Spoilers for season three and season five of The Walking Dead, which aired in 2012, 2015
We all have those sh*tty days at work where we’re like “this sucks I can’t take it anymore,” but apparently working on a depressing gory TV show can really test an actor’s resolve. Lauren Cohan (Maggie), 34, told a story during an upcoming appearance on Inside The Actor’s Studio about a scene from The Walking Dead that made her want to quit. In a scene from season three of the show, Maggie cuts into pregnant Lori’s stomach to save her baby, this was at Lori’s insistence while they’re trapped in a boiler room as zombies overrun the prison. Lori ends up hemorrhaging to death, but baby Judith survives. After Lauren read that scene she was so emotional that she ran to go see Steven Yeun, who plays her husband, and told him she didn’t think she could do it. Lauren explained that all the actors live in the same apartment building so it was easy to go get support from Steven when she needed it.
“I knock on Steven’s door, and I said, ‘I have to leave the show. I don’t think I can do it,’” recalled Cohan, who explained she and her castmates all live in the same apartment building. “It affects you so deeply to the core to touch on … to dive into so much of this material.
“And then I realized that’s why I have to do it because the outcome of that, as heinous and as [much] as that affected me… we watch to feel and to hopefully, honestly portray something. And bad stuff happens, and what’s the point in not getting real about it? Ironically enough as hard as this is, the deeper you go into it”
As preparation for this story, I re-read the details of how Lori died after Maggie did a DIY c-section and it made me sick to my stomach and so sad for Carl for having to witness his mom’s death. (US Weekly has that clip from the show if you’d like to see the video.) I mean I saw it when it originally aired but I can’t imagine having to film something like that. As a viewer I try to tune some of those really violent and especially sad scenes out, and to rationalize the deaths like “oh this character’s death was foreshadowed, they needed to take them out for this reason” (with the exception of Tyreese, that made me so mad). It must be rough having to act out the death of a co-worker.
I know Cohan is the one having the breakout career (sort of, if you count her creepy doll movie) but I would love to see more interviews with the other actresses from The Walking Dead, particularly Danai Gurira (Michonne) and Melissa McBride (Carol).
Oh and The Walking Dead returns on February 14! Screw Valentines Day, this is what I’m doing that night.
photo credit: WENN.com
I watched that scene a few weeks before my due date. It shook me. I was horrified. I can only imagine acting it.
I still went on to be Lori for Halloween at 38 weeks though, so I guess I wasn’t scarred.
The scene wasn’t that horrible imo, it was rather standard zombie-story gore.
yeah she oversells it a bit.
the only memorable part is the countless “Coral” memes it generated (or to be more precise the scene after it when a crying Rick is looking a Carl)
YEEEEEEEEES!!! The Coral memes!!!! 😂😂 I introduced my mom to those and now we’re always sharing them back and forth lol
yeah that was hilarious, and the Coral meme is the best thing to come out of the series
Why is this the first I’m hearing of the Coral memes?!
Esther. I agree with you. She really did oversell that scene. Maybe I’m just some psycho, but, that scene didn’t bother me and I didn’t find anything gory or creepy about it.
Ive been calling that kid CORRRLL or CORAL for a smooth couple of seasons
CB – This is the first I’ve heard of the coral memes and I’m a serious fan. I read all the press I can find and I watch The Talking Dead etc.
This had me in tears.
http://weknowmemes.com/2014/07/best-of-the-dick-grimes-coral-meme/
Esther, thanks for mentioning this!
OMG. I just looked up the Coral memes and I am in tears. Thank you for bringing these to the attention of us, unaware of such awesome. Best thing to come out of my day.
Really mild when looking at what the show’s gore gauge does.
The very fact that you love TWD as much as I do and cover it makes me love this website.
Now I know who to come to. Did you hate Lori as much as I did? I couldn’t wait for her to be killed off.
I’ve sworn that if Daryl gets killed, I’m done with the show (I say that now, right). Maybe a boycott for a week or so.
She got on my nerves at the end. The characters death I was most happy about were Lori and Andrea. And of course the bad guys.
This show has had WAY worse material than that scene, and THAT’S what made her want to quit?
Ok?? nevermind that is a Show and Thus not real, Nevermind this unknown til TWD girl wasn’t gonna leave a show that has made her a star and affords her that kind of visibility, Nevermind the fact that she doesn’t even have a resume long enough to be waxing poetically about her career with James Lipton, as one b Horror show and movie does not a career make
I think she over-acts on the show alot and BS on her saying she almost left the show. if she did, where would she have gone? I don’t see her in anything else.
lol you are my people!, I said as much upthread
QQ and TIA, I really can’t take either one of you. 😁😁. When she said about leaving the show, I was expecting to read about like a “REAL” thing from the show that devastated her. You remember when she use to call Glenn “walker bait,” in the beginning? I was like cheeses cwist when is he gonna ask her if she thinks she’s a comedienne. Then, when he finally said something, I was like damnit! About time.
I have homework to do and I’m sitting here talking trash about people who are aredy where they wanna be, in life.
This past season was the pits. THAT is what would make me want to quit.
-TheRealPinky
I thought that scene wasn’t detailed enough. I mean, the idea was horrible… but the actual execution of the scene was less than overwhelming. It was as though all of a sudden, while running from zombies, Lori has birthing problems. And then within seconds the best idea is to cut the baby out and Carl needs to euthanise his mother. It was all too questionable and over far too quickly and it all came out of nowhere. And then once Judith was out they were suddenly safe and could escape with no problem at all.
And how on earth did that zombie eat all of Lori… bones and all? That never happened on the show before her death or after.
I absolutely thought it was an underwhelming scene. I loathed Whori, so I was happy she finally died… only to still be around in Rick’s delusions.
Corral/Coral is a very funny take on Rick’s pronunciation of his son Carl’s name.
I don’t watch the show but I find it bizarre that she attempts to justify it by saying that “bad stuff happens” and she wants to honestly portray it. It’s a show about zombies for chrissake!
She was obviously coming at it from a place of knowing her friend would be leaving the show, her character dying a horrible death, indirectly at her hand, albeit in a fictionalized way. She obviously puts herself in her character’s shoes deeply, which is partly why I think most everyone loves Maggie. Whereas most viewers at that stage were like “Ugh, Lori, be dead already you miserable wench!” 😉 I found Hershel and also Tyreese’s deaths the worst, they really pissed me off.
p.s. I like her haircut!
I saw the headline and thought it would’ve been the scene where the governor makes her strip and bends her over the table, you know that disgusting scene. This one never even came to my mind, but maybe I’m just so used to the gore and sadness.