Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride explain filming the big scene and reveal how it was originally written.
The long-awaited meeting occurred while the Nest was being infiltrated by Genet’s force of troopers and super zombies.
And then, the big embrace.
Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon and Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier on ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’.Emmanuel Guimier/AMC
Emmanuel Guimier/AMC
But, as Reedus tellsEntertainment Weekly, that wasn’t the way the scene was originally written.
“It was written originally different where she finds me in jail,” Reedus reveals.
“And we talked about changing it.”
Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon and Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier on ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’.Stéphanie Branchu/AMC
Why the change from Carol freeing Daryl to them meeting in the chaos of combat?
“I wanted the emotion to be different,” says Reedus.
“Not just, ‘Oh, she finds me and I’m weak.’
‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’.Emmanuel Guimier/AMC
Everything goes on around us, but the sound goes off and it’s like… ‘Is this real?
Youre right in front of me.’
So we worked on that.”
Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon and Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier on ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’.Stéphanie Branchu/AMC
In the end, it was a matter of intensity.
“It had to be different than you just found me,” Reedus says.
“The energy had to be out of this world when it happened.
It had to be frenetic just pure adrenaline.”
Stephanie Branchu/AMC
That wasn’t the only change to the scene.
“At first, it felt too hero,” he explains.
“And I hate looking like a hero.
I don’t mind if I’m the hero; I just don’t want toknowI’m the hero.
“We did other versions,” Zabel tells EW.
“I knew Norman didn’t like it.
“I thought it was just lovely,” the actress tells EW.
And from her character’s end?
He’s in front of her face!
He’s right there after all it took to get there.
It was beautiful, lovely, and sweet.
And then snap back to action.
I think I much prefer this rendition than the other.”
McBride also shares what it was like to film in famous Mont Saint-Michel in the wintertime.
“The higher you get, it was very windy and very cold,” she recalls.
“It was actually brutal to shoot up in there.
Those shoots were brutally windy and cold, and night shoots as well!”
But well worth it to bringThe Walking Dead’s dynamic duo back together.
