As a testament to how popular The Walking Dead is and has been from its debut, several of the actors in attendance at Walker Stalker Con Boston Aug. 22-23 have been off the show since before the last season and fans were just as excited for them as anyone else.
Among those actors were the lovely young ladies who played the more recently departed Lizzie and Mika — up to that point possibly the most controversial deaths on the show. Kyla Kenedy (Mika) and Brighton Sharbino (Lizzie) were gems of the weekend. On top of playfully and happily meeting fans at their booths, they did a panel together and the audience was all stunned at how funny, mature and eloquent they were. Sharbino was sweet and wise and Kenedy was a firecracker — giving long-winded but hysterical, intelligent answers to every question and being aware that she was doing so.
There was also an “original” actor, Jeryl Prescott, who played Jacqui, a member of Rick’s initial group of survivors. At the end of season two, Jacqui decided to stay behind in the doomed CDC building, ending her life instead of traveling on to face the uncertainty of the zombie-infested world. Prescott did an “Originals” panel with Irone Singleton (T-Dog), and the two reminded everyone why they loved them when they were on the show.
Then there were two people from the prison era: Daniel Thomas May, who played Allen, a member of a survivor group that joins Rick’s at the prison, though Allen doesn’t trust Rick and his people; and Melissa Ponzio, who played Karen, a Woodbury resident who joins Rick’s gang after escaping the Governor’s massacre on his own people.
The characters may be gone from the show, but the fans still love them, and TheCelebrityCafe had the opportunity to talk to the actors about their Walking Dead experience, what they’ve done since and more.
Below are those interviews.
Brighton Sharbino
TheCelebrityCafe: How was it being one of the only young people on such a violent show, how were you treated?
Brighton Sharbino: It was pretty fun. Everybody kept it light-hearted because it was like a lot of deeper, darker scenes. I had a lot of fun on set. I had Kyla and I've known her since I was like 8 — from school and acting classes, all that.
TCC: How old were you when you started the show?
BS: I was 10. I had a birthday in the middle of the season so I was 11. Then I did re-shoots for the fifth season where we see Tyreese and I was 12. I turned 13 three days ago.
[Kyla and I] are six or five months apart.
TCC: Was it hard for you to understand what was going on with Lizzie?
BS: They sat me down when I first got the script and kind of tried to explain it in the best way. She did have some character growth throughout the season so there was slight changes and she did get a little bit more darker during the end, but I just try to do all the emotions of the character.
TCC: What's next for you?
BS: I actually, I flew out here from Atlanta where I'm shooting a movie called Miracles from Heaven and I play Jennifer Garner and Martin Henderson's daughter in that one. I'm actually flying back the day after tomorrow to go shoot some more.
TCC: How do you think you'd do in the zombie apocalypse?
BS: Pretty good, I think I'd do ok. I would hope I wouldn't have to, but yeah.
TCC: Are you scared of zombies or anything?
BS: No I think the things I'm most scared of is more real-life things like kidnapping, robbers, muggers, things that have actually happened to people in this time.
TCC: How do you look back on your time on The Walking Dead?
BS: It's just been a great experience all around and it's really helped me a lot with my acting career and it's gotten me the chance to have interviews and go meet people. It's been a really great experience.
Kyla Kenedy - Mika
TheCelebrityCafe: How was it being a kid on a show like The Walking Dead?
Kyla Kenedy: Most of the people just kind of treated me like an adult. But you know, there's some scenes that are a little bit mature for kids. At the time I was 10 years old, so I couldn't be around all the bloody scenes, so we kind of did this thing where, whenever there was inappropriate scenes, all the kids go into this room and we'd do school and play games. So it was really fun, really kid friendly. But most of the time they just treated me as an adult so it was pretty normal.
TCC: What do you think Mika would have become if she'd lived?
KK: I think throughout the beginning of season six she would have become stronger, almost like a mini version of Carol but I think she'd be a little bit more caring than Carol. Of course, Melissa McBride plays Carol impeccably, but you know, I think Mika would have kept her humane side to her instead of just being a little bit ruthless.
TCC: What's next for you?
KK: If everything works out then hopefully I will be in Switzerland during the fall filming a feature film.
TCC: Are you scared of zombies?
KK: No.
TCC: How do you think you'd do in a zombie apocalypse?
KK: I would die within the first day.
Jeryl Prescott - Jacqui
TheCelebrityCafe: In your panel, you said Jacqui made the decision to stay behind because she was ready to die, her life was fulfilled. As your own life stands now, would you make that same decision?
Jeryl Prescott: No. There's so many things that I want to do. I want to see my boys as adults, see their lives come to fruition. After all the money I put into them — children, they are so expensive. You deserve to see what comes out of all that. And for myself I even have more goals and aspirations as an actress, as a woman. There's some things I need to work out with my relationships, get a little better at being in one and — what else do I want to do — all kinds of things. I'm not quite ready to go yet, I think I still have some work to do, God is not through with me yet, I'm not through with my life.
TCC: What are some of those career goals?
JP: I have a couple films coming up soon — The Cold Descent and The Birth of a Nation. Both will come out in 2016. That film work has made me hungry for more film work, so I'd love to do more film. I'm also interested in doing some family TV because everything I do my boys can't watch, they're 10 and 12 and it's all so mature. Walking Dead, I know a lot of kids watch it but I guess I'm, their father and I, we've always been a little overprotective of them and they really haven't watched it very much. So I'd love to do family-style TV, something we could all watch together and enjoy, that'd be kind of cool.
TCC: How hard was it to see the show go on after you were off it?
JP: It's great, I root them on, I cheer for my friends now who are on the show. It's been a joy just watching everybody grow and change and knowing we all really came into experience not having much in our backgrounds and not having a lot of expectations and just watching it all grow is really a lot of fun. I still love rooting them on.
TCC: On a show on which everyone keeps dying, what's the key to keeping people invested?
JP: Well I think it has something to do with allowing us to participate in this constant question of how much can we take, how much can the human being withstand before breaking or being changed forever? What is it going to take to make someone actually resort to murdering another person, or what's it gonna take to make somebody choose death over life?
We're always looking at characters make those decision and at the same time asking ourselves, "man what would I do if I had to protect my family or I thought my life was at stake or if I didn't trust somebody? What would I do in these extreme circumstances?" And I think that's a question we all end up asking ourselves, maybe more often than we'd like in real life, and when we see it played out in front of us it then lets us know, it's reassuring in some ways, it lets us know everybody is struggling with those things. It's stimulating because it reminds us, okay we're not the only ones having to make tough choices.
TCC: How do you think you'd do in a zombie apocalypse?
JP: I think I would do great. Are you kidding me? I'm fast, I can run really fast, faster than any zombie. I'm pretty resilient and strong. I have physical strength. I have the motivation of protecting my kids. Any mom can do anything to protect her kids of course. And I'm a good cook, so if I stored away even canned goods, I can make them taste good even months down the road. I'm creative when it comes to cooking.
TCC: What non-original character would you want to be?
JP: The Governor because playing somebody mean is fun. I want to be the Governor, shut it down.
Daniel Thomas May - Allen
TheCelebrityCafe: You've been in a lot of sci-fi projects. How do you feel about the genre?
Daniel Thomas May: I've always loved sci-fi, that sort of thing. I'm a geek at heart.
TCC: Do you have a favorite sci-fi show?
DTM: Off the top of my head, the Battlestar Galactica reboot. That's one I will always stand by. I just loved what Ronald Moore (the show's creator) did with that. I've always been a fan of Farscape, Firefly of course, [Joss] Whedon.
TCC: What do you think of the irony that Allen didn't want to trust Rick but trusted the Governor, who then killed him?
DTM: I think irony is a great way of describing it. One of the things that fascinated me about the third season were the parallel story lines of fathers. So you have Rick and his family who has lost Lori. Now he's got Carl and Judith. And then you have Hershel and he has a family to protect. The Governor has a family to protect. Allen comes in, he's also a father and he has to protect his family.
So you get to see all the decisions these fathers are faced with and how they each react to it. Rick and the Governor go to particular extremes. Hershel is older and wiser, he has a calmer approach. Allen, I just honestly don't think he was made to survive in the world of the zombie apocalypse, so he always felt like everything was getting away from him. He was constantly grasping, clamoring to try and do the right thing to protect him and his son and it always somehow ended up making things worse.
TCC: What would it have taken to convince Allen to trust Rick?
DTM: I think that that could have turned quite easily. Interestingly, there's a part of the story that it's not gonna be canon because it didn't make it into episode. There's a whole scene I shot with Tyreese (Chad L. Coleman) for Welcome to the Tombs, the very last episode [of season 3]. It demonstrated just how far around the bend Allen actually went because after Ben had died in the prior episode, he was convinced it was the fault of everyone in the prison and so that's why he was so determined to go in, take the prison, get rid of these people. He blamed it entirely on them. He was pretty far gone. I think had he survived the Woodbury massacre, then he might have seen the Governor for what he truly was, but the Governor really had the wool over his eyes the whole time I think.
TCC: Would you survive a zombie apocalypse?
DTM: Yeah, I think I could hold my own, I think I could make it for a while.
TCC: What do you have going on now?
DTM: I had a fun character on Sleepy Hollow this past season and I just worked on a film this summer that Tom Cruise is doing with Doug Liman. It's called Mena. It's probably going to be a while in post production so look for it late 2016, early 2017.
Melissa Ponzio - Karen (now plays Melissa McCall on Teen Wolf and Donna on Chicago Fire)
TheCelebrityCafe: It seems like The Walking Dead, Teen Wolf and Chicago Fire all overlapped. How did you manage that?
Melissa Ponzio: I'm a very lucky girl. It's amazing as an actor to be on one show let alone three shows, and you get into a position where you're working with really great people who really enjoy not only the shows that they're producing but others are producing. So I really have to tip my hat to the producers who get on the phone and they're like "hey, we need her for Monday, you can have her on Friday." So I'm a very lucky girl who's been in very lucky positions to be able to be on three amazingly different, amazingly casted shows.
TCC: On all of the shows, your character always has loved ones who are in trouble. How'd you tap into that?
MP: Again, I'm very lucky that there's been kind of a natural progression on each one of the shows that kind of bring you there so you do have time to, yourself, be immersed in your character and the other person's character. Then it's your job to kind of go from there.
TCC: Which would you rather fight, werewolves or zombies?
MP: Werewolves, although I did say — someone asked me once if you were locked in a room, what would you rather be locked in with, zombies or wolves and I always say zombies because at least they're slow and you can go around them like [demonstrates sidling by them by scrunching up and scampering].
TCC: What's next for you?
MP: More Teen Wolf. We're starting on Monday, season 5B. I've got Chicago Fire in the fall, I'm going to be going up there late September, so it's going to be a busy fall for all of us.
TCC: What's your favorite genre?
MP: I've always been a fan of sci-fi, but I love serial killers. That's not necessarily a genre, but at home I watch a lot of real-life murder mysteries and I love serial killers. I think they're just absolutely fascinating monsters.
TCC: Maybe you'll be in the next show that's like The Following.
MP: Maybe, maybe I'll be the next serial killer, let's get that out there.
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