A few weeks ago, we speculated on what Fear the Walking Dead would look like and how well it would do. As expected, it has done well. Tonight sat down with lead actress, Kim Dickens, who stars as Madison Clark, a normal mother who has to deal with the zombie apocalypse that’s about to befall Los Angeles.
“I got to audition when I was working on another show. I hadn’t seen a lot of The Walking Dead, but I spoke to the producer and the director of the first three episodes whom I asked what I should prepare. They said nothing, because ‘you wouldn’t know how to react when a zombie apocalypse happened’. So I just auditioned on a clean slate and I got lucky,” said Dickens.
Talking about her character, Dickens describes how ordinary Madison is, which is a great set-up for the awful events that overtake her and her family.
“Madison is a warm guidance counsellor at a high school. She is also a single mother who lost her husband a few years earlier. One of her teens has a drug addiction problem. She has recently fallen in love and is trying to blend her family with that of Travis (Cliff Curtis). Meanwhile, his son is on a mission of his own. Travis is her rock,” says the actress.
Unlike The Walking Dead, where most of the characters have some sort of intense training to do in order to execute their roles, Dickens and crew went with virtually nothing.
“I didn’t have to do any sort of complex training for this role. The thing is, we approached it as a normal person would. These characters are normal people and not law enforcement officials, or the sort of people who are skilled in any weaponry,” she said.
This, in turn, made the characters believable as they remind us of ourselves.
“I think these characters are very easy to relate to. We do take time to develop them – getting into their daily challenges. And the blending of families certainly comes with challenges,” said Dickens.
With end of time TV shows like Falling Skies and Under the Dome on the rise, we asked Dickens why this genre of TV seemed to be making waves. “Stories like this are escapism with a human element to it. I think the audience get to explore what they would do in circumstances like that. They want to know if their morals would change, and if they would make it,” she speculates.
Given that she is from LA, where there are regular earthquakes, she says she does have a sort of “ end of the world” contingency plan.
“I travel a lot, but most of the time I live in LA and I do have my earthquake kit. One is in the house and the other is in the car. The kit has a first-aid kit, bandages, a blanket, packages of water and food, a radio and a flash light and batteries. Unfortunately I think they have expired,” she admits.
Fear the Walking Dead was a risk to make because die-hard fans felt like it was a cheap rip-off, but Dickens felt it was necessary to tell that story. “I think Robert Kirkman’s vision offered another window, which showed a densely populated area as opposed to desert. It’s a whole different view as to what happens to people in a city, as opposed to in the rural areas, when an apocalypse befalls them. I think many of the fans were worried, but they will like it because it’s not a spin-off, it’s just a story about life before. I didn’t feel the pressure of being compared with The Walking Dead at first, but as it got closer to premiering I just hoped the people would like it. It’s lucky for us The Walking Dead has done so well,” she said.
Dickens has been in several other major productions including Sons of Anarchy, Gone Girl, Deadwood and The Blind Side.
“I feel I have been fortunate to be involved in great projects and shows. Going back to Deadwood, I feel fortunate to be working with creative geniuses. And I could not believe that at this point in my life I could have got a role in a David Fincher film, Gone Girl.”
l Fear the Walking Dead airs Mondays at 8pm on StarSat.