Laurie Holden is no stranger to the world of the Comic-Con audience or television shows with rabid fanbases. Her role as Marita Covarrubias on “The X-Files” was a key part of that show’s underlying mythology. She played a crucial part on “The Shield” as Agent Olivia Murray late in that show’s run. She’s made a strong showing in horror films like “The Mist” and “Silent Hill.” And, of course, she played a major part in the first season of the TV adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s “The Walking Dead,” and that’s why she was in San Diego two weekends ago.
I detailed the chaos surrounding our attempts at interviews for this show in the first piece I wrote, and in the midst of all of that, we did manage to wrangle a few minutes with Holden, who I met on the set of “The Majestic” over a decade ago. She’s one of Frank Darabont’s favorite actors, one of those people who he turns to over and over like her fellow “Walking Dead” cast member Jeffrey De Munn, and she’s a key member of the core cast. On any other show, that would translate to job security for as long as there’s a series.
With “The Walking Dead,” though, nobody should feel too confident about their own mortality. This is a show that has demonstrated already that it not only will kill key cast members, but that just because you know the comic doesn’t mean you know what’s going to happen on the show.
We talked about that idea, that sense of constantly impending doom, but keep in mind that when we were having this conversation, Frank Darabont was still the show runner as far as any of us knew. The shake-up that’s happened on the series has got to have everyone a little nervous. It seems strange for a show that was all well-received in its first season as “The Walking Dead” was to be experiencing such public growing pains in year two, but TV is a dynamic business in a way that film isn’t, so here’s hoping all of this makes the show as good as it can be.
Fans of the books deserve nothing less.