If Hershel's (Scott Wilson) death crushed the hearts of millions of viewers, imagine how Emily Kinney, the actress who plays Beth - the youngest daughter of the group's medic - felt when she learned that her on-screen dad will be killed off from "The Walking Dead."
Hershel was decapitated by The Governor (David Morrissey) in the mid-Season 4 finale of the mega-hit zombie show, and Kinney told Business Insider that that is "the hardest thing" about the previous season.
"He became so much of you know a father figure to me and Lauren [Cohan] (Maggie) in real life," Kinney said of Wilson. "And to not have his energy on set was really, really difficult. Luckily, he came to my birthday party like, 'We'll still see each other.'"
Kinney said that Wilson's death scene was very difficult to film. "It was a really hard day for everyone!" the 28-year-old actress told Channel Guide Magazine. "We've become really, really close. We're living all together in Atlanta and so, in some ways, it becomes real to us. Because we're so secluded away from our lives in New York and L.A. and we're living together here and to have someone leave - especially someone like Scott Wilson who is such a great actor... it was a really hard scene to shoot. We were grieving as much as the characters were."
Traditionally, actors are only informed that they are getting to be killed off two weeks before filming their actual death scene, according to Entertainment Weekly. And this withholding of information can make the actors' long term planning a little bit harder than the usual - at least according to Kinney.
"I remember I would be like, 'Oh, should I get some furniture for my apartment in Atlanta,'" shared the singer-actress. "Stuff like that kind of drives you crazy because you're like, 'Well, I don't really want to buy this table if I'm just going to be killed off. But I would like to have this table if I'm going to be here for the next however many years.' So it can get a little bit like that, so I just got the point where I'm just going to get the table for the apartment so I can sit down and eat at the table."
"I know Scott Wilson had been living at a hotel," added Kinney. "And then it was last season where he finally got a nice little house, and his wife was living with him." Then suddenly, the 72-year-old actor was informed that he was getting to be killed off. Kinney said that she hoped the people behind the show "had given him more of a heads up," so he could have planned his future arrangements much better.
"The Walking Dead" Season 5 premieres on Oct. 12, 9:00 p.m. on AMC.