Taking a ride with ‘Walking Dead’ star
It’s beginning to look like I should give up working from my desk and just ride the elevator at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. Each time I’ve been on the elevator there, I’ve run into someone famous. This time it was Andrew Lincoln who plays Rick Grimes on one of the best shows on TV, “The Walking Dead.”
I tell Grimes that I’ve seen the first two episodes for the third season, beginning Oct. 14, and that the new season continues the high quality of the show. If you haven’t seen “Walking Dead,” the AMC show — along with “Breaking Bad” — is redefining the rules of television. In the second season, three major characters were killed, something that rarely happens in TV shows.
“We are all very proud of the work that’s being done on the show,” Grimes says.
The chat reminds me that Lincoln is one of the many British actors landing roles in American TV programs. It’s easy to forget his background when watching him kill zombies because he uses a Southern accent.
Another British actor, David Morrissey, joins the cast this season. He’s playing the Governor, a major character from the graphic novels that fans have been clamoring to see in the show. If you don’t know Morrissey’s work, track down a copy of “Viva Blackpool” or ‘Thorne.”
Before getting in the elevator, Morrissey told be there’s a voice coach on the set to make sure he has the proper Southern sound to his voice. Keeping the accent is easy for him because the series films in Georgia.
“I am surrounded by the accent wherever I go,” Morrissey says.