CORONAVIRUS
Even TV’s scariest flesh eaters were no match for Covid as it brought filming to a halt. Lauren Cohan tells how she coped on her return to show
FOR nearly a decadedecade, Lauren Cohan has become an expert on how to survive during a global crisis as one of the best-loved stars of The Walking Dead.
But the 38-year-old, whose mum is Scottish, admitted she panicked when the coronavirus pandemic hit.
The affable actress laughed: “You’d think I was an expert, wouldn’t you?
“The truth is, as soon as it happened, I went straight to panic stations and did all the stuff everyone else did – I bought stuff I’m never going to eat or drink, just in case.
“But I would like to think I could come up with a good emergency plan now, if I really had to.”
We don’t doubt it, given Lauren is half Scots. Her mum Susan, who she calls a “tough cookie”, is from Glasgow.
Lauren was born in New Jersey, By the time she was seven, her mum had remarried and she took her stepfather’s surname. The family then moved to the UK when she was in her teens where she went to Winchester University, graduating in English and drama before forging a career in America, aged 22. Hence her sometimes weird accent which goes from American to English.
She said: “A lot of people are surprised when they hear my real accent, although I don’t really know what my accent is any more. My character Maggie is very much a Southern girl of course but sometimes during filming my Maggie accent slips, especially during big physical scenes.
“My dad is American, my mother is Scottish from Newton Mearns in Glasgow, which I understand is the posh part of the city.
“I was born in America and when I was around 13-years-old we moved back to the UK. That’s why I now have this weird accent that can go in any direction, which comes in handy when you’re an actress.”
While she’s proud of her Scottish roots, she sees herself as American.
She said: “My happiest thoughts are nostalgic childhood ones that happened in the States, so that seems as good of a way of deciding as any.”
Lauren, who has four half-siblings and a step-sister, joined The Walking Dead in series two and became an integral part of the survivors’ battles with zombies as Maggie Rhee.
She quit the show in 2018 but rejoined and will return for series 10’s finale tonight.
The series was due to be shown in April but was postponed because of the coronavirus. The wait has meant there will now be six extra episodes of the 10th series to be shown in 2021 along
with w 24 episodes of series 11, the final season of the TV show. As always, the series will be split into two, with the second half being show in 2022.
Despite being away for nearly two years, Lauren who after she left starred alongside Mark Wahlberg in Mile 22 and was the lead in US TV spy drama Whiskey Cavalier, found it easy to return to Georgia where the post-apocalyptic world of the Walking Dead is filmed.
She said: “It was like I had never been away. I spent a whole month shadowing one of our directors and catching up with everyone so when it actually came to play Maggie again, it wasn’t weird or overwhelming at all.”
She has mixed emotions knowing the 11th series will be the last.
She said: “I feel bittersweet about it. I’m kind of excited to know that all of the fans who have watched for such a long time are now all part of our family that all now get to key in for this final season together.
“And, at the same time, it’s not really the end because The Walking Dead is such a huge universe with so many exciting spin-off possibilities.”
Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes will star in a spin-off movie, Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride’s Daryl and Carol will also head to a new frontier and a crossover series, World Beyond, started streaming on Amazon Prime in the UK at the weekend.
From being a farm girl, Maggie has had to see her husband be murdered while pregnant with their son, Hershel, as well as losing her dad and sister. But she has become a tough and fearless leader of the Hill Top community.
Lauren likes to get stuck in. She said: “We get to do a lot but sometimes someone will step in to say you’re not allowed to do something because it’s too dangerous. I like to do as much as I can.”
Of course that’s meant she’s suffered injuries along the way – though never during an amazing action scene. She said: “I always seem to get injured from the most benign stunts.
“One time I remember just having to run along holding a big gun while looking really bad-ass. It was easy but then I twisted my ankle on a little divot on the ground.”
Lauren didn’t think she’d be an actress at first and thought she’d have a career as a psychologist or journalist. But she auditioned for some plays and “something just clicked”. Her first audition was for Basil Brush. She said: “That was so much fun and then after that I just tried to keep the momentum going to find the huge stroke of luck I got with The Walking Dead.”
Her telly break was in 2007 as Bela Talbot in series three of Supernatural and she was also in The Vampire Diaries before being cast in 2011 for The Walking Dead. But she’s not attracted to the dark. “I’m a real scaredy- cat when it comes to anything to do with blood in real life,” she said.
“As an actress, I love the fantasy genre. I love horror and sci-fi for the way you can go further and do more in those kinds of stories.”
As she looks to the end of Walking Dead, Lauren said would love to see Mick Jagger in the show. She said: “I don’t know if he’s a fan of the show but he’d be a great zombie.”
The finale of series 10 of The Walking Dead is on tonight on Fox UK at 9pm.
It wasn’t weird. It was like I had never been away LAUREN COHAN ON PLAYING MAGGIE AFTER RETURN TO SHOW