With The Walking Dead concluding after 11 seasons on air, casting directors Sherry Thomas, Sharon Bialy and Gohar Gazazyan released a video exploring the origins of how cast members Steven Yuen, Melissa McBride and Lennie James received their iconic parts.Posted on The Walking Dead Twitter account, the video showed Thomas, Bialy and Gazazyan discussing the importance of getting these characters right after they were blown away by the pilot script. Because this was the first time they were adapting a graphic novel, focus was placed on getting, in Thomas’ words, “not necessarily the look, but rather the soul of who that character was going to be.”
#TWD’s casting directors share their first impressions of the audition tapes. pic.twitter.com/tizkbo7q9H— The Walking Dead on AMC (@WalkingDead_AMC) September 17, 2020
On casting Steven Yuen as Glenn, who had only done one TV role before The Walking Dead, Bialy revealed that “he came to the office and we started rehearsing. When he went in the next day, even as someone who was a novice actor, he was completely prepared and had it all down.” Gazazyan also noted, “To remember his first audition for the part and then to see how interesting and compelling the character became and grew to be is a lot of fun for us too when you cast somebody just young and new to it.”
By comparison, Melissa McBride was already a “known entity” prior to playing Carol. One of the casting directors had cast her in 2007’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Mist and, based on McBride’s performance as a “devastated mother” in that film, “knew that she had the right stuff for Carol.” This intuition proved correct, as McBride would go on to exceed the lifespan of Carol’s graphic novel counterpart and become a main protagonist across The Walking Dead’s many seasons.
As for Lennie James as Morgan, Bialy revealed that “he was the first actor to read for the role and he just knocked it out of the ballpark.” Alongside video footage of James’ audition, the directors discussed the unique importance of getting Morgan right since most of the pilot relied on the bond Andrew Lincoln’s Rick formed with him after waking up to the post-apocalyptic world. Gazazyan even cried watching his performance, calling that “not a common reaction that you have during an audition, you know it’s something special when you’re actually moved to tears.”
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