You know what, I’m so glad you brought that up. Because you’ve seen episodes one and two? What was your reaction to the violence in the second episode? How did it viscerally affect you? Did you turn it off? Did you want to turn it off?
Well, I am a squeamish person. I was definitely grossed out during that one particular scene, but I made it through. Mostly.
My intention in that scene is to bring back humanity. Everyone is trying to stay alive, and what depths have we sunk to so early? I can’t stand pornographic violence. When we were shooting that particular scene, I looked at [FX coordinator] Greg Nicotero during the filming and said, "DVD extra." And he looked at me and nodded. [Laughs] We shot that scene at 4:30 in the morning, and it felt like we were doing something terribly wrong. It was one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever had to do in my life.
In the graphic novel, Rick loses his hand. Do you think we'll see that on the show?
That's a very good question! When I was kind of offered the part, they sent me a compendium of the comics, and on the cover, the guy who seemed to be most central was without a hand. So when I met with everybody, I said, "Guys, there's something I think you forgot to mention." Oh, the hand. I spoke to a very serious fan, and I asked, "What is the greatest thing about The Walking Dead?" He said, "Rick losing his hand." I tend to agree. It's a brilliant device — no one is safe. If that can happen, absolutely anything can happen.
Source: nymag
