Spoilers ahead.
Everyone who works on The Walking Dead seems to absolutely love it. In fact, in six seasons, I don’t think we’ve ever heard anyone complain publicly about working on the set. Why would they? They get to live in Atlanta, hang out with good people, and appear on the most popular show on television. That’s why when an actor gets word that his or her number is up, he or she occasionally tries to talk the producers into letting them stick around.
It doesn’t work very often, although famously Melissa McBride was able to convince The Walking Dead producers not to kill her off (they killed T-Dog, instead). That was the best decision the series ever made. Jeffrey DeMunn, who played Dale, also famously asked to be killed off out of respect to Frank Darabont, who had been fired from the show. But even he had a change of heart and tried to convince the writers not to kill him. Unfortunately for DeMunn, the change had already been scripted and budgeted.
A few months ago, when Deanna was killed off (and we’ve yet to see her zombified return, but I suspect we will), she also tried to talk showrunner Scott Gimple into letting her stay. She even offered him a couple of ideas on how to change the fate of her character.
The latest cast member to try to change her fate on the show was Alexandra Breckenridge, whose character, Jessie, died along with her two sons, Sam and Ron, in the midseason premiere. She wasn’t ready to go, either, and tried to change her fate, as she told The Hollywood Reporter.
I sent Scott an email and had a pitch for how he didn’t have to kill Jessie. It wasn’t totally serious and said, ‘Her children get killed, Sam is eaten and Ron is killed trying to kill Rick – and Jessie leaves the group and you don’t find her again for another year and a half when you see her in season seven or eight and she’s a crazy feral woman. I thought it was fun. It was a more interesting direction than standing there in shock and getting eaten herself.
Honestly, that might have been a super cool twist (and I am still holding out hope that somehow, that’s the fate of Lilly Chambler, who died offscreen).
They could even take a page out of Lucky McKee’s film The Woman, and attempt to re-domesticate a feral Jessie into the camp (though, hopefully, in a much less demeaning manner).
In either respect, it just proves once again how much the cast loves working on The Walking Dead and how no one ever wants to leave the show. Meanwhile, I hope Daryl is working on his “how to escape death” email to Gimple right now.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
