Actor looks beyond Walking Dead
TORONTO — Chandler Riggs has been fighting zombies as Carl on TV’s The Walking Dead since he was 10.
Now 16, he’s eager to sink his teeth into other projects, but finds it difficult to break away from his character on the AMC smash.
“I’ve only gotten horror roles ever since I got on Walking Dead so I’m really hoping to try and branch out from that genre and hope that I won’t get stuck there forever,” Riggs says.
“I do want to get other roles. I’ve been auditioning for other things, ever since I started on the show.”
Riggs opened up about those struggles on Twitter and Facebook earlier this year, when he revealed he had auditioned for (and lost) the role of Spider-Man.
Reached at his home in Georgia, the actor admitted he’s musing on a “backup plan” to acting, especially with college looming in a couple of years.
The Grade 11 student, who attends a regular public high school in Georgia, says he’s keen to get a post-secondary education, even though he’d like to continue acting.
“Both my parents were teachers so it’d be cool to be a teacher,” he says.
Riggs discussed his future in advance of an appearance at Fan Expo Canada, a four-day comics, sci-fi, horror, anime, and gaming event kicking off Thursday in Toronto. The teen will be joined by The Walking Dead co-stars Norman Reedus (who plays fan favourite Daryl) and Lennie James (who plays Morgan).
Other celebrity guests include The X-Files star Gillian Anderson, former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson, Scream star Neve Campbell and actor Billy Dee Williams, best known for playing Lando Calrissian in two Star Wars episodes.
Other Fan Expo events include a Saturday Hogwarts reunion with Harry Potter stars Rupert Grint (who played Ron Weasley), James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley) and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy).
Riggs says he first caught the acting bug at age four, starting with small community theatre projects. Professional gigs were harder to snag and he was on the verge of quitting before landing The Walking Dead.
“I had to keep on missing school just because of auditions and my dad had to keep on missing work — and he’s a teacher and it’s kind of hard to miss work there.”
Once on the show, he found a friendly face in co-star Melissa McBride, who was a casting director before she took on the role of battlehardened Carol.
“I had actually gone to audition for her lots of times so when we came to the set we had already known each other for like two or three years,” says Riggs, adding that his onscreen dad Andrew Lincoln also proved to be a valuable mentor.
“We’re all pretty close.”