The Walking Dead Panel
For a show that has come under fire by some for not having much humour, The Walking Dead cast seem to have an awful lot of fun whilst filming. The television phenomenon is set during the zombie apocalypse and follows Andrew Lincoln‘s ex-sheriff Rick and a small group of his companion survivors as they try their best to restore some semblance of life whilst all the time keeping an eye out for threats. Given the sombre setting it’s hardly surprising that the characters are playing pranks on each and telling knock, knock jokes; once cut has been called it seems that the cast are up for doing anything to make each other laugh.
Yesterday we attended a Walking Dead panel featuring show director and special effects guru Greg Nicotero, and cast member Ross Marquand (who plays Alexandrian Aaron) who shared some secrets on how they relax. During the panel, which took place at MCM’s London Comic Con, Nicotero told of how Andrew Lincoln started almost everyday by calling him to leave a voicemail of him singing horrendously out of tune. So that the fans could hear just how terrible Lincoln is for themselves he played one of them, have a listen for yourself in the extract from our recording of the panel below:
Other ways that the team decompress from what is a very intense and highly emotional series include Nicotero’s insistence that they always do a silly take. One such take required Marquand to deliver his lines as Christopher Walken. Now, given that Ross was in attendance and we’d just been teased by this information we (and the audience) screamed for a demonstration, which Ross was happy to oblige with. Listen to how it would sound if Mr Walken was to be in The Walking Dead now:
According to Nicotero and Marquand the biggest prankster on set is everyone’s favourite redneck Daryl Dixon, aka Norman Reedus, whilst Steven Yeun (Glenn) and Josh McDermitt (Eugene) are the funniest. Apparently McDermitt is so entertaining that Melissa McBride (Carol) can’t get through a scene with him without laughing. So it seems that zombie life isn’t really all doom and gloom after all.
Catch The Walking Dead in the UK when it airs on Fox Mondays from 9pm.
