Lauren Cohan Shares Some Behind-The-Scenes Facts About "The Walking Dead," "Dead City," And More

Lauren Cohan rent us behind the setting of her 12 - class journey playing Maggie inThe Walking Deaduniverse , portraying Maggie ’s grief post - Glenn , and working with Jeffrey Dean Morgan .

For over 10 year , Lauren Cohanhas portray Maggie Greene - Rhee inThe Walking Deaduniverse . JoiningThe Walking Deadin Season 2 , she ’s been at the center of some of the biggest plot line on the show . Namely , her alchemy withSteven Yeun . Their depicting of Glenn and Maggie is arguably still one of the most beloved pairings to get along out of the show . Now , seven years after Glenn ’s death , Lauren is still growing Maggie ’s grapheme , and showing how rich a story about sorrow and psychic trauma can be .

While onThe Walking Dead , Maggie was a single member of a huge ensemble , but now Lauren ’s scram to show the deeper layers of the character withThe Walking Dead : Dead City , a twirl - off centering on Maggie and her unlikely partnership with Negan ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan ) as they traverse NYC . It ’s a whole new arena and one that has been " really exciting " for Lauren , as Maggie ( finally ) fill midway leg .

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To celebrate the premiere ofDead City , Lauren sat down with me to talk over her journey play Maggie . She shared some of her favorite memories from her early days onThe Walking Dead , howDead Citygives her a chance to show the " virtuously gray " side to Maggie , and much more .

Here ’s everything we chatted about :

🚨 There are some spoiler forThe Walking Dead : Dead CityEpisode 1 ahead ! 🚨

THEN: You joinedThe Walking Deadin Season 2, over 10 years ago, do you remember your original audition for Maggie?

A thousand percent . It was come off the back of a big living determination . It was so unexpected . I just remember I descend out to LA from the UK and did pilot season and did a few TV shows likeThe Vampire Diaries , Supernatural , andChuck . I had all of these telecasting experiences , but I was still so homesick . I do n’t conceive I was really quick to wholly squeeze Los Angeles either . Even though those shows film in different places , there was something about moving to LA where I was hesitant .

So I got the auditory sense forThe Walking Dead , and it was part of a string of a bunch of auditions . I would make tape . The first tape I did , I was at my parents house and my sister made the tape recording with me . I remembered reading the script and it matte up altogether visceral and very natural . Then , I got a recall , with some feedback , and I had to do it one more metre , but I was at a wedding . So I call up I was like in a rook in Ireland . It was very random . Anyway , they said they loved it , so I was preparing to go to Georgia to do a chemistry read with Steven [ Yeun ] , and then like that afternoon they said , " Actually , they ’ve decided . Frank [ Darabont ] said it ’s you . You pose the role . "

NOW: When did conversations first start that Maggie would get a spin-off series afterThe Walking Deadended?

Before I even live back toThe walk Deadat the destruction of Season 10 , Scott Gimple had ask me about my interest in either coming back on the show or doing a different show . Originally what they terminate up decide to do was have me come back on the show and then have Jeff [ Dean Morgan ] and I " take over . " At the time , Norman [ Reedus ] was going to leave behind , Andy [ Lincoln ] had already left , Danai [ Gurira ] had left . We were gon na go into Season 11 and do four more days with the show , with Jeff and I kind of continue onThe walk Dead .

Wait , that ’s wild .

Yeah ! And in the closing , they had this idea forDead City , with our character in a whole newfangled fix with a new plot line and that sounded really exciting because it meant we could jump off forward in meter .

I do n’t retrieve I really realized how much prison term had pass from the close ofTWDtoDead Cityuntil we see Hershel in the first episode .

We were always kind of equivocal with timeline onThe Walking Deadbecause kids aged so other than , and we were always inquire if we involve to replace a kid role player . But , in this example , it was enough time that we had Logan Kim come on .

Hershel being so much senior also made me earn how much fourth dimension has really passed since Glenn ’s death .

precisely !

THEN: Looking back, do you have a favorite Maggie storyline fromThe Walking Dead? Or a favorite season from the show?

Season 2 is so palpable for me . I have so much muscle memory from Seasons 2 and 3 . The newness of everything and the rawemotions . The sort of terror and trauma , and the grounds to fight for those characters . There were just so many brutal , and now memorable , moments from the series during that time . Like , we play from the farm , my dad ’s leg gets chopped off , I perform a C - section on Lori —

Oh my god , I forgot Maggie ’s the one who delivers Judith at the prison . I have n’t think about that in so long .

Yeah ! In front of Carl ! And we play baby Judith out and give her to Rick , and he ’s destroyed . But even past Season 3 , it was just one matter after another for Maggie , and I call up it so vividly . Hershel ’s death , being separate from Glenn , the cannibals , Beth dying … it was so heartfelt and it was so much . Then , it finally culminate in Maggie and Glenn getting married , him dying , and them having a kid .

I think about it all , even the bad things , and I picture those gilded hour moments of the good things . Like , when Hershel finds the therapeutic for the flu and they relieve Glenn . Or when Glenn require the exposure of Maggie . The perseverance amidst the darkness and the pandemonium . I ca n’t believe it has been a X of just really big things go on .

NOW: When did you first hear the whole idea forDead City? It must’ve been exciting to get to be able to explore the character so much more after playing her for so long.

I think we were on our midseason break for Season 11 and Eli Jorné , our showrunner , who had done some stuff onThe Walking Deadin the time that I was exit , pitched me the outline forDead City , and it was so nerveless and exciting . By then , we were well underway but find out this kind of whole thing laid out voice like a really skilful maturation of the grapheme and the story , and a different type of storytelling . It offered a deeper geographic expedition of the core characters , which was really exciting , I consider , for both Jeff and I.

Did you have a break betweenThe Walking Deadwrapping and then starting output onDead City ?

We locomote into production , I require to say , like six weeks after we wrapped Season 11 . We shoot Season 11 for about a year , and then we had a few weeks off , and then — I was about to say time of year 12 — we did Season 1 ofDead City . We enwrap that at the end of last class .

Was the Maggie and Negan spin-off always going to be set inNew YorkCity? Or were there ideas for other locations?

Eli had some really good ideas of a few unlike places we could set the show and sort of shuttle it into the future . The one that sound the most exciting was this New York idea . In fact , at the time , we knew it would either be a Western or would be set in New York City . It was going to be one of two very unlike location from the Georgia woods . It sounded exciting .

THEN: It’s interesting that you never did a chemistry read with Steven Yeun before startingTWD. Was it wild to suddenly be thrust into a role where you’re now part of one of the most beloved relationships on the show?

I know , I matt-up that , too . People were so worked up about Maggie and Glenn because people that jazz the strip knew how significant they were , and then hoi polloi were so excited with how Steven and I worked on filmdom . I still look back on Maggie and Glenn and call back how uniquely romantic that setting is . You ’ve got these two people and it ’s the end of the world . We ’re in the drugstore , and I do n’t neutralise any time .

It was this landscape to really show what it think of to have somebody ’s back and show up for them . These thing that are really desperate and obviously you go into the series and there ’s undeniably epic things that befall , but I always just thought it was so cool the style hoi polloi that this duo acted and calculate out for each other , even in the modest moments .

NOW: How has it been working with Jeffrey Dean Morgan onDead City? Your characters are such an unlikely pair, given their history, but it works so well in the show.

Jeff ’s just the easiest body of work partner and brother to hang out with . He ’s such a great dude . I do n’t screw what other way to put it . He ’s just a secure dude . It ’s such a playfulness affair for us because we have history , we have time that we ’ve spend together over the eld onThe walk Dead , but it was in such a different mindset for me because I also could never have imagined these characters would have to get along , peculiarly in the starting time , in the raw , post - mortem of Negan and Glenn .

We did n’t really have much plot line together at first , too . It was really at the end of Season 10 , when I came back and shadow our director before I come back onto the show , and then time of year 11 that we formed our friendship , and then we were babble out about the spin - off and we just feel super excited for how different it is to get to work up upon such an unconvincing moral force between people .

You and Jeff are also producingDead City . How is it wreak together in that aspect as well ?

It ’s really fun cause Jeff as a produce married person , too . We just cognize the show and the characters so well , but we are also reckon about different things at the same fourth dimension . So it ’s nice to be able to come at it from unlike perspectives , but it all fits into this universe .

Maggie and Negan having a spin-off together is something I never would’ve imagined way back when he was introduced. What was most exciting to you about this duo now sharing more time together?

There was something introduced at the remnant of Season 11 that I was really unrestrained to take out and go deep into forDead City , which is that it ’s not about pardon , which I think is so far , far down the road for Maggie , in an honest sensation . But like what really happens when you are boldness - to - face with someone who has been responsible for for what you — and others — perceive as the bad thing that could perchance encounter . It ’s something that comes up , I think , in life , too .

life-time is really about what you do with the card you ’re played , but also how am I — meaning Maggie — supposed to really move forth if I ’ve not process what has happened ?

THEN: When looking at Maggie’s entire arc, I feel like she has been dealing with her grief for so long, which is so true to real life how grief doesn’t just go away. How was it portraying that mindset for several seasons now?

That ’s actually how I really see this novel show . It ’s attend at Maggie , and namely her injury , from a unlike view than we have in the past . It ’s like now standing on a different side of a tantrum and you ’re looking at it this elbow room . And when you ’re looking at it this way what else can you notice , what other ways are you capable to grow , and just the layer you’re able to ascertain . That ’s why this season has been so rewarding and fructify us up so nicely to , I do n’t wanna say pamperer , but there are just thing that it sets up as an geographic expedition of the whole human experience and we get to go even deeply .

NOW: Like you said, having a new setting forDead Citymakes the show feel so different fromThe Walking Dead. How was it filming in a city setting now as opposed to the woods in Georgia?

The experience of filming in such a different location , it felt like we were just doing an entirely different show , like you say . It ’s intemperate to even separate the location being different from justeverythingbeing unlike fromTWD .

It was so appropriate because , as you watch , Maggie and Negan have never been to NYC . So , you get these two the great unwashed who are usually at betting odds with each other , who are normally so skilful in the place they hail from , then coming to this whole unexampled place setting where they are n’t as comfortable .

I also lie with how when you enter NYC in the original for the first clock time I was expecting pedestrian to be everywhere , like to the first episodes ofThe Walking Deadwhen they are in Atlanta .   But it was … spookily placid .

Yes ! we arrive in the metropolis and the fact that there are n’t immediately wanderer — or walker — everywhere is sort of anxiousness - inducing because you experience they must be somewhere . It gives the notion that if you ’re expecting to take the air into something and you ’re amped and then it ’s not there , your adrenaline has nowhere to go . You just remain sort of weary . The whole show , as you ’ll see throughout the time of year , has that . Some of the localization that we ’ve been able-bodied to shoot in are so different and so scary , in different ways from only being walker - ridden .

Besides the setting, what else madeDead Cityfeel different from your experience onThe Walking Dead?

One thing that was different was I go in knowing where the season began and where it finish , and it was a concise season . Then catch to see how dissimilar characters represented dissimilar thing that you could explore in the apocalypse that we had perchance expect at in the original show , but had looked at from a different slant . I got to be so surprised by things , like with Gaius [ Charles ] ’s character and   Željko [ Ivanek ] ’s character . They just offer up up such a different feeling .

THEN: I feel like you’ve played two very different versions of Maggie: life with Glenn and post-Glenn. Are there aspects of “the old Maggie” you miss playing?

I conceive part of the work that we ’re doing inDead Cityis to reckon out who that person was because , like you say , this post - Glenn Maggie has now been so normalized . It ’s like when you get older and you await back at being freewheeling in your 20s and you know you had worry , but they do n’t seem as profoundly experiential as the ace you have now . You ’ve lived so much and gone through so much in that span of time and you do n’t think about why you were happy then vs. now . I reckon about fighting our way back to that and getting back to that headspace with Maggie a band . I intend of now encounter an panorama of her that was maybe rushed through or ask for cede then that I would love to see hail through again now .

And , I mean , there are plainly aspects of this current Maggie that have made her the survivor that she is .

precisely . There ’s thing that have made that fibre persevere . There ’s obviously a deep well of painful sensation that gets revealed sometimes and we see it inDead Citywhen I ’m unforced to let the lunar time period ebbing and the exposure procession . To me , it ’s the very unusual , unexpected surprisal of a show like this , where it has evolved in a way where it ’s the same character , of grade , it is , but we ’ve now carry the time to mine and go deep .

NOW: This time around, are you able to share more of your ideas and thoughts on Maggie’s character arc and story? Especially since you’ve been with this character for so long and know her so well.

Yeah , I felt really involved once we were in the early stages of pre - production and in production . The story , as it came in Season 1 , was so tonic to me . I know that I would terminate up bringing my history with the character to the design for this season in a way that was pass to be really fun . There ’s always that blank between what you already know , your former reason , and then someone else ’s view . Like what Eli brought to the show , and that magical thing in the collaboration .

I scan Episode 1 through 6 and I was just so excited to see that as much as anybody want to be progressively moving forward in life there ’s possibly a couple stair forwards , but then inevitably there are pace rearward , as well .

Did you approach represent Maggie inDead Citydifferently than when you flirt her inThe Walking Dead ? Especially in the terminal time of year .

I think one fix conflict with this show was the ways I sort of almost bump off certain thing about Maggie . Like , she does become vulnerable at points throughout the time of year , but there ’s something that has to be tamped down and put on ice in approaching her this prison term around because it ’s almost like things had to get more locked up .

She ’s not around Carol , Daryl , the people she know —

The people she can trust , yes ! It ’s almost like emotionally threadbare . We ’re leave with the bedrock .

THEN: Glenn’s death is still a big factor in Maggie’sDead Cityarc, especially in Episode 1 when she dreams of his death again. How has it been having to revisit that event?

When I watched it back … I cringed all over again .

Truthfully , I have not view that setting since it aired . And even then , I was call so heavily I guess I view half of it behind my hands .

[ laughing ] It was a lot . But I reckon it ’s so authoritative to show that scene here because it ’s that thing of you conceive everything ’s okay , and then you close your eyes and that ’s what you see and that ’s what you think of . It ’s like what Maggie says at the final stage of Season 11 to Negan . I ca n’t remember Glenn without remembering what Negan did to him and how he took him out of this human race .

I think that even if you put your blinders on and can get through most of the 24-hour interval , that thing , subconsciously , is still running constantly . It ’s such a huge influence on every decisiveness Maggie makes and the room she sees everything . I mean , the direction I protect my son and treat my son . Like , can we ever be aware of how much our trauma is prescribe our current behavior ? No . But it ’s part of the uncomfortable thing . If you get something rest on your heart and it makes you incapable of deal action , and you have to just get through the daylight , maybe this rigidity has been her only survival chemical mechanism .

NOW: InDead CityEpisode 1, Negan has a moment where he says that Maggie’s probably killed husbands and fathers too. How has it been exploring this morally gray side to Maggie through her unlikely partnership with Negan?

give thanks you ! Thank you for bringing that up . That ’s such a immense factor . It ’s funny because everything ’s in the name of survival . As we see act out inDead City , Negan , buy it or not , think it has all been part of live in the way that he thinks will be most efficient . I get it on that my military action … nothing Maggie could ever do will equal what he did . But , is there a world where I lead off to understand the somebody and all the armour that he build up to do the things he feel he had to do ?

It ’s wild to think of it from Negan ’s position because , being such a Maggie fan , I ’d never believe about it like that until he articulate it . Like yes , Maggiehasprobably killed other citizenry ’s family members , like Negan killed Glenn .

I do look back to episodes with Maggie where she vote out Gregory and where she made determination in a silo and felt that it was the best thing to do . I will never ever be able to say that Maggie and Negan are the same , but I care the idea of a military man on the route to truly apologizing and stand for to change . I think she ’s aware that there is a white-haired area when it comes to Negan and his legal action , but she ’s still very much stuck in the black and blank of the way that our actions define who we are .

I still think , during every present moment , the reason I do n’t defeat him is because will it really give me what I need ? And will it make me only as bad as him . But the desire to see if obliterate him would give me peace or would redress the universe somehow is never out of my mind .

THEN: Did you take anything fromThe Walking Deadset after filming wrapped?

I still have my belt , but that remains in Maggie ’s closet . And then I took my boots . I took a lot of shit . I have this jacket that I wore in that instalment with Leah , which was n’t even really a signature tune cap of Maggie ’s . We call back about bringing it back in at some point . It ’s funny for these show imagining character bring back pieces of closet because you imagine , at some point , these character having to cut down everything and ladder .

On a soppy stratum , I take the second twosome of boots that I ever had on the show . The first ones absolutely evaporated and we looked mellow and low for them . They were the ones that were sort of knee - high Fryes , with the ruddy lacing , that I wore I think in Season 2 and 3 .

[ laughing ] hold off , I loved those boots . I know the exact ones you ’re talking about .

I recall Iliana [ Sanchez ] , who was one of the onslaught actor’s assistant onThe Walking Dead , for the girls , she would fatigue our thrill before us so that they were broken in . She ’d take the blister for the team because we were often jumping flat into legal action and everything . If that ’s not a squad player then I do not know what is .

I took my professorship back . I just have scripts and retentivity , and honestly , so much   appurtenance . Like , crew wrap gifts , posting , cool stuff that we made . I just need a room of all of our dolls and magazine covers . At some breaker point , I need an bureau to exhibit all of that .

The Walking Dead: Dead Cityairs Sundays at 9 p.m. ETon AMC. And you can watch three days earlier on AMC+.