In an interview with CBR, actors Lesley-Ann Brandt and Terry O’Quinn discuss the explosive and deadly The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live finale.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live has drawn to a close after six eventful episodes. Although the fight to demolish the CRM seemed quick, it was years in the making for Rick Grimes and Michonne. By the end of Season 1, Episode 6, “The Last Time,” the CRM has been fully dismantled into a new operation that focuses on the well-being of its city’s citizens and outsiders — which is made possible by killing the military’s top-ranking members.
Among those who perish in the fallout are CRM soldiers Major General Beale and Pearl Thorne. The latter had risen to the top of the ranks with Rick, only to abandon their friendship to carry out the CRM’s sinister Echelon Briefing. Rick’s pushback against the Echelon Briefing was a call for war against Beale, leading to a fight that the former was going to win. In an interview with CBR, actors Terry O’Quinn and Lesley-Ann Brandt look back on performing their duels like a dance and give their takes on the Echelon Briefing plot twist.
CBR: Both of your characters went out fighting, which is very on brand for them. Actors often say that performing a fight scene is like performing a dance because of the choreography. Would you say that’s accurate for your final scenes?
Terry O’Quinn: I suppose so, because I don’t dance very well either. My fight scenes 30 years ago were probably a little bit more active and believable, but I managed to get most of [this fight scene] done. Rick Grimes was a pretty good fighter, so he took care of me fairly easily.
Lesley-Ann Brandt: I love stunt choreography. I like to do a lot of my own [stunt work] if I can. For the most part, that is me under that mask. I love it because it’s such a connection you have to have with your opposite actor, knowing when to dodge and move. That fight was actually pretty intense. I fought Rick Grimes in the morning and then Michonne in the afternoon. Physically, that was 78 degrees humidity in full military gear. I was so wet. I was dying. They had to ice me down in between setups. But it’s a lot of fun. I think there’s a physicality to the character that you really get to see. I’m taking on Michonne, and then she stabs me. It’s a great way to go out.
Brandt: It was her thinking that Okafor was right about needing the CRM to change, and he was right about Rick. But the Beale part of it is — and I think that’s why Thorne hands Michonne the mask at the end — that they represent an army and a part of this community believes that they have to kill in order to survive as people. Whereas Rick and Michonne’s ideology and what Alexandria represents is true community in every sense of the word. They trust and take care of one another.
The Civic Republic doesn’t even know what the CRM is up to. They’ve just decided to sort of like go about their business. I think what she means is, “You just have to hope that Beale’s plan is wrong.” Beale’s laid out very clearly what will happen to humanity, and whether Rick gets to go home now, he’s still going to have the threat of a billion delts (walkers). Out there, people you love are still going to die. But I think she realizes she was wrong.
Beale came back as a walker after his death. That’s sort of a privilege on The Walking Dead. Were you given specific instructions on how to act as a walker? Or were you allowed to find the rhythm with your zombified self?
O’Quinn: In the moment, [director] Michael [E. Satrazemis] and other people were standing off by the camera going [imitates zombie mannerisms] and making sounds. I realized when I watched the episode, I tended to walk sort of like Michael Jackson in “Thriller.” The other walkers just had their arms kind of hanging. I was a unique walker. I didn’t even know that I was going to be [a walker]. Scott M. Gimple sort of sprung that on me a little bit after we had started the process. It was fun.
Is getting into the prosthetics and makeup as gruesome as people say it is?
O’Quinn: In my case, it wasn’t because I was freshly dead. I just came back from the grave. I was sitting there, and I said, “Wow, this is more than I expected. I’ve only been dead for an hour. Chill with the makeup.” [Laughs] But I’ve done some of that stuff before. I always die. I have friends in my little town where I live where it’s raining and cold. I walked down to the coffee shop, and they said, “What are you working on?” And I said, “The Walking Dead.” They asked, “Do you die?” And I said, “Yes, yes. I do. I die. I always die.”
It’s kind of like riding a bicycle for you.
O’Quinn: It makes for a good monologue. “The Numerous Ways I’ve Died.”
Brandt: I’m trying to think. This might be the first time I have died. I don’t think I’ve died!
O’Quinn: You’ve got a lot of dying to do, grasshopper.
Brandt: I’m going to watch Terry O’Quinn dying scenes now in preparation.
O’Quinn: I should make a whole reel of just my deaths, because there are some good ones.
Beyond deaths, there’s a lot going on in The Ones Who Live finale, including Judith and RJ Grimes appearing. Were there any small details that completed the story for you as actors? Something the fans may not have picked up on?
O’Quinn: Beale’s story has a beginning and an end. I’m there a little bit in the first episode, to sort of lay out the whole plan and tell you what my ideas are. Then I got killed. I don’t know the previous history of The Walking Dead. So if the audience had any questions like, “Who’s Beale? What does he want to do?” Sorry, he’s dead.
Brandt: For me, it was the deeper commentary about humanity. It’s knowing you’re going to play a character that’s not going to be liked, but also not judging that character by the decisions she makes. They’re very human. These are all relatable themes. But exploring the real threat of human beings in the show — as opposed to walkers — was great for me. What makes Thorne so different from Rick? She chooses one way, he chooses that way. What does she give up?
Then I’d say for moments on set, that final fight scene for me was pretty epic because I love the physicality of that. As an actor coming off Lucifer and playing the resident demon there, it reminded me of when I first got to Los Angeles. In two weeks, I booked a recurring role on CSI: New York and then an episode of Chuck. When you’re a new actor, you’re like, “Wow, this is amazing!” I’m driving on the 101 [Freeway] because in the morning, I’m about to play someone who’s being kidnapped on CSI. In the afternoon, I’m tying John Larroquette up, seducing him and fighting in this female army. It was one of those very epic L.A. actor moments. There’s a Mercedes-Benz on fire on the 101, and I’m like, “I’m going to die, baby!” [Laughs] It felt like that when I worked on that fight with Michonne in the morning, with crimes and explosions in the CRM. It felt very movie-like.
The terrible things the CRM were planning to do were all laid out in the Echelon Briefing. Were you aware of the contents of the Echelon Briefing before reading the script for The Ones Who Live finale?
O’Quinn: I was not. I had one brief scene in the first episode on the park bench with Rick, but they added that scene after I shot pretty much everything in the finale [and[ they wanted me earlier in the show. But that was all new to me. It was pretty damn shocking. The video that Michonne was watching was almost the worst part of it. That was terrible.
Brandt: I didn’t know. I kept asking Scott what it was. I needed to know because there were scenes coming up. Then when I found out more of the details, I was like, “Oh my god.” What an awful thing to do to people for your own survival. But also, don’t judge it, because that’s the decision your character’s making. That’s the real trick of playing characters like Thorne and Beale. They really do believe this is the right thing to do. There’s no judgment. Now, it’s not the decision Terry and Lesley-Ann might make, but it’s their character’s decision. You’ve got to honor that.
Did learning about the Echelon Briefing change how you perceived your character?
O’Quinn: Not for me. Beale tells a bit of his backstory about growing up in Pittsburgh and how his dad beat him up. He’s a survivalist, but a larger version of those three guys that Rick and Michonne meet in [Season 1, Episode 5, “Become”]. Rick and Michonne give them some food on the trail, pull a gun and say, “I want the rest of the food.” Beale’s thinking about his family, which encompasses all of Philadelphia. Beale’s just like those three guys thinking about themselves when they kill somebody. But Rick and Michonne wouldn’t make the choices that Beale makes. They won’t make the choices those guys on the trail made. They have this ethical and moral line that they won’t cross. Beale has no problems crossing that line.
Brandt: I think the show’s commentary is about putting ethical and moral leaders in positions of power. The world obviously needs more of that. This story reflects your humanity back to you. To what length are you going to go to protect your community or the people you love? These are all relevant. The humans are the biggest threat in the show. It’s not really the delts at this point. I think it’s a lot easier to reflect themes of humanity back to audiences when it’s set in the world of sci-fi or supernatural shows. Beale says, “We’re going to take over the city. There’s too much at stake for freedom.”
That was a really scary line.
Brandt: Yeah! Thorne bought it all. She understands. She’s thinking, “We’ve got 500 years. This is how we’re going to protect ourselves. We’re going to just insulate ourselves and there are going to be casualties. But that’s the price you pay.” The justification of that is what makes Michonne and Rick different from Beale and Thorne. I felt huge amounts of empathy for Thorne in those moments, because I understood what she was trying to do, but she made some really bad choices, and she didn’t know who she was up against. The deep betrayal is when she rounds the corner and sees her friend. She thinks, “You lied. You didn’t tell me.”
O’Quinn: It was personal. It was fitting that Thorne was the last person to die because she was the one that almost could have gone either way.
Brandt: I wonder what she would have done if Rick had told her about Michonne sooner. If he had said to Thorne in the doorway in [Season 1, Episode 3, “Bye”], “This is my love, and she’s here.” That interrogation the CRM gave Michonne was the same one Okafor gave Thorne. There would have been something to relate to. But she’s too far gone.
