Long-awaited by fans of The Walking Dead comic book, Michonne has made her debut this year on the uber-popular AMC TV series of the same name – portrayed by actress Danai Gurira (Treme).
I recently sat down with Gurira to discuss playing Michonne and her character’s notable characteristics – from her way with a sword to her two “pet” zombies.
IGN TV: For those of us who have read the comics, there was so much anticipation and excitement about your character. Was that exciting for you, or did it make it a little daunting?
Danai Gurira: It’s been all of it. It’s been very exciting and daunting all at the same time. But at the end of the day, it’s just making sure that you get a character’s story fully told and give her complexity and life. It’s different putting it on its feet than reading it in a book, so there’s obviously an adaptation process that these writers have been doing from the beginning. It’s also stepping into something very new. Hopefully everyone knows that. [Laughs]
Danai Gurira as Michonne in The Walking Dead.
IGN: When you got the part, how familiar were you with both the TV show and the comic? Was there a quick sort of learning process there?
Gurira: I had to do a learning process as I auditioned. I had never seen the show, but I knew it was critically acclaimed. I knew it wasn’t just considered a “zombie show”, that it was something better than that. But I never watched it because I’m a scaredy cat. I don’t watch scary things. Of course, I ended up watching the whole first season. The pilot’s very scary. The minute I watched it, I was hooked because it was such a beautiful, human story. Ironically, it was about the human needs, it wasn’t just about the zombies. They were there and it was a threat and a horrible epidemic that had happened -- and they made it so real, this idea that you wake up and the world has changed so dramatically. It’s this awful place, really. People have died in droves and have turned into these things. It really just got me. That’s when I knew why it was so critically acclaimed. You can’t watch that pilot and not really, really respect what these people were doing.
IGN: Did you get a chance to look at the comics and see the portrayal of your character there?
Gurira: I did, I did somewhat. Online, I looked through a few things and did a little research online before I went to the auditions. And the way they had written the scene was so clear -- it was a dummy scene -- and you could just see who this woman was. Then I did some research and I could see where she was coming from. It was really just clear who she was. To me, it really reminded me of when I was a playwright -- I did some work on a war zone in Liberia, which the war only ended in 2003 -- and I interviewed a lot of women who, because of the trauma of that war, had become very formidable female rebel fighters. So to me, there was something resonating about her and what I was seeing on the page. I was like, “Well, these chicks really exist. This isn’t fiction.” So that made it even more compelling and appealing to me.
IGN: Yeah, this show obviously is showing how people are reacting in different ways to this insane scenario. With her, we see right off the bat that she’s tough and can take care of herself. Is she pretty hard for other people to get to know for that reason?
Gurira: Yeah, she’s not easily trusting. She has her guard up, definitely. She’s not really looking to make a ton of friends. She’s not really looking to be Miss Congeniality. She’s very particular about who she takes in. You know, trust is a scary thing, and I think that’s a navigation of hers this season: trust is a scary thing. To be a part of a community with many people, that’s a scary thing.
IGN: With her and Andrea, they’ve been together a few months. is there a trust between them at this point?
Gurira: Oh, there’s definitely a trust between them. I think they trust each other’s instincts. In the first episode, there’s an aspect of how there’s a negotiation: do we stay, or do we go? And it was the instincts of one that influenced the other and causes them to make a move and do what they do. So there’s definitely a mutual respect and trust of each other and what’s needed. Andrea knows that Michonne is going to take care of her. She goes and tries to do all she can to help her in the situation she’s in. So there’s definitely a very close connection there.
IGN: Meanwhile, the trailers indicate that when she comes in contact with The Governor, she’s hardly saying, “Oh, sure, I’ll follow you.” Is that relationship a pretty big push and pull?
Gurira: Yeah, absolutely. Her instincts, which she trusts, are not to follow this man. She can just see something dark and disturbing -- it’s just not for her.
IGN: At a certain point I guess you’d get used to it, but what’s it like when you’re first on set and they’re like, “All right, these are the two armless, jawless zombies that you’ll be dealing with”?
Gurira: You know, it was while we were in rehearsal... I had gone to work that day just to work with -- I think it was a wardrobe fitting -- and then I’d meandered into props, so I picked up the sword and started working with that. Then the director walked in the room, and so we just started to play with how we’re going to shoot that, that first scene. I was showing him what I thought could work, and we were talking about how to do it. Then he was like, “Come outside. Our zombie pets are here.” So we go outside, and there are the zombie pets. Then they put the things around their necks and put the things in my hand, and I was like, “Okay, this is weird. I am weirded out!” But I became good buddies with them, so now we’re cool. But it was like, “Wow, these are my pets.” [Laughs]
IGN: Obviously though, those guys even existing in this woman’s life kind of say a lot about her and how she’s adapted to this scenario in a way that other people wouldn’t.
Gurira: It does! She’s figured out how to thrive and get past the fear and the horror. How do you even surpass survival - how do you thrive? You figure out how to leverage what they are for your own benefit, and that’s what she’s done.
IGN: At this point, have you gotten pretty decent with that sword?
Gurira: Yeah, I think so. I’ve spent a good amount of time with it and gotten very used to it. Of course, there are years of getting used to an instrument like that. But yeah, I think there’s a connection that Michonne has with that weapon that I feel. It’s a nice relationship. Picking it up and waving it around used to hurt muscles I didn’t know I had, but they’re used to it now.
IGN: Clearly, audiences have reacted so well to her. I’ve seen how people reacted when they released that early clip of you cutting off the heads inside the convenience store. Is it gratifying for you to see that?
Gurira: Yeah, you want to see that sort of stuff. I get it, seeing zombies taken out… It’s fun! This is a weapon she uses to navigate this world. It’s a very smart choice. You don’t want to attract too much noise with a gun, and you don’t want to be dependent on ammo. So it’s a very smart thing to do. It depends on the situation, but she can get very intense. But she doesn’t do things in a very hyper-animated way. There’s something very intense about her… It feels like someone negotiating all types of things with themselves, including perhaps some anger management. So I think that everything about her to me is just a chick who’s on the other side of the world ending. In fact, I feel like I know a lot of very tough women who would be that inventive, were they caught in that realm.
IGN: You’re entering the show in Season 3, but it’s not like you’re jumping in and working with the entire cast. Initially at least, it’s pretty much just Laurie [Holden]. Was it interesting for you to enter the world of Walking Dead but have her as the person to welcome you aboard?
Gurira: It was nice. It was an intimate experience to just work with her initially. It was great. She connected me to the city, she connected me to the world of the story. It was actually a really, really cool initiation, to start out small, so to speak, with a very, very powerful entity -- that being Laurie Holden -- but just to start out with one person. I think it was a great way to step in.
IGN: It occurs to me, you already kind of had this experience with Treme, but The Walking Dead stands out because it’s not shot in LA. It’s not like there’s a million other TV productions around.
Gurira: You’re not around all the madness, and I think that is nice. I’m from theater, so I enjoy insulated processes. And that’s definitely what Senoia, Georgia provides. [Laughs] But there are a lot of fans! I mean, not when we’re shooting on the studio, but when we’re on location, a lot of fans come from all around rural Georgia, outside of the studio. They’re definitely there!
Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on on Twitter at @EricIGN and IGN at ericgoldman-ign.
Source : ign[dot]com
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