hal:  Hell yeah, they sorted us out.

Alexa:  Yeah.

Hal:  I’ve got my wrench. I’m moving to a new house and I’m going to get it in a glass box.

Alexa:  I took my S-pole

Nick:   I don’t know if you can see it. I’m gonna get the pocket fisherman. I’m going to bring that out.

Hal:  Gotta get the pocket fisherman Nick. Do your mother fucking thing.

Alexa:  I have the S-pole.

Question:   Oh, it’s somewhere in the other room?

Alexa:  Yeah, mine’s in the other [room].

Nick:   The pocket fisherman; rock it up with the pocket fisherman. It’s got all the action. It’s just sitting here. I got to keep the suit. I got to keep this. They gave me like the little archeology bag; they gave me the whole thing.

Hal:  Nick uses that fisherman as like a pickup line.

Nick:   Yeah, when I’m bored.

Hal:  Nick, demonstrate. What do you do? Go on; demonstrate.

Nick:   I say, “Hey, baby. I’m trying to do this interview. So let’s move on.”

Hal:  He always says baby.

Nick:   Always with the baby.

Question:   How about you Julia?

Julia:  [laughs] No, I got a great mug as a takeaway that had a Walking Dead design on it from one of the crew members that was super fun, but no. I don’t want to take home weapons. I take home my memories.

Hal:  Did Elizabeth really have weapons? I feel like other people did her dirty work sort of.

Julia:  Excuse me! No, she had like the stiletto pen thing.

Hal:  Oh, true. I remember that from the show.

Julia:  But I mean, also, kind of like the way that we had set about it in terms of Elizabeth’s stuff is that she could kind of…turn anything into a weapon instead of sort of – yeah, she had a stiletto that was sort of kept [in] the jacket somewhere, but the idea is that she could take any weapon and use it sort of as somebody who’s got a military background and training to do that stuff, but you don’t really get to see that in the series.

Hal:  There wasn’t enough time for anything.

Thane:  [Hal], all of the characters went through so much; yours seemed to go through the most changes all throughout the series. Which part did you enjoy the most, and, in your opinion, does Silas stay loyal to his friends, or does he [go over to] the dark side or the CRM?

Hal:  Well, yeah, he does really change, because at the start he’s scared to say anything or look anyone in the eye. Then, at the end of it, he’s almost like a pretty normal, normal-ish person, which maybe just is my acting not making sense that I came back and decided it was a new character, or it’s really good emotional range, or like range to go from that, from the start to the end, but who knows? That’s for the people to decide as to whether he’s loyal or going to the CRM. Again, I’d like to think that he thinks for himself, and that’s an option for him that he doesn’t know. Maybe he is half seeing what’s going on with the CRM and checking it out and then seeing if he really wants to take it down. But I do get the sense that now that these little young rebel rebel kids have got a taste for taking down the establishment, I feel like that’s gonna happen again. They’re not able to sit still and just deal with living in the post apocalyptic world. They have to be like fighting something constantly. They’re all going to Portland and stuff. I mean, they could just chill out. That’s what I like to do, just chilll.

Thane:  Were you a fan of The Walking Dead before you auditioned for the show?

Hal:  I’d never seen any of it…I hadn’t seen it before, but, obviously, because I hadn’t lived under a rock, I knew what The Walking Dead was. It’s like a humongous thing, but then I got to watch, and it was actually pleasant. I was sort of surprised. I thought it would be this particular thing, but I watched the first two seasons as I was getting the callbacks. You get to another point, they’re like, “Oh, I think they’re gonna make an offer, blah blah blah,” and it was my first American audition. So, it was all very surreal for me. Then I’m able to watch the show, and I’m like, “I actually like this show. This is crazy. It’s a pretty cool [show].” The first season, it’s almost a bit like it has an independent movie feel, but with a budget, and the acting is pretty awesome and fresh and interesting.

Alexa:  Yeah, I only watched the first couple seasons. I think I stopped at season three, but I really liked it. I just tend to fall out with TV shows and just forget to keep watching them, and I lose my spot.

Nick:   Yeah, I watched the first two seasons as well, I think, when they put them on Netflix, and then I tapped out, because I was like ten or something, and it was just a lot of blood and guts. But my older brother kept watching it, and it was always in the household. Then, he was like, “Hey, come check this out,” when Glenn died, and he just showed me his brains getting splattered on TV. I was like, “Oh, great, dude. Awesome.” So, it was always in my house, but I only kept up with seasons one and two.

Question:   All of you, for the final episode, were there any scenes that were very hard to pull off when it came to either the dialogue or during the stunts?

Alexa:  Yeah, there was, I think it was in season two, either episode one or two, but when Hope has a fight with Candice, before she gets pushed against the wall and eaten alive or whatever, that scene took all day, because we had to keep switching between me and the stunt double. So, that was probably one of the longest, hardest scenes that I had to do. Yeah, I’m very happy that I made it through it in one piece.

Nick:   Yeah, by the end of season two, we were there, I think, from January to June, so once it got it started getting closer to summer, the days were getting hotter, and the season was ending, so we had to do all of our stunts. We shot every season in Richmond; it was really nice, but once we got to the summer, it got hotter, and [there were] just bigger set pieces. There was the whole battle at the the community village where the CRM comes in and Elton’s about to get executed, that whole like battle piece where the building blows up and everything, that was multiple days. That was a lot of prep, but it turned out awesome. That was probably the hardest.

Hal:  They blew up the barn. That was nuts.

Nick:   That was crazy. Did you see that?

Hal:  Remember there was a fire; the whole fire department was just sitting there having to watch it burn.

Nick:   Yeah, because it was a controlled burn or something. They’re just sitting on the sidelines.

Hal:  Yeah, the fire people couldn’t handle it.

Nick:   Yeah, but it was sick.

Hal:  It was like Pavlov’s dogs.

Question:   How about you Julia?

Julia:  I think, honestly, as an actor, the the first episode scene, just from a technical point of view, I had so much. [laughs] I had this six page speech for Elizabeth. I don’t think [unintelligible] all of it, but I was absolutely terrified, because I think the way that it shot, it’s kind of like you don’t have – I think when you see it come together, it looks as if it could have been chopped up. [laughs] It was just kind of –

Alexa:  You killed it, though.

Julia:  Oh, my God. Thanks, I appreciate that. Yeah, it was just really challenging, because it was also, how do I make this interesting instead of kind of having people go, “Oh, my God, when is she going to shut up?” But yeah, I think just that I sort of ended up with something that was a bit kind of technical, but that was probably my most challenging…I think, as an actor, the scenes that I love are the scenes where you don’t have any tech, so being given something [laughs], it was sort of like, “Oh, no!”

Hal:  What was the question?…Sorry, my phone ran out of charge; now I’m on my computer.

Question:   I was asking, were there any scenes of stunt work or dialogue that was very challenging during this whole season?

Hal:  I don’t know; everyone else has answered. I don’t know, the scenes where I don’t – like a lot of the time, Silas doesn’t have many lines, and that’s a little bit like odd sometimes, like sort of the opposite. You know what I mean? I wouldn’t mind a few extra lines, so I don’t have to do all this, like, “I’m not saying anything, but I’m acting.” Sometimes it’s fun just to be able to go to set and say some shit. We’re there for so long, like six months. So, honestly, I feel like the challenging part probably was there was so much time in between, because all the storylines were so caught up. So, actually, we weren’t really  working that much. Well, I wasn’t. I love being on set. I love being on set.

Julia:  I think one of the really hard things was actually doing it under COVID circumstances, because when you’re rehearsing, you’ve got all this stuff around your face. You can’t really kind of see the reactions of people; you’re not interacting. I felt like I [wasn’t] able to interact with crew in the same way. So, there’s this kind of block from having this human experience. That is the sort of joy of of putting together a story and a collaborative process. The COVID restrictions has had a huge impact, I think, on the experience, just in general, of being an actor.

Hal:  Yeah, I’m so glad hopefully it’s [over]. I mean, I don’t even know. Is it coming to an end? But, yeah, it gets a bit depressing a little bit when everyone’s wearing masks. Also, yeah, taking direction from a director, and you can’t really see what their emotions are or how they’re feeling, because they’re wearing a big mask and a face shield.

Interview Transcribed by Jamie of http://www.scifivision.com

MORE INFO:

Scene from the end of the last episodeThe Walking Dead: World Beyond – Series finale airs December 5th at 10pm ET/9c on AMC and will be available one week early on AMC+

Season two of The Walking Dead: World Beyond concludes the epic story of Iris (Aliyah Royale), Hope (Alexa Mansour), Elton (Nicolas Cantu), and Silas (Hal Cumpston) — four friends who journeyed across the country on a mission that transformed everything they knew about themselves and the world.  As they face off against the mysterious Civic Republic Military and fight for control of their own destiny, goals will shift, bonds will form and crumble, and innocence will be both lost and found.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond is executive produced by co-creator Scott M. Gimple, co-creator and showrunner Matt Negrete, Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, David Alpert and Brian Bockrath, and is produced and distributed by AMC Studios. In addition to Royale, Mansour, Cantu and Cumpston, the series stars Nico Tortorella, Annet Mahendru, Julia Ormond, Joe Holt, Jelani Alladin, Natalie Gold and Ted Sutherland.

Episode 210: The Last Light

The remaining members of the group fight back enemies, both living and dead, on their quest to save the future.

Written by: Matthew Negrete, Maya Goldsmith, Carson Moore

Directed by: Loren Yaconelli

SciFiVision article and interview with the same actors

Proofread and Edited by Brenda

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"The Walking Dead: World Beyond" Season 2 poster

Interview with Julia Ormond, Alexa Mansour and Annet Mahendru

Posted on by TvMegasite Admin

TV Interview!

Julia Ormond (Elizabeth), Alexa Mansour (Hope) and Annet Mahendru (Huck) of "The Walking Dead: World Beyond" on AMC

Interview with Julia Ormond (Elizabeth), Alexa Mansour (Hope) and Annet Mahendru (Huck) of “The Walking Dead: World Beyond” on AMC by Suzanne 9/23/21

I love this show, so it was great to chat with some of the stars this week on press panels. These women were so nice and had thoughtful answers to all of the questions. I can’t wait to see the rest of season 2. I’m just sorry that it’s ending after that.  Note that the questions that don’t have my name are from other journalists, not me.  Don’t miss the season premiere 10/3 on AMC!

Julia Ormond in two of her movies, "Incorporated" and "First Knight"Question:  My first question’s for Julia, and then the second one’s for the two of you, but I’m wondering if you could talk about her morality, because last season, she seemed to be upset about some of the stuff she was doing, but this season, she seems a lot more apathetic. I’m just curious, is there a line she won’t cross, and is it still bothering her? What’s your take on it?

Julia:  My take is that Elizabeth is somebody who compartmentalizes what emotion she will show to what person. So, if something is bothering her profoundly, she would have trouble showing that to somebody she’s intimate with, just because of her personality type. So, yes, but I think really what happens with Elizabeth is…what happens to her belief in what they’re doing in season two.

In season one, for me, she’s utterly, utterly committed to an agenda that’s necessary. They’ve identified that Hope actually has something that could be really critical to the survival of mankind – if she comes in with the right attitude…[and] doesn’t bring in the anger; she goes along with the plan of what they’re meant to be doing and that she’s productive and effective in her time there.

And I do think that it’s not black and white, or I hope it’s not black and white. It’s more kind of gray. It’s like she has to sign up for something that she’s not happy about, but I think people do that in war all of the time. In the military, you accept that there are people who are going to die, and you accept the tragedy. I think we as a populace accept the tragedy of collateral damage. So, I don’t think it’s as much of a pivot as I wish it was in the world.

Question:  Then, for Annet and Alexa, obviously, Huck has been changed by the two girls, even though she says she hasn’t. Can Hope trust her? And for that matter, can she trust your character, because obviously, you’re more about your [getting back to your] sister right now.

Alexa:  I think Hope can learn to trust her; whether or not she does is different story, but I think there’s a lot that Hope doesn’t know, and she has to take that into account. And just like Hope did a bunch of crazy things, or Hope would do a bunch of crazy things for her sister and the people that she loves and to protect them, I think Huck was kind of put in a tough situation as well. But Hope is pretty scarred after what happened in season one, so it’s gonna take a lot if Huck wants to rebuild that relationship with her.

Annet:  Yeah, Huck’s in a really bad spot. At this point, Hope’s just looking at her like, “You’re crazy; I don’t ever really want to talk to you again.” So, I don’t know how she’s gonna get out of this. It’s just looking pretty bad and things are so entangled. She’s relieved to be back, but it’s looking really [like] she’s sort of in the worst position she’s been thus far. In a way, she’s in prison the way Hope is too, because of this web of lies. And all these people out there who know things about the CRM that they shouldn’t have known and that’s Huck’s family now, too, she obviously feels alignment with, and maybe more so than she does with Elizabeth at this point. As we know, there’s more family at the CRM now that Huck has some entanglements with that are problematic. So, it’s just the question – it’s funny when Hope and Huck are sitting in this sort of dog kennel…where they have their conversation like, “Hey, this is a great place for all of us.” It’s so ironic, because they’re just both in prison, really, and it seems like there’s no way out of this all, and is this a better place? Are they safe, or, actually, have things just gotten worse?

Question:   Alexa, I love Hope’s friendship on screen with Elton – or I guess their former friendship, as it were. Will we get to see them mend [it]…and is there hope for them to mend this relationship?

Alexa:  I don’t know if I can tell you what happens with Hope and Elton, but what I can say is that I think there’s always that room orAlexa Mansour on Instagramthe possibility of mending something. I think if both people are on the same page and they each get to get their side of the story out, I think that there’s a very strong possibility that they could be friends again. They’ve all been through so much that they realize that sometimes you have to do things, or things happen that are out of your control, and I think when you care about someone, you understand that. I would appreciate the honesty, so I hope so. I hope they do get to mend their relationship.

Question:   Julia, what kind of backstory were you given about Elizabeth’s connection with CRM, and will we be seeing that play out, maybe explore her backstory a bit this season?

Julia:  That’s super hard to answer…without doing spoilers. I think some of the backstory, I think when you have supporting roles, and basically Elizabeth is this sort of character. It’s not always helpful for the backstory to come into the story story, but, yeah, that was kind of [vague]. [laughs]

I think the biggest thing is that she’s a real believer, she signed up for this philosophy, and she thoroughly believes in the choices that they’re making and what they need to do in order to save mankind. Then, there’s this greater detail in that, but I don’t want to answer it any more, because I don’t want somebody like Scott [Gimple] or Matt [Negrete] to go, “Why did you say that, because we’re going to use that.” They sent us a list, “You may not talk about this; you may not [talk about this].” I don’t know if they sent that to you. I was like, “What do I talk about? I don’t know what to talk about now.” So it’s a little scary. There you go, that was an all over the map useless answer.

Question:  Julia, I respectfully have to disagree. I think she’s more than a supporting character, because she casts a very big shadow in the story. She manipulates; she tests people, and when somebody pushes her, she pushes back hard. What’s it like to play all those different aspects and then throw in the fact that she’s a mom, too?

Julia:  Well you know, Jamie Ruby was asking the question earlier in terms of you see her get upset in season one, you see kind of the soldiers get taken off, and then she’s upset. I think, for me, that upset at that moment is this private moment of grief in terms of I’ve not just done this awful thing to this kid that I frankly liked and was a good soldier and all the rest of it, and the grief around how much people can tolerate, but what is my kid going to think of me when they find out and I have to tell them? I think that just packs a punch. And for me, what happens with Elizabeth is you see the dehumanization of it, she becomes increasingly disconnected. She’s just disconnected, and she’s shutting down. So, she’s dissociating, and it’s at certain moments that I really value that she has actually with her own family that pull her back. And maybe – maybe yes, maybe no –  that will actually impact her reevaluation of what they’re actually doing.

Question:  For Alexa, Hope is kind of in a new place. We won’t say more than that. She’s kind of getting acclimated to a lot of different things, and also, there seems to be an aura of distrust a little bit. Where is she mentally at this point?

Alexa:  I thinks she just came from getting so hurt and feeling so betrayed after what Huck did, and she just left her sister; her and her sister just split up, and the only friends that she really feels like she ever had she doesn’t have them, and she doesn’t know what’s happening to them, or where they are. So, I feel like she’s in this spot where she’s like, “Do I let more people in?” Because everyone kind of leaves and no one, nothing ever lasts. Anything good that’s ever happened in my life hasn’t lasted, or it’s turned out to be completely fake. So, I think she’s a little bit on the fence and has this guard up in this new place that she’s in, because she doesn’t want to get hurt again. At least she’s got her father and whatnot, but anybody else that’s not really family, that’s not really a necessity in her life. I don’t think she really is trying to get attached to them after what’s happened.

Question:  And Annet, really briefly, do you feel like she’s a woman without a country right now?

Annet:  Yeah, the other one got exploded, and this one is under attack. Yeah, I mean, she’s always been a woman of her own country, I suppose, of her own reality. So, I don’t know if she particularly needs to be anywhere. She’s not truly attached to anything. She’s a true soldier in a way, going from point A to B, and then she has to keep going. She can’t really sit still anywhere, and you’ll see her coming back to her room, and it all seems distant and doesn’t really mean anything anymore, because she’s changed so much. So, it’s sort of these pauses in between that a soldier never really knows how to deal with anyway. They just like to be away and like to be in these explosive situations; that’s where they thrive. So, Huck’s ready. I think she’s ready for another mission.

Suzanne:   Julia, you’ve been working since you were very young, since high school, at the very least, in acting, and then after that, and a lot of the cast are very young people. Did you have any advice for them? Or did they come to you for any advice?

Julia:  They don’t need advice from me. They don’t need advice from me. I might be asking them advice. Annet, Alexa, did you come to me seeking any advice? [laughs] Did I ever give you any advice? I don’t remember. No, I dont think I did. I’m not much of a sharer in that respect.

Annet:  Honestly, watching Julia and just being in the presence of her is your advice and your lesson and your inspiration, and you just respond to the person, the greatness that’s in front of you. So, that’s everything.

Alexa:  Yeah, Julia is a force to be reckoned with. I know every time I go on set with her I’m like, “How are you doing this? I don’t understand.” So, if there was a person I was going to go to advice for, it would probably be Julia.

Suzanne:   I recently learned that the [show’s] timeline is concurrent with the original Walking Dead, and there’s going to be a movie and some other spinoff series. Have any of you heard about whether any of your characters, or whether you as actors, will be involved in any of these other things, or whether your show will be involved with the ending of the other Walking Dead?

Julia:  I think that’s really a kind of Scott and Matt question. It is one of those things that I like to call them spoiler blurts that you sort of trip up in terms of, “What do I say? What do I say? What do I not say?” So maybe somebody from AMC could help fill in on that question.

Suzanne:   None of you have heard anything that you can comment on at all?

Annet Mahendru in "Tyrant" on FXAnnet:  I mean, we’re done, right? But there’s always crossovers. I mean, Jadis joined us. We’re all gonna be around, so they can always pluck us up at any given moment. That’s, I think, what is so cool about all these, this threesome, so to say, of shows, because we can all play with each other at any point.

Julia:  Also, they have this format where there’s flashbacks, and you go back, and you see stuff, so even if a character dies, you still don’t know whether or not they’re going to resurface in another [show].

Question:   Elizabeth is such an insanely manipulative character and who really sends chills down my spine. So, as an actor, what is your process going into this character, and how do you prepare yourself before you act the hell out of her?

Julia:  So, everybody sees her as manipulative, and I guess there’s a part of me that once you find that justification, I think it was I was talking to Jamie about in the beginning. My justification is that she is part of the military; there’re very few human beings left as far as they know. They work from the facts that they can [unintelligible], so they don’t know if there’s anybody else left in the world. They don’t know if they’re the only human beings left. So, they are working towards building hierarchy and structure and laws, and the ethics have just gone to hell, because their ethic has to be protect the border of whatever the human race is. We can’t let other people – we’ve got limited resources, we can’t necessarily share them with everyone. We need to make relationships with people outside of it. That’s her MO. That’s where she has to end up making tough decisions that, from my own perspective, people who are in the military, they’re making those decisions all the time. Somebody being killed somewhere on our behalf right now, and we kind of have gotten a little bit of – it feels globally as if there’s a little bit of weird acceptance around it, because it’s too painful to confront.

So, there’s a piece of Elizabeth that’s an amplification of that. It’s like I go into a state of denial, because it’s just too painful to accept the reality. Then, that state of denial, I mean, she’s disconnected; she disconnects from personal relationships as well. Then, I think once you have that, you can sign up as a believer. But you can believe in something and not be happy about the consequences of it. You can believe that, “Oh, I had something wrong with my leg and the doctor’s telling me that I have to have it cut off.” It’s kind of like, “Okay, I’m not particularly thrilled about it, but this seems like that’s the best plan going forward.” But I think, for me, it’s kind of getting into it.

Like I watched some of it last night, I was like, “Oh my god, she redefines resting bitch face.” [laughs] Oh my God, this just makes you so grim. But I think that’s kind of like what the sadness and the resignation is. There’s a harshness to the choices that she’s making, and so that kind of shows on the exterior.

Interview Transcribed by Jamie of http://www.scifivision.com

Don’t miss our other interview with Joe Holt (Leo) and Natalie Gold (Lyla)!

MORE INFO:

cast members of "The Walking Dead: World Beyond" on AMC

The Walking Dead: World Beyond’s ten-episode second season premieres October 3 at 10pm ET/9c on AMC with all episodes available one week early on AMC+, beginning September 26

Season Two trailer HERE

Season two of The Walking Dead: World Beyond concludes the epic story of Iris (Aliyah Royale), Hope (Alexa Mansour), Elton (Nicolas Cantu), and Silas (Hal Cumpston) — four friends who journeyed across the country on a mission that transformed everything they knew about themselves and the world.  As they face off against the mysterious Civic Republic Military and fight for control of their own destiny, goals will shift, bonds will form and crumble, and innocence will be both lost and found.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond is executive produced by co-creator Scott M. Gimple, co-creator and showrunner Matt Negrete, Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, David Alpert and Brian Bockrath, and is produced and distributed by AMC Studios. In addition to Royale, Mansour, Cantu and Cumpston, the series stars Nico Tortorella, Annet Mahendru, Julia Ormond, Joe Holt, Jelani Alladin, Natalie Gold and Ted Sutherland.

Episode 201: Konsekans – Premieres October 3 at 10pm ET/9c on AMC

Hope’s commitment to the future is put to the test, jeopardizing a potential reunion.  Iris and Felix meet a new group. Startling revelations are made.

Episode 202: Foothold – Premieres October 10 at 10pm ET/9c on AMC

While some members of the group enact a plan to cover their tracks, others attempt to acclimate to their new surroundings.

Julia Ormond

Julia will next be seen in AMC’s The Walking Dead: World Beyond which will premiere this year. She can most recently be seen in BBC’s Gold Digger. Julia performed opposite Maya Rudolph and Catherine Keener on Amazon’s series Forever from creators Yang/Hubbard (Parks and Rec). She was recently nominated for Best Actress for the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television for Ladies in Black from acclaimed director Bruce Beresford. It will be distributed by Sony later this year. Other recent work includes Howard’s End written by Oscar winner Kenneth Lonergan for the BBC and STARZ which garnered rave reviews. Julia also appeared in HBO’s comedy Tour De Pharmacy opposite Andy Samberg, Will Forte and Orlando Bloom. She also starred in the independent film Rememory opposite Peter Dinklage and late Anton Yelchin which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. On the small screen, Ormond received an Emmy® Award in 2010 for her role in the HBO movie Temple Grandin and in 2012 was nominated for a second Emmy for her guest role on Mad Men. Julia wrapped a season of the SyFy series Incorporated which was produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Among her film work Julia Ormond starred in the epic Legends of the Fall alongside actors Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, and Aidan Quinn and played the lead role with Harrison Ford in the film Sabrina, directed by Sydney Pollack. In 2008, she starred with Brad Pitt in the fantasy- drama The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and also worked with Benicio del Toro in Steven Soderbergh’s biopic Che. JULIA’S PASSION AND NON-PROFIT WORK Julia was the first and former UNODC Goodwill Ambassador Against Trafficking and Slavery and is the Founder of Alliance to Stop Slavery and End Trafficking (www.assetcampaign.org) that was the origin, architect and convener of the Transparency in Supply Chains Law in CA that passed in 2010. She is Founding Chair of FilmAid International. She was Executive Producer of Calling the Ghosts: A Story of Rope, War and Women which won an Emmy, a Cable Ace, a Robert F Kennedy Journalism Award. and after a screening at the Council of Foreign Relations spurred legislation that enabled the arrest of Milosevich. Julia also participated in Call and Response. a documentary on the state of enslavement today and one of the first documentaries promoting cell phone technology to accept immediate donations to the cause. She is an Associate Producer to Libby Spear’s Playground, which focuses on the environment that enables child trafficking within the U.S. As an advocate, Julia has traveled the world assessing solutions and challenges and she has appeared as an expert witness before the US. Congress and the United Nations. For this advocacy work. she received the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award” and Women for Women International’s “Peace Award.

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Alexa Mansour

Alexa Mansour just wrapped filming a series lead in the highly anticipated 3rd installment of The Walking Dead universe for AMC. Set in The Walking Dead’s near-future, Mansour plays “Hope,” a hard-drinking and disillusioned teenager who yearns to experience the world outside the confines of her contained community. Mansour beat out thousands of actors for the role and stars opposite Nico Tortorella and Annet Mahendru. In film, Mansour recently starred in the buzzy, social media-driven genre feature Unfriended: Dark Web from director Stephen Susco. She also starred in the MarVista ensemble thriller #Squadgoals . Next up, Mansour will be seen in the independent feature film She’s in Portland opposite François Arnaud and Minka Kelly. On the small screen, Mansour was last seen in guest lead roles on CBS’s Madam Secretary and Bull. She also appeared in notable recurring arcs on CBS’ Seal Team (opposite David Boreanaz), FOX’s The Resident (directed by Phillip Noyce) and most notably, as the troubled “Faiza Assaf” in ABC’s critically acclaimed How to Get Away with Murder. Alexa made her television debut in 2014 as the lead guest lead in Law and Order: SVU’s season 16 premiere, which boasted the highest ratings for a premiere episode in seven years. When Alexa is not acting, she continues to create as a talented singer-songwriter and pianist. She released her freshman single entitled “Misguided Youth” in 2018.

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Annet Mahendru

Annet Mahendru has become a highly sought-after performer for both film and television. Perhaps best known for her critically acclaimed role on the Golden Globe & Emmy winning FX series The Americans, where she played Nina, the mysterious spy opposite FBI Agent Stan (Noah Emmerich). Her portrayal of Nina earned her a Critic’s Choice Nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series and a Gold Derby TV Award Nomination for Drama Guest Actress. She was awarded Showbiz India’s Trailblazer award, recognizing her for an ‘Emerging Leader’ as a rising South Asian Female Actor in Hollywood. Recently, she appeared on the highly anticipated anthology series for Amazon Prime, The Romanoffs. Created, written, directed and executive produced by Matthew Weiner (Mad Men). The series features eight separate stories about people who believe themselves to be descendants of the Russian royal family. She also starred in the dystopian SYFY thriller The Slows, which marks Marvel scribe Nicole Perlman’s directorial debut. It is currently appearing at international film festivals. Annet has established a notable television resume with other credits including The X-Files, Tyrant, The Following, Lethal Weapon, Grey’s Anatomy, White Collar, 2 Broke Girls, and The Blacklist. In addition to her television work, Annet starred in the Sundance film Escape From Tomorrow, played the title role in Sally Pacholok, and appeared in Bridge And Tunnel, and Love Gloria. She was also the voice of Eva in the Penguins of Madagascar movie co-starring Benedict Cumberbatch. On stage, Annet performed in Seven, a play about Afghan refugee Farida Aziza at the LA Theatre Works. A collaboration between 7 playwrights and 7 female activists from around the globe that tells inspiring stories of overcoming adversity to effect real change and improve the lives of women. Born in Afghanistan to an East Indian father and Russian mother, Annet spent her early years learning 6 languages in the Middle East & Europe. She finished high school in New York, earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and Philosophy at St. John’s University. Then embarked on a Master’s degree at NYU’s Global Affairs Program. In addition to her studies, Annet was always part of a stellar acting troupe whether with a renowned Russian actor in St. Petersburg, the HB Studio in New York, at the Groundlings or Diana Castle in Hollywood. She is also highly trained in Mixed Martial Arts and Indian classical dance, Bharatanatyam. Annet currently resides in Los Angeles with her director husband Louie Gibson and their son. She is part of the local charity BreastfeedLA where she advocates for the importance of breastfeeding to help families meet their goals.

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Proofread and Edited by Brenda

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Julia Ormond (Elizabeth), Alexa Mansour (Hope) and Annet Mahendru (Huck) of "The Walking Dead: World Beyond" on AMC

Interview with “The Walking Dead” stars

Posted on by TvMegasite Admin

TV Interview!

Khary Payton as Ezekiel, Eleanor Matsuura as Yumiko, Josh McDermitt as Dr. Eugene Porter, and Paola Lazaro as Princess stumble upon a trap in The Walking Dead Season 10, Episode 15 – Photo Credit: Jace Downs/AMC

Interview with Khary Payton, Eleanor Matsuura, Josh McDermitt and Callan McAuliffe of “The Walking Dead” on AMC by Suzanne 8/3/21

This was from The Walking Dead virtual roundtable interview, taking place Tuesday, August 3.

This was so much fun! The actors were very funny and silly. They were clearly having a good time. I wish I could show you the video, but we’re not allowed to. You’ll have to read the transcript below. It’s definitely worth it!

Callan McAuliffe and Lauren Cohan in "The Walking Dead"

Question:   Khary, can we expect any flashbacks for Ezekiel and his time as an actor or zookeeper, this being the last season? I really do hope so.

Khary:   Oh, that’s an interesting question. I would tell you to, you know, expect the unexpected, that there’s so much story that we’re telling, none of which I’m going to tell you about. We all spent these last few months shooting all this thing, and I just feel like it would be wrong of me just to tell you in a Zoom call. So, how about this? How about this? Why don’t we set up just like for the next couple of weeks, like Sunday night? Get together, you know, pour a drink. I’ll tell you all about it.

Callan:   Khary, is it Episode Six where they do the flashback where you fall in a panda enclosure, is it six?

Khary:   Oh my god, you know what? We’re gonna have so much fun. The crazy thing is that a panda is much harder to do CGI, so, obviously, we had to just go ahead and go with the the panda that I keep here at the house. And although he’s not as bubbly; we just don’t have the bamboo here. And, you know –

Callan:   I still can’t believe you managed to outbid Nicolas Cage for that panda. It’s crazy.

Question:   As a fellow actor, I definitely appreciate your sense of humor.

Khary:   It’s incredible. Yeah, I’m excited. I’m excited.

Suzanne: Hi, how many episodes have yet to be filmed? Or have they all finished?

Khary:   Oh, it’s far from over. It’s far from over. We’ve got, I don’t know if we’re quite halfway done; we’re nearing the midway point, but we’ve still got – we’re gonna go shooting well into next year. So, I feel like there’s just a lot of story yet to unfold and yet to be told and yet to even be decided upon, in a lot of ways. So, yeah.

Suzanne:   Do they tell you ahead of time, whether your character is going to make it through the end of this show or not?

Khary:   You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you? It’s funny to be on a show like this one. When you get on a hit TV show, you pop the champagne, and you’re thinking, “Oh, it’s time to celebrate.” This is one of those shows that you get on, and you’re just waiting for that phone call around the corner to tell you that you all of your dreams and aspirations are about to be bashed, and the limousine that drove you here is not taking you back. I hope you didn’t take the Uber app off of your phone, because you’re going to need that to get back to wherever you’re going. So, this this show’s a cruel mistress in that way, that it gives a lot, but it can take it all away in a heartbeat.

Callan:   Did you guys all save Angela Kang in your phones with the skull and crossbones emoji? Terrifying every time she calls.

Khary:   Exactly. We’re just [unintelligible], because she’s got such a brilliant, happy little smile.

Callan:   It’s true.

Eleanor:   That’s how I never say hello to Angela. I just say, “Am I dead? Am I dead? Ok, how’s it going?”

Suzanne:   Thank you, guys.

Khary:   Thank you, Suzanne.

Question:   This question is for everyone. Would you rather your character have the glorious Braveheart death, or would you want to end the series as still a living member of whatever society looks like, in your opinion, if you had it your way.

Callan:   If I had it my way, the character’s death would be so unremarkable as to be remarkable. I would want him to trip in a puddle and to bang his head on the corner of a marble counter and for it to never [get] mentioned again. Mid conversation, just heart attack.

Josh:   Yeah. I personally, I want to die of old age or want Eugene to die of old age; that would be my hope, because I feel like he deserves it. I feel like he is a guy that everyone just expected, even myself included, would be gone after two episodes, because it’s like, there’s no way this guy’s living. And he’s figured out a way. He’s been a little cockroach about it, but I would hope that he dies of old age. But, you know, look, if they do decide that it’s time for him to go, I would at least hope they do it justice and give him a hero’s death, just because I think he does deserve that, if he does go, just based on who he was and where he’s been and kind of how far he’s come. He’s certainly been the hero many times before, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he would have a hero’s death. I just hope that if it came to that they would at least do that for him.

Khary:   Yes, jumping off a cliff, dreadlocks flying, slow motion in the wind. You know, a full orchestral score.

Callan:   Wait a minute, Khary. Did I ever tell you about the way I hope to die? That sounds remarkably similar to my plan for [my] funeral. I plan to gather, tell 100 friends that I died, or have them told, have them gather on a clifftop and then emerge dramatically from the coffin to the [unintelligible] gospel choir and leap gracefully into the sea.

Khary:   You know, we’re closer than we think. I had not heard you tell that, but it does not surprise me. And, you know, I hope to be standing on the same cliff one day.

Callan:   The convoluted aspect of mine is that I wanted there to be a shark tank at the bottom, so that I swan dived into the sea, but landed in the shark tank, it ate me, and then we piece up the shark and fire the shark’s ashes into space after it’s reconstituted my flesh

Eleanor:   Don’t do that to space. Space has got enough trouble with all these rockets going into it.

Callan:   It’d be biomass debris and wouldn’t be nearly so dangerous as flying metal.

Eleanor:   I think, of course, everyone, if they’re going to go, you want the big spectacular glorious death, of course you do. These are our characters. We’ve lived with them; we’ve created them, and they’ve been a part of us for so, so long. If that’s the way you want to go, you want it to be – you want to do justice to the love you have for your character. I’m with Josh though, like, I have to say like, I feel like I want for you Yumiko to have this long, long, happy life. We’ve only just discovered, or about to discover, this whole other side of her past life that she had. I think we always forget in The Walking Dead, especially, because the seasons are so long, but, actually, a lot of the action happens only over a few days or a few weeks. I mean, there’re time jumps and stuff, but a lot of the story happens in these condensed moments, and we sort of forget that we’ve actually had these huge lives behind them. I mean, we learned that Yumiko had this extraordinary education, and she’s basically lived the life that my parents wish I had, if I was smart enough to go to Oxford and Harvard, which I am definitely not. And I’m not saying that that makes her a better person, I’m just saying that it’s this discovery of all this stuff that she still has to give that I think it would be a real crime to not have her live that out in all the ways that she could.

Callan:   I think she should be killed in a fight with someone wielding a judge’s gavel. I think that would be full circle.

Eleanor:   Yeah, if I’m going to die, I want it to be from the past – like, yeah in the courtroom, a gavel thrown at my head. It knocks me off my feet. I grab judges’ wigs as I fall down onto the courtroom floor, and then I get eaten by walkers.

Question:   Is that the penultimate episode of the series?

Eleanor:   Listen, I can’t give anything away.

Question:   My question is for Khary. One of the big things that happen in season 10 is that we discover that Ezekiel has cancer, and he has to deal with some really dark things like a terminal disease and even suicidal tendencies. Is there a possibility that this character might attain some sort of peace or serenity throughout the run of season eleven?

Khary:   I hope so, for Ezekiel’s sake. I want so much for him to find that kind of inner light that seems to gravitate people to him, but, you know, you can’t have victory without adversity. So, here we are trying to just tell a story that’s still captivating. I had this push and pull, because I so desperately want him to be okay and and to just be at the forefront, being the big leader guy, but the thing that has drawn people to him is the fact that his life is messy, and he’s had all of this loss, but he does keep his head up. I mean, he’s lost so much. I think it’s enough to break a lot of people and it’s been nice to know that the journey of this character has resonated with a lot of people and helped them when it comes to dealing with adversity, to kind of set themselves aside and find a companion character to be able to live through and say, “You know what? If Ezekiel can do it, I can do it.” It’s meant a lot to me over the years, to have been a part of telling the story of a character that can be that for anyone.

Question:  This is for Callan; actually I have two. Alden is more heart and likes to build things. Is it safe to say that he grew up in a house where he had to take a lot of responsibility at a young age? And also, my second one is does he feel like Maggie is getting too cold to other survivors?

Callan:   To the first question, yeah, it was always an understanding between me and the showrunners that sort of he, in the early part of the apocalypse, had been going around with his with his brother. I believe it was his younger brother. And I imagine that the dynamic there was that Alden had to become something of a reliable – not necessarily a builder or a blacksmith, but certainly someone that you can trust to get things done and to bring things together. So, that’s certainly been a part of his life, and, you know, given that we see him building all manner of weapons and catapults and that sort of thing, we can assume he had some kind of a training in it. And then, can you repeat the second question for me?

Question:   Does he feel like Maggie’s getting too cold to others? It’s obviously warranted to Negan, because, you know, Allan has seen firsthand what he can do, but Maggie seems to be backtracking a little when it comes to the other survivors. Do you think she’s getting a little cold?

Callan:   I think he’s definitely seeing a side of Maggie that perhaps he didn’t expect, and she has for so long been, I suppose, the fulcrum around which his stability swings, especially in the beginning. And I think he finds that contrast disturbing. Yeah.

Question:   My question is, again, for Callan. Your character was Team Negan in the beginning, and now he’s Maggie. If there is a war to happen in season eleven, which side do you think would prevail, considering Alden’s experience in both those factions?

Callan:   I don’t think he was ever Team Negan. You know, I think he was, as most people in life, a victim of circumstance, and he kind of went where the winds blew him, but I like to think that he’s kind of alighted in the right place, if that makes sense. So, his allegiance should be clear, even when there’s conflict.

Interview Transcribed by Jamie of http://www.scifivision.com

MORE INFO:

Previously on The Walking Dead, our survivors confronted past demons and combated new threats, with friendships and relationships suffering from the mounting collateral damage that is the apocalypse. Alexandria is severely compromised, left a former shell of the home it once was from the carnage and devastation left behind by the Whisperers.

Now all who live in Alexandria struggle to refortify it and feed its increasing number of residents, which include the survivors from the fall of the Kingdom and the burning of Hilltop; along with Maggie and her new group, the Wardens. Alexandria has more people than it can manage to feed and protect. Their situation is dire as tensions heat up over past events and self-preservation rises to the surface within the ravaged walls.

They must secure more food while they attempt to restore Alexandria before it collapses like countless other communities they have come across throughout the years. But where and how? More haggard and hungrier than ever before, they must dig deeper to find the effort and strength to safeguard the lives of their children, even if it means losing their own.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to those at Alexandria, Eugene, Ezekiel, Yumiko, and Princess are still being held captive by mysterious soldiers who are members of a larger and unforthcoming group.

AMC’s 11 Weeks of Reveals Until Season 11 of The Walking Dead

AMC released today a new teaser for The Walking Dead as part of AMC’s “11 Weeks of Reveals until Season 11.” The Walking Dead Season 11 premieres Sunday, August 22 at 9pm ET/8c on AMC, and all 11A episodes will air one week early on AMC+, beginning August 15.

Official Trailer  Official Teaser

Additionally, as part of TWDU.com’s “11 Weeks of TWD” where each week leading up to the Season 11 premiere on August 22, a custom piece of artwork will be shared that looks back at significant moments from each season of the show’s decade-long run. The eighth piece of custom artwork is created by artist, designer and filmmaker Micheline Pitt, and can be viewed here.

AMC will drop new reveals – photos, trailers and more – every Thursday counting down to the Season 11 premiere of The Walking Dead on Sunday, August 22 at 9pm ET/8pm CT. All 11A episodes will air one week early on AMC+, beginning August 15.

Khary Payton

In addition to portraying King Ezekiel on AMC’s The Walking Dead, Khary Payton has become synonymous with one of DC’s hottest heroes, Cyborg, having voiced the character for 17 years in numerous television series, DVM’s, games, and the 2018 critically acclaimed theatrical release of Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, based on the number one cartoon series Teen Titans Go! Payton reprised his role of Aqualad and is taking on the new role of Black Lightning in the fan and critically acclaimed series, Young Justice: Outsiders, which premiered on DCUniverse.com earlier this year. Other current voice over roles include laser specialist Wasabi in Disney’s Big Hero 6: The Series; Grimlock in Transformers: Robots in Disguise; and Rafiki in Disney’s The Lion Guard. Payton also voices in the video games The Sims; Reigel in Starcraft; Drebin in Metal Gear Solid; Azrael and Killer Croc in the Batman: Arkham franchise; and Knox from Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Born in Augusta, Georgia, Payton caught the acting bug after seeing a production of Cyrano De Bergerac in the 1st grade. As a teenager, he developed a local rep as a rapper and stand-up comic, sharing the stage with such notables as Tom Kenney and Chris Rock. Payton attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, studying acting and directing. He stayed in Texas for several years honing his craft in classical and experimental theatre before moving to Hollywood. Payton co-wrote, produced, and starred in the independent sci-fi feature, Astronaut: The Last Push, winning 13 awards on the film festival circuit, including Best In Show at the Independent Filmmakers Showcase and Fargo Film Festivals. Payton took home three awards for Best Actor.

Callan McAuliffe

In addition to his regular series role as Alden on The Walking Dead, Callan McAuliffe can be seen in the feature film Summer Night, opposite Justin Chatwin, Analeigh Tipton, and Victoria Justice, for writer/director, Joseph Cross. McAuliffe was discovered by director Rob Reiner, who hand-picked him to play the romantic lead in the Warner Bros. feature film Flipped. This was followed by roles in DreamWorks’ sci-fi adventure I Am Number Four and Warner Bros.’ The Great Gatsby, as the teenage Jay Gatsby to Leonardo DiCaprio’s adult role. McAuliffe went on to work in the crime-drama film Kite, with Samuel L. Jackson; appeared in Underground: The Julian Assange Story; and starred in the U.K. feature Robot Overlords, with Sir Ben Kingsley. More recently he appeared in The Stanford Prison Experiment for director Kyle Patrick Alvarez, as part of an ensemble including Ezra Miller, Billy Crudup, and Thomas Mann. McAuliffe’s many accolades include recognition as Break Out actor by The Toronto International Film Festival for his lead role in the coming-of-age film Beneath the Harvest Sky, where he starred alongside Emory Cohen; and winning the Young Artist Award for his role as the aforementioned young Gatsby. Additionally, McAuliffe is among the youngest winners of GQ Magazine’s Man of The Year Award for Breakthrough of the Year, presented to him for his work in the performing arts in 2012-2013. Outside of his theatrical career, McAuliffe has also volunteered his time to a list of meaningful charities. Always interested in staying true to his Australian roots, McAuliffe became the youngest Ambassador for Tourism Australia for the Friends of Australia Campaign. The Friends of Australia Campaign include some of the most globally influential voices that have a genuine affinity with Australia. McAuliffe also holds a highly regarded position as a UNICEF Ambassador. Besides his film career and philanthropic efforts, McAuliffe has also added the title of Author to his resume. His first fictional book, The Hill Ghost, is a story that recounts the adventures between two unlikely friends, an old Tibetan Mastiff dog and a delusional seagull.

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Interview with Aliyah Royale

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TV Interview!

Aliyah Royale of "The Walking Dead: World Beyond" on AMC

Interview with Aliyah Royale of “The Walking Dead: World Beyond” on AMC by Suzanne 11/3/20

This was a very fun interview. She’s very professional and knowledgeable for someone as young as she is, since she’s been acting for a long time. I really enjoy her show, which is a little different from the other two “Walking Dead” shows.

Suzanne:   So, tell us how you got the role of Iris…

Aliyah:   Oh, my goodness! I had actually auditioned under these, I guess I’ll just call them – fake sides. It wasn’t the real script, and her name wasn’t Iris yet. I can’t remember what her name was, but it was a scene where she was giving this student council meeting. She’s the class president. She’s telling everyone, “What do you need from me? What do you need done?” and they’re telling her what they need from her. Then the scene switches – the same scene; it’s one scene all the way through – the scene switches, and she’s in the classroom by herself. Everyone has left, and she just breaks, and she starts bawling, having a full on mental breakdown. She just cannot catch a break. She can’t catch her breath either. I remember going like, “Wow, that’s crazy,” especially to be depicted in a young person, the fact that we can handle our business so long in life, you know, go through the motions, but then when we’re finally stopped, and we have a moment to ourselves, sometimes we’re not okay. And the fact that I had no idea if this is Iris with the fact that I was looking at this character and these sides, I was like, “Oh my god, I’m totally playing this role.” I’m like, “This is going to be so much fun.” I had totally forgotten that it was a Walking Dead project, because if I would have remembered that, I would have been scared out of my wits and terrified of walkers. The fact that I even got the role, it’s an insane opportunity. I’m happy to be here.

Suzanne:   So, when you have to take on the role of Iris, what do you do mentally or physically to prepare for it?

Aliyah:   Physically, the moment we touched down in Virginia, we had to do a lot of just physical training, hand to hand combat working with different weapons. My weapon is actually really long. She’s taller than me, and I’m 5’3’’, and she’s super heavy. So, getting used to having that on me for several hours a day and working and running, jumping, doing stuff with it, I definitely had to switch up my lifestyle. I love food; I love a good cheeseburger. I love my carbs. I definitely had to adopt, or attempt to adopt, a healthier eating lifestyle when you’re on a show that does stunts and has such a like physically vigorous role, just getting into it in general. Although, she’s a lot like me. She’s young, but she’s fierce. She’s motivated. She knows what she wants. She just really has to figure out how to execute it, but she’s doing what she wants. And I love playing a young adult, especially a young woman painted that way.

Suzanne:   Have all 10 episodes for the season been filmed already?

Aliyah:   Yes, we filmed all the episodes; we shot from July to December of last year, so totally pre-pandemic.

Suzanne:   Have you started yet on Season Two?

Aliyah:   We have our writers room up and running. Right now we had to push back production due to pandemic reasons, but early 2021 we’re back in motion. Season Two is already even crazier than season one, so I’m super excited.

Suzanne:   How was it living in Virginia?

Aliyah:   My mother was actually born in Virginia, and I have lived in Virginia before. It’s no like foreign place to me. It was crazy actually, being on the ground shooting in the backwoods. We had to go to the outskirts of Virginia to shoot, because we have to shoot in the forest, the woods, and really rundown abandoned locations. It was crazy. It was like 105 degrees with the most absurd humidity you can ever imagine. Sometimes there would even be lightning storms in the summer while it’s 100 degrees. Virginia’s strange place.

Suzanne:   Yeah, I’ve lived in Georgia, Alabama, and now I live in Arkansas, so I know how those thunderstorms can be, and the humidity.

Aliyah:   I did not know that there were thunderstorms in the summer. I guess I just didn’t remember that growing up. It was crazy.

Suzanne:   And it doesn’t always cool off afterwards, either, like you would expect it to.

Aliyah:   No, not at all.

Suzanne:   So, I hope you don’t think this question is rude or too private, so tell me to move on if it is, but… is Royale your real last name, or is it “royal?”

Aliyah:   That’s awesome that you asked that. My first name, my legal first name, is Aliyah Royale. So, Royale is not my last name. It’s part of my first name. It’s a fun little thing. It’s like Mary Jane or something like that. Whatever, you know, my parents were bougie. That’s the most I can say about that.

Suzanne:   That’s fine. I mean, usually I go to like Wikipedia and look it up, and they’ll say, “Oh, her original name was blah, blah, blah,” but you’re not on Wikipedia. You gotta get on there!

Aliyah:   You know, I think that was the new source that I was trying – we were specifically told not to use it in school essays and everything. I think like, “If it’s on Wikipedia, is it even true?”

Suzanne:   Yeah, most of Wikipedia is true, just because anybody can add stuff, but they have people who oversee it and throw out stuff (that’s not true).

Aliyah:   Yeah, my birthday is still wrong on Google. I haven’t gotten around to fixing it.

Suzanne:   I understand. Google can be hit or miss. They have all kinds of different sources. But I think, as far as TV, at least, and celebrities, Wikipedia is usually fairly accurate. I mean, they’ll leave out stuff sometimes…

Aliyah:   Yeah, absolutely.

Suzanne:   So, it was announced there are only 2 seasons of the show. How do you feel about that?

Aliyah:   I think, honestly, just where I came from, the first, like, 2, 3 years of my career, I was doing background work, extra work. I wasn’t getting any auditions. I really just had no chance. So, to be just working regularly, I’m blessed whether I get to do it for 2, 10 seasons. I am just blessed to be here, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to go to work every day and do what I love, because I remember sitting on the bench waiting for this opportunity for 3 years.

Suzanne:   Were you a fan of the other Walking Dead shows before you got the show?

Aliyah:   No, no. I I think I was 9 or 10 when the first season of The Walking Dead came out, and I could scare pretty easily as a child. So, the undead walkers, they– they held a special place in my nightmares. I avoided them at all costs; but my two brothers were immediate fans. They still are just completely into all that. I’m even working on a show they have adored for 10 plus years. I’m a fan now.

Suzanne:   That’s good. Yeah, I don’t actually watch the other two shows. I’m not a fan of zombies at all. So, I don’t even like watching them on TV, if I can help it.

Aliyah:   They’re just so scary. I don’t know why, but there’s one creature – like I can handle, I don’t know, like ghosts or spirits, vampires, werewolves, whatever you want to come up with, but those? I’d rather have to sit face to face with a clown. Be near a walker? Like, no way.

Suzanne:   Because they’re gross and creepy. You can run away from them, but still. And you can tell whoever you see – that’s in charge – that I’m very glad they don’t seem to have as many gross zombies on your show as they do on the other two, at least so far.

Aliyah:   Yeah, our show is definitely more character-based, story-based. You have the action and the gore when it’s necessary and pertinent to the story, but it’s really important for us – I think this is the first series where we’re really, really focused on just developing really cool storylines with characters that anyone can identify with.

Suzanne:   Yes, definitely. I love that. That’s the best thing about TV, as opposed to movies, is the characters and the development of the characters.

What is the most challenging part of playing Iris?

Aliyah:   Just, growing up, I’m a military brat. I am the youngest, but I just grew up very – I knew who I was the moment I came out the womb; that’s just who I am. Playing Iris, you know, she is younger than me, but it’s also this idea that she’s a kid, and I have to keep some of that naivety to her, but it was also important to me to keep the strength that she has, the fierceness. You know what I mean? She’s not living in fear. There’s a difference between a teen who was rebellious and a teen who’s just curious and just wants to learn. I mean, it was important to me to keep her naive qualities and that innocence that I didn’t really have growing up, while still maintaining her confidence, her assertiveness, and just the way that she decides her fate. That’s an interesting life to learn when you’re a young age, and I can say it thoughtfully, because I did live it.

Suzanne:   What’s been the most fun part of playing Iris?

Aliyah:   Oh, definitely just the stunts, and never have I ever done stunt work in my career. I mean, I’m only 20; I’m pretty new at this, but being able to just slice and dice and work with my weapons, it really makes you feel like a type of superhero, a type of warrior. I’m thankful for that opportunity, because I have so much fun with my weapon, and whether we go 2 seasons or 10 seasons, I am taking her home with me, for sure.

Suzanne:   So, are you’re gonna get into martial arts and stuff now do you think, after the show’s over?

Aliyah:   Oh, my goodness. You know, I’ve always wanted to play kind of like Nikita, that kind of role going forwards, and Red Sparrow, some sort of like special intelligence kind of role. I’d totally be down for it. I think that’s a fabulous opportunity. I definitely have to get in better shape though. I have to get real serious, like some Marvel superhero type of training for sure.

Suzanne:   Do you have any fun or interesting behind the scenes stories that you can share with us?

Aliyah:   There’s a reason Alexa [Mansour] and I are very, very close, actually. Virginia is a very haunted place, and in my first week being there, I was in my apartment; I was sleeping. I woke up from this ridiculously terrifying nightmare, and I went to open my bedroom door, and a spirit walked right through me. It scared the daylights out of me, because not that I don’t believe in paranormal activity, but I stay far away from it for the most part. The fact that just this thing, just the way that I felt after, I had called my mom screaming, kicking, crying. I was like, “Mom, I can’t be here. You don’t understand what just happened. Something literally walked through me; it was so strange.” And it’s funny, because I’ve gone to set and talked about it. Everyone’s like “Oh, yeah, this is Virginia. That happens all the time.” Everyone here has a ghost story about Virginia. I remember calling my sister, well, Alexa who plays my sister on the show. I was like, “Bro, there was a whole ghost in my apartment,” and she was like, “Say yes; move in with me,” and I did. We lived together the entire rest of the shoot the whole six months. We were inseparable. That’s my best friend.

Suzanne:   Oh, cool. That’s really nice. And did you see any more ghosts once you moved in with her?

Aliyah:   No, no more ghosts at all. That was the end of that, but you know, I’m not upset about that.

Suzanne:   Well, I guess that’s a good note to end on, then.

Aliyah:   Exactly.

Suzanne:   Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate you talking to me.

Aliyah:   Thank you. I can’t wait till we talk again.

Suzanne:   Yes, yeah. I really enjoyed the show, and I will keep watching.

Aliyah:   Oh, my God, thank you so much. I think episode seven is one of my favorites, because Iris gets a little– a little love interest; I’m excited.

Here is the audio version of it.

Additional questions that fans posted and Aliyah answered via email:

Suzanne:  Do you feel that the post apocalypse would really be the way it is on the show?

Aliyah:   In many ways, yes. I think the living conditions are especially accurate! There’s no hot showers, no more pizza delivery. Then in terms of how people interact with each other: there’s definitely a greater push and pull between neighboring communities. You’re in survival mode at all times. It’s so much harder to trust someone. But you also want to be able to meet and befriend someone else because it’s so rare. World Beyond does a great job of throwing light on these issues in a realistic way.

Suzanne:  Even though the show itself is so far a completely separate storyline than the other two main shows, do you feel at all connected to the other two Walking Dead shows?

Aliyah:   World Beyond is its own entity and that’s evident from the way it’s shot to the way the storyline develops. And that’s what makes it significant. We’re still showing the daily struggles and problems that arise in the apocalypse, just from a new place and a new perspective. And that’s why it’s a valuable Walking Dead series.

Suzanne:  Will we learn more about the CRM?

Aliyah:   Absolutely! Season 1 shows a lot of hidden looks into the operations of the Civic Republic and the CRM. But Season 2 goes even deeper. We are going to learn a lot from Julia Ormond’s character, Col. Elizabeth Kublek.

Suzanne:  Do you think there would be a crossover to the other shows?

Aliyah:   I sure hope so! It would be a blessing to collaborate with the legends on the other series. There’s so much possibility in the Walking Dead universe.

Suzanne:  What were your thoughts about the first big herd that Iris and company had to fight?

Aliyah:   That was one of my favorite scenes to shoot. Everyone working together to keep each other alive. There may be disagreements within the group on which road to take and how best to execute a mission. But when it comes to life and death situations with these walkers, we’re always going to band together and fight until everyone is safe.

Suzanne:  What’s your favorite episode of the first season and why?

Aliyah:   My favorite episode is number four! The moment where Silas and Iris are dancing in the school gym and the other students appear around them is so special to me. I never had that experience in high school. So getting that moment from World Beyond means everything to me.

Interview Transcribed by Jamie of http://www.scifivision.com

MORE INFO:Aliyah Royale of "The Walking Dead: World Beyond" on AMC

Proclaimed as “one of this year’s biggest and most respected breakout stars” as told to The Hollywood Reporter, the multi-talented, charismatic and beautiful actress Aliyah Royale is undoubtedly Hollywood’s next big superstar as she stars as the lead in the highly-anticipated television spin-off series “The Walking Dead: World Beyond,” co-created by TWD mainstay Scott M. Gimple and showrunner Matt Negrete. Based on the extremely popular AMC series, “TWD: World Beyond” is a gritty drama set 10 years following the apocalypse and is a coming-of-age experience for the youth who grew up in the decade following the outbreak. It will expand upon the already established apocalyptic society and introduce a new group of young characters led by Aliyah’s character ‘Iris Bennett’ and her sister ‘Hope’ (Alexis Mansour) who are the first generation raised in the apocalypse and have never known a world beyond. “The Walking Dead: World Beyond” premieres this Sunday, October 4th at 10:00pm ET/9c on AMC following the season finale of “The Walking Dead.”
‘Iris Bennett’ (Aliyah Royale) is a well-liked, above-average high school student who has spent the decade living with her adopted sister within an enclosed community and literally walled off from the dangerous world outside. A smart student leader, Iris is proud to be following in her scientist father’s footsteps to one day bring back the world to what it was. Just as she’s starting to wonder if she’s been living her life for everyone but herself, an unforeseen event pushes Iris to lead a seemingly impossible cross-country quest. As Iris and the group leave the sheltered world behind, they will be challenged and will forge deep friendships through shared experience, trauma, the love of family and ties that run deep.
The quest aspect makes it very different beyond the fact that these kids are unlike characters we’ve seen before. They’ve grown up in all of this but they’ve also grown up in relative safety. So they’re aware of the world and of walkers but they’ve grown up behind walls so they’re not out there mixing it up with the walkers and the dangers.
 
– Scott M. Gimple (The Walking Dead showrunner & AMC’s Chief Content Officer)
Born in Maryland, Royale is a self-described “military brat” who grew up living on military bases in Michigan, Kentucky, Fort Knox, Baltimore, Macomb, and San Jose. She was an excellent student enrolled in honors and AP classes while also taking concurrent classes at a community college. She began acting at a young age and participated in local musical theater (including Playhouse West), church and school plays, and took acting classes which eventually led her to tell her mom she wanted to move to Los Angeles and pursue her craft professionally. In addition to being a talented actress, Royale always had a huge love for fashion and had the talent and skillset to participate as a kid designer in “Project Runway: Threads and The Designer Kids Project.” After moving to Los Angeles, Royale booked roles in commercials, television and film such as TNT’s “Major Crimes,” Bounce TV’s “Mann and Wife,” NBC TV movie “Strange Calls,” and her first TV series debut in the CBS limited series by Ava Duvernay and Greg Berlanti “The Red Line” in which she received rave reviews for her beautiful yet heartbreaking role as Jira, an adopted teenage daughter of an interracial male couple who is grieving the death of one father, an unarmed black doctor who was mistakenly shot by a white police officer during a drugstore robbery. This emotionally demanding role brought the young actress to the spotlight.
In addition to her passion for acting and fashion, Royale is a huge movie buff and is a lover of classic films like Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, A Street Car Named Desire, Cape Fear and Schindler’s List, to name a few. She’s a fan of every genre, from comedy to fantasy, and gets her acting inspiration from movie star icons Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn. Royale is also an avid reader and writer and one day hopes to start her own production company. Playing similar roles as an adopted child in both “The Red Line” and “The Walking Dead: World Beyond” and being raised by a single mother following her parent’s divorce as a teenager, Royale aims to help kids in foster and to create luxury housing communities for low-income, single family households.

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Aliyah Royale of "The Walking Dead: World Beyond" on AMC