Apathy and superficiality are turning us into zombies People are mistaken when they connect the show The Walking Dead with zombies. It's a story about the living; about our weaknesses, steps that cause us to stumble, fall, get back up, remain on the ground, fight or surrender... A PARTING OF WAYS IS SLOWLY APPROACHING. IN late February, the FOX channel will start airing (Mondays at 10:55pm) the 16 new episodes of double-Em- my-Award-winning post-apocalyp- tic zombie saga show The Walk- ing Dead. This is the second part of the final season, which will prepare us for the climax of the decade-long struggle for surviv- al among a handful of survivors in a world ruled by chaos and the living dead. Some of the questions that viewers expect to be answered in these new 16 episodes in- clude whether Negan and Mag- gie will finally face off, and which of them will survive that conflict; what the new world has in store for Daryl and Carol; and whether Rick Grimes will finally turn up, if only to bid farewell to his army of adoring fans worldwide. We’ll have to wait a little longer for an- swers to some of these questions, as the upcoming 16 episodes are not the last ones in this 11 th and final season of The Walking Dead. Following this “block” of episodes, we are awaited by another break,
which will be followed by the six- part finale that will present the fi- nal goodbye to a world that we’ve been part of for 12 years. And as this grand story reach- es its conclusion, what are the feel- ings of Negan, the charming Jef- frey Dean Morgan, an actor who has enchanted us in different roles, but mostly as an irresistible seduc- er in romantic comedies? Speak- ing for Elevate, he reveals that this show proved to be a test of endur- ance for him, but that he enjoyed every moment of it… Do you recall the first day you arrived on set and be- came Negan? “Of course, because it mat- ters to an actor when he receives a call to join something that’s al- ready been running for half a dec- ade, has an army of fans worldwide and viewer ratings that perhaps only one other series on the plan- et has in continuity. Regardless of how good and experienced an ac- tor you are, doubt must exist. I believe that an actor is only able to progress and offer something more and different in each new role as long as he feels that “ama- teurish stage fright”. Just like at that first audition, when you don't even know how you got there, what you did at the audition, or how you found the door to leave the studio. When your palms stop sweating, that means it no longer matters to you. It's like that in every job, not just acting. The Walking Dead was a wonderful journey; a once- in-a-lifetime experience.” You joined the show in its sixth season and very quickly became one of the key characters, and – along with Rick Grimes – one of its most striking. We’ve seen Negan in many different guises, but it’s ultimately still not entire- ly clear to us whether we love or hate him? “I love him precisely because I don't even know the answer to
that question. And no one knows him better than I do [laughs]. There is a lot of symbolism in this show. The very name The Walking Dead has multiple meanings if you think about it more seriously. The crux of the story is the outbreak of a pan- demic that leads to the world be- ing ruled by the living dead. These are empty husks, without emotion, reason and thoughts, that used to be humans. Many parallels to real life can be drawn from this. Aren't we all rushing towards some uni- versal pandemic of apathy and su- perficiality? The Coronavirus is a serious threat that has shook us up well over the past few years, and, yes, that’s the most obvious simi- larity between our show and what we’ve gone through. But there are many more dangerous pandemics that broke out long ago and began gnawing at humanity and turning us into zombies. We’ve forgotten the value of life, and if we don’t value our own existence or some- one else's – what is our purpose?” Is there an easy way for an actor to leave a show that they’ve been part of for so long? “I try not to think about that. There are a lot of emotional scenes in this last season. We’re awaited
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