'The Walking Dead' Postmortem: Alicia Witt Talks Playing a Baddie on One of Her Favorite Shows
Warning: This interview contains spoilers for “The Same Boat” episode of The Walking Dead.
Not since Terminus leader Gareth has The Walking Dead let us spend significant time with a villain we actually hoped would stick around for a while. Sadly, Savior subgroup leader Paula — played by Justified and Friday Night Lights alum Alicia Witt — won’t live to torture Rick’s group another day. But her time with kidnapped Maggie and Carol left such a mark on those two Alexandrians that their ability to forge ahead in the war vs. the Saviors is definitely in doubt.
Yahoo TV talked to actress — and talented singer/songwriter — Witt about her juicy role on one of her favorite shows, how Twitter had a big hand in her journey into the zombie apocalypse, why Paula and Carol bonded, and how she helped Melissa McBride imitate her for that great moment at the end of the episode.
Related: ‘The Walking Dead’ Recap: ‘What Are You Afraid Of, Carol?’
And she also gives us a little preview of the new country music queen she’s playing on Nashville.
You are fantastic in this episode. This is no small thing to say about a Walking Dead villain: I wish Paula were hanging around a bit longer. She’s a great character.
She is a fantastic character. I couldn’t have been more thrilled when I first got the script and I got to see… to get to guest star on this show any way is such an honor, and then to be trusted with a role like this was just beyond. I had one of the, hands down, best experiences of my life getting to be Paula, for sure.
You were already a big fan of the show, right?
I was, and there are not that many shows that I watch, but it’s something that I’ve become hooked on over the years. I’ve loved seeing how it’s grown, and how the characters have changed, how they have managed to keep their humanity for the most part even though they’re dealing with this horrific nightmare of a situation. I think if I could have named a show that I would most want to be on before it finished its run, it would be The Walking Dead. It’s really a dream. It’s just sinking in, actually, that it really happened.
How did the role come about?
It came about because [TWD showrunner] Scott Gimple started following me on Twitter randomly one night, and I was pretty surprised to see that. I knew who he was, so I followed him back, and he direct messaged me and said he had just heard me on a podcast talking about my music, and he said that he was a fan of my work. I told him I was a huge fan of his work as well, and he wrote, “Good to know.” And then a few days later this audition came down my pike, as it were, and I auditioned for this character that, on the page, didn’t have much of anything to do with the world of The Walking Dead, but I didn’t really ask much about who she was, or what she was supposed to be. I had no idea she was meant to engage with Carol, who is my favorite character on the show. [The audition] was a scene where my character was robbing a bank, and that was all. Then the next night I got all these text messages from my agent while I was having dinner saying that I was going to be going to Georgia the next day, and that I got the part. I didn’t find out until I was boarding the plane what exactly it was that I would be doing, and I couldn’t believe it. I was like, "Holy s–t, not only do I get to be on The Walking Dead, but this is what I get to do.”
That’s the thing. It’s sad that we only get to know her for one episode, but you really had everything to tackle in this role. She’s a villain, she’s sympathetic, she had some great speeches, there’s plenty of action, she’s got a cool zombie kill, great backstory moments, she’s a tough survivor, and she seems to be smarter than many of her male cohorts.
I know. I felt like that, too, and some people have said, “Were you bummed that you only got to do one episode?” But honestly, no, because what more could I have possibly asked for? I don’t think you could possibly have a better guest-starring role on any show than the one that I got. It was two of the most fulfilling weeks of work I’ve ever had, and probably ever will have. By the time I filmed the scene where Paula bites the big one, I didn’t feel like there was anything left to do.
Getting into the character, she’s very flip, like when she’s talking to Maggie about her pregnancy, but then we find out she had four daughters. How much ultimately was truly her hardened, survivor personality, and how much was Paula just putting on an act to deal with these people?
That’s a really good question, and my version of it was that it really is who she is, but I don’t know. I think there was so much that was going on that wasn’t on the page in terms of what sort of odd dynamic was going on, particularly between Paula and Carol, and how, at least for Paula, she was seeing something in Carol that was very disconcerting, and she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. I think as it went on, she realized it was just how similar they really are, like they were different versions of the same tragedy. Different ways of survival, one that kept her humanity, and one that lost it.
I think that Paula before the apocalypse was a very different person, and as she described, I think that was the truth. I think that she hated the version of herself that she was, and probably looked forward to going home to her family more than just about anything. When that was taken away from her, I think she just became something else, and what she used to survive was the idea that she was going to be stronger than anyone, and that she was going to be the last man standing if that’s what it took. That’s all she had to live for anymore. I don’t think she has a whole lot of true feelings when it comes to the other people in her group, either. That’s a difference between [the Saviors] and Rick’s group, where they’ve formed this very close bond.
There was a lot of deep talk amongst all these women, who were meeting for the first time, and as adversaries. Do you think this was possibly the first time Paula, Molly, and Shell had talked to other non-Savior women for a while?
I didn’t think about that. I feel like it was much deeper than just a female bond. I felt like there was a real mirroring thing going on specifically between [Paula and Carol], and also between Maggie and Shell. It was sort of a very shiver-inducing, mythical sort of episode, but I don’t think it’s that they haven’t encountered women [recently].
Do you think Carol and Paula have developed a mutual respect for each other by the end?
I think it’s respect and affinity even, and just a real sense that it sucks that they have to fight each other. I love that Carol is still begging Paula to run up until the final moment. She’s begging her. It’s heartbreaking to watch. Paula’s still being Paula. She still thinks that she can somehow kill [Carol], despite all evidence to the contrary. She’s that stubborn, and she’s that stunned that she’s been bested, and that she’s been fooled by Carol. She’s not willing to accept it.
What had Scott or the other writers or producers told you about Paula when you found out who you were playing?
Scott told me very little. I sat down and talked to him in his office the day that I arrived and I was about to do the table read, and I didn’t actually realize that I was about to have a meeting with him. I had just grabbed a big plate of lunch, and I had my dog with me, and suddenly they were like, “Oh, Scott wants to have a meeting with you.” I went walking to the office with my dog and my lunch. I was like, “Oh my God, I’m sorry.” I don’t think we spoke for more than 15 or 20 minutes, and he told me that Paula isn’t romantically involved with Negan, and just pretty much brought me up to speed a little bit as to what had happened in the show thus far, because at the time [this episode] was filmed, Season 6 hadn’t started airing… He told me that Paula is the boss of her little group, her splinter group, in a way, but they all answer to Negan. We didn’t talk a whole lot more about that. I asked if she was in the comics, and he told me she wasn’t. Then we just talked about the dynamics that were at play, and the idea that, as it was clear in the script, there was something going on where these women were seeing an odd kind of mirror image of each other.
What was your favorite thing that you got to do while playing Paula?
My favorite thing was just getting to work with Melissa [McBride], for sure, because she’s just one of the most unique and incredibly present actors I’ve ever worked with in my life, and that made it very easy. A lot of the time I felt like I was just watching her, and didn’t really need to do much more than that, but the other thing that I just loved was that I got to kill some walkers. I got four of them, if I remember correctly.
You had a memorable kill with the one that you stab in the back of the head and the knife comes out the front of his head.
Then I’m just glaring at Maggie while I’m doing it. I loved that moment. That was really fun. We did different versions of that. I think we did one where I started laughing, and we did others where I had no expression whatsoever, and others where I’m smiling. My first walker kill was probably the most fun, though, because I think that happened on the very first day, and I was just so excited and blown away that I was going to go do this. I think getting to slay a walker before lunch made it all real somehow.
There’s a funny and heartbreaking moment at the end where Carol has to imitate Paula’s voice to the other Saviors on a walkie-talkie. She was literally mirroring Paula there. How do you think she did?
She did great! [Melissa] had me keep saying the line for her, like, “Say it again.” Then she’d say it, and I’d be like, “Oh, I think Paula’s voice should go a little deeper there,” and I’d say it again. She had me say it right before she did it, too. She did great. It was so weird though, because of course when she did it for real, my back is to her, and I’m being eaten by the walker, so I didn’t get to see what her face looked like as she was doing it. And wow, what a moment to watch her struggling with all of those feelings, and then see her maintain her composure enough to copy Paula’s voice convincingly on the walkie. That was something else.
Again, sad that your time on The Walking Dead was short, but we’ll see you soon on another primetime favorite, Nashville. You are a great singer/songwriter yourself. Who is your character, Autumn Chase?
Autumn is a cool character. I’m loving playing her. She couldn’t be much more opposite than Paula. She’s been in the [music] business for 20 years. She was discovered on Star Search. I wouldn’t say she’s pure country. She’s more pop/folk/country, sort of along the lines of Sheryl Crow, with a little Bonnie Raitt in there. The way that she looks is sort of along those lines, too. She’s one of those very well-known musicians who has enough confidence that she doesn’t have to act like a big ol’ star, because she just knows that she’s fabulous. She enjoys having a laid back approach to all that stuff, and she’s really flirtatious, and she’s really down to earth, and really funny, I think. I love her personality. I really enjoy playing her. There’s a lot of lightness there, but the lightness is definitely covering up the fact that she doesn’t have someone special in her life, and I think she’s lonely beneath all of that. I’m stirring the pot, let’s just say. Stirring up a little bit of trouble. It’s a whole lot of fun to be causing trouble.
If you’re not causing trouble on Nashville, you’re not having fun.
You have to be. You have to be. It’s fun, too, just as a singer and a songwriter to be playing somebody who does that, but on a so much larger scale than I’m doing at this time. And to be surrounded by other singer/songwriters who have come up on the show… Chip Esten [who plays Deacon], for example. This is something he’s wanted to do his whole life, and I think he felt like maybe that wasn’t a realistic dream anymore, and then this job comes along and suddenly he’s touring the world with his band. He is the happiest dude in the world about that, and everyone [on the show] has a similar story. You’re just surrounded by people who absolutely love making music more than just about anything in the world, and now they get to act and make music at the same time. It doesn’t really get any better than that for us.
Definitely falls into dream role category then?
Oh, for sure, and this town. My last album, Revisionary History, was recorded here, and Ben Folds produced it, so I had spent a ton of time in Nashville. I’ve spent a lot of time here besides that, just writing and playing shows. I love it here… love, love, love it here. I could see myself living here part-time in the future, easily.
I’m excited to hear what you’re going to be performing on Nashville.
My episodes start airing on April 6, and my first song is a duet with Connie [Britton]. It was written by Kacey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert, and Natalie Hemby, and it’s a pretty kick ass song.
The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.
