Think you know The Walking Dead?
Even the most diehard zombie-head doesn’t know everything that goes on during filming
of the hit series — but there's plenty.
Here are some truly bizarre things that happened on the set of The Walking Dead.
Merle’s Gone Wild
These days Walking Dead stars like Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus are household names.
But during the filming of season one, Atlanta residents were unaware of the soon-to-be global
television phenomenon taking place in their backyards.
You might remember the scene in the show’s second episode, "Guts," where Merle — played
by Michael Rooker — perches on a roof with a sniper rifle and uses the walkers in the
street below as target practice.
When one Atlanta resident saw actor Rooker seemingly firing a rifle from the roof of
a local building, they understandably called the fuzz.
Luckily, the production crew was able to clear things up with the local police and S.W.A.T
team, and no one was hurt.
To be fair, you'd probably freak out too if you saw Merle brandishing a weapon in your hometown.
It’s zombie blood, officer!
We've all had rough days at the office, but the cast of The Walking Dead regularly ends
their workday covered in blood and zombie guts.
Lauren Cohan, who plays Maggie on the hit show, told Jimmy Kimmel about an awkward encounter
she had getting pulled over by a cop after leaving the set one day while she was covered
in blood and gore.
Thinking quickly, Cohan made sure to have her script visible in the hopes that the officer
was a fan.
Lucky for her, Johnny Law was more interested in scoring a date than asking her why she
looked like Carrie.
"Little lady, I don't see a ring on your finger.
Does that mean you're single?
And I was like, 'Yeah!
But, um…' and I so wished I just had the ticket."
Steven Yeun’s little friend
It isn’t just zombies that the The Walking Dead cast encounters deep in the woods.
Glenn himself, Steven Yeun, told Conan O’Brien about the time he ended a day filming in nature
with a new little pal.
"I was doing the regular tick check and then I went to go in the shower and then I pulled
my pants down.
And uh, I had a guy… on my guy."
When he finally was able to remove the tick from his, uh, Little Steven, he decided to
take a lesson from The Walking Dead and kill it with fire:
"So I killed it with a flamethrower, or lighter…"
"Flamethrower?!"
"Lighter."
Bug spray: Don’t leave home without it.
A Tree Falls In Senoia
The Walking Dead may have millions of fans, but some residents in the town of Senoia,
Georgia where the show films are tired of living in "Walker Central."
"You walk along and people tell you you're not allowed to take pictures.
And you wanna say, 'Well, this is my community."'
One resident expressed his frustration to Good Morning America after show producers
called the police on him for trimming his trees.
"They come out of there saying I need to stop.
They're filming.
Uh, I said, 'Well, no.
You just carry your happy butt right behind the wall."
While his opinion almost certainly isn't shared by everyone in the town, it's not too surprising
he'd feel this way.
However, many residents actually receive $400 a month for their inconvenience, as well as
incentive to stay quiet about anything they see that might spoil the storyline.
Four-hundred bucks a month, just to deal with a bunch of Hollywood zombies wandering around
the neighborhood?
There are worse ways to make a living.
Like being a TV clown, for instance:
"Hey, Bobbo, wanna play a game?
Okay!
Look up!
Look down!
Now look at Mr. Frying Pan!"
Nighty night, Glenn
Like us, the cast and crew of The Walking Dead miss Glenn, and actor Steven Yeun.
Following Glenn’s on-screen death, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman shared one of
his favorite memories of Steven with Entertainment Weekly.
It seems that on Yeun’s first day of filming, the actor had to run back and forth to grab
Rick’s hat from a tank.
He hadn’t eaten anything all day, and blacked out.
Kirkman says Yeun was a good sport about it, but the cast still gave him grief.
Talk about an embarrassing first day on the job.
The Puking Dead
Fans loved when Sonequa Martin-Green, aka Sasha, saved The Hilltop with just Maggie
by her side.
But as it turns out, filming of the gruesome scene was particularly difficult for the actress,
as she was hit with a nasty stomach bug during filming.
As Martin-Green told Yahoo!, she puked right when the crew arrived to base camp for filming
and continued to empty the contents of her stomach every 30 minutes throughout the day
and night.
But just like Sasha, Sonequa Martin-Green is one tough customer, and fought through
her illness so the shoot wouldn't have to be rescheduled.
The cast and crew had Martin-Green’s back, having a bucket at the ready to catch her
upchuck.
The actress nicely gave her colleagues warning’s before the vomit tsunami happened, announcing,
"I've got about 15 minutes before I throw up again.
Now I feel OK, let's get it done."
Eugene’s mullet almost melted
It’s not easy to get a mullet as sweet as Eugene’s.
And actor Josh McDermitt almost lost his business in the front, party in the back locks during
the filming of the Season 5 episode "Self Help."
As Lauren Cohan told Entertainment Weekly, the bus fire during the episode really turned
up the heat.
"When the six of us were on the road and then the bus went up into flames, the flames were
much bigger than we thought they were going to be."
The heat from the flames caused everyone’s backsides to get toasty and the heavy rains
caused poor Josh McDermitt’s hair dye to start to melt.
Cohan explained that the combination of having a burned "bum" and the heavy rains washing
out Josh’s sweet mullet made her totally lose it.
"The fact that like my whole backside was literally like, getting scorched and Joshua's
was as well and the rain started coming down and melting the the hair dye out of his hair,
and I just started laughing."
Cohan revealed that she had a hard time keeping a straight face during filming, and nudged
McDermitt to keep him away from the crazy inferno.
The moment is captured in the episode, and now fans know the real story.
"If you watch the episode, you can actually see us just trying to like, hold it together
and it's in the episode, but you'd only know if you were hearing the story, which you're
hearing right now."
So if you want to get Eugene’s luxurious mullet, it’s probably a good idea to stay
out of the rain and away from open flames.
Pranks for the memories
The Walking Dead can be a pretty heavy show, so it’s no wonder that the cast needs to
blow off some steam from time to time.
Andrew Lincoln and Norman Reedus have an ongoing prank war that has gone to some pretty crazy places.
As Reedus told James Corden, one prank involved Norman placing a ‘80s-style, airbrushed
custom Daryl Dixon license plate on Lincoln’s car.
"He never noticed, so months, he drove around with this on his car."
Before Lincoln even had time to retaliate, Reedus pulled another prank that featured
some serious "fowl" play.
"He walked into his trailer and I filled it full of chickens.
Yeah."
"What?!"
"Yeah."
"You filled his trailer full of chickens?!"
"Yeah!"
And because pranks are the universal language, Reedus pulled another fast one on Lincoln
during a promotional event for The Walking Dead’s fourth season in Japan.
"Do you want to practice your lines I taught you?"
"Toile wa doko desu ka?
Right?
Toile wa doko desu ka?"
"Cheers."
"It's great to be here."
Turns out the phrases Lincoln used with his Japanese hosts didn’t mean "Thank you" as
Reedus told him.
"It means where's the toilet."
"You son of a… !"
Then there was the time Reedus filled the air conditioner in Lincoln’s car with glitter.
After that glitter bomb, the war was on.
Reedus revealed on Talking Dead that Lincoln’s prank revenge involved a sex doll and Daryl’s
motorcycle.
"Andy took my motorcycle and put it on that boat and put a sex doll on it and then pushed
it out in the middle of the lake.
That was the last one, so he's due…"
Naked Norman
Daryl in his birthday suit might be a dream come true for Daryl and Carol shippers, but
on The Walking Dead set, Norman Reedus dropping trou is a regular occurrence.
When Reedus was late to set one day after his alarm clock failed to go off, the crew
had to improvise by putting a stunt double in Daryl’s outfit on a motorcycle.
Reedus wanted to be in the scene, so he rushed to set and stripped off his clothes on the way:
"I was late.
Um, they put, they put one of the crew members in my outfit.
And I ran up and got naked and I was like, 'Bring that bike back here!'
Of course Reedus had to bare all for the Season 7 episode where Daryl is held prisoner by
Negan and forced to scarf down dog food.
But the actor clearly isn’t afraid of "The Full Monty."
As he told TV Guide,
"I walked in, and wardrobe was like, 'do you want to wear a sock over your junk?' and I
was like, 'nope'.
I just went in, naked … I sat down naked in front of the whole camera crew, and everyone's
head just moved to the right.
It was like they were watching Wimbledon."
Norman Reedus Has Rick’s Beard
Norman Reedus is known for his pranks and bizarre on-set antics, but this one just might
be the strangest.
It turns out the actor is also hoarding Andrew Lincoln's beard.
"I actually have Andrew's beard in my refrigerator…"
As he revealed to Entertainment Tonight, Reedus kept Lincoln’s manly scruff from the memorable
season five episode where Rick shaves.
If that wasn’t proof enough, Reedus shared a photo of Rick’s gray facial hair on Instagram.
By now, you may be asking, why would Norman Reedus save Andrew Lincoln's beard in a plastic bag?
Your guess is as good as his — but it probably has to do with true bromance:
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