The wasteland of The Walking Dead has meant that star Andrew Lincoln has ended up in some pretty bizarre situations. As it turns out, he got off to a hilariously weird start back on his first day of filming for Season 1. Apparently, the script was not enough to prepare him for the look of the zombie apocalypse landscape. Andrew Lincoln had this to say about Day 1 of The Walking Dead:
I remember coming up and seeing this turned over Mack truck and thinking, 'Holy shit, there's been a fucking accident!' And then someone was like, 'No, you're in the right place. This is your set.' That was the beginning of realizing the scale of the show, so walking through the gas station set-up was just thrilling.
The Walking Dead series premiere didn't waste any time in showing the complete desolation of the zombie apocalypse. Rick's exploration of his town after the fall of civilization was a fantastically creepy way to start the series, even before any Walkers showed up. The very first scene of the very first episode showed a sheriff's deputy whose crisp uniform already looked out of place amidst the flipped vehicles, dark traffic lights, and complete absence of other living humans. The entire area genuinely looked like a disaster had struck. It's no wonder Andrew Lincoln needed a moment to figure out that he was actually on the set of a TV show and the destruction was deliberate.
In hindsight, it's pretty hilarious that Andrew Lincoln was so shocked by the gas station destruction. In the years since, Lincoln has filmed everywhere from a burning barn to a zombie-filled prison to a suburban development overrun by the undead. He went on in his chat with EW to reveal that he was seriously upset in the gas station scene when he had to pretend to shoot a young girl in the face. Considering how many zombies, men, women, and even children Rick has had to shoot in the face over the past few seasons, we can probably bet that Lincoln has gotten over a lot of that early squeamishness.
Personally, I'm glad to have a Walking Dead reason to laugh right about now. The show is set to return for Season 7 on AMC in only a few short weeks. By all accounts, the premiere is going to be positively brutal. We'll have to watch one of the good guys being beaten to death in the very first scene, and the story will evidently only get rougher as the episode progresses. I'll take my laughs while I can get them.
Tune in to AMC on Sunday, October 23 at 9 p.m. ET to see Andrew Lincoln back on the small screen as Rick Grimes, and don't forget to check out our breakdown of what we know so far about The Walking Dead Season 7. Take a look at our fall TV premiere schedule to see what else you'll be able to watch in the near future.
