Sarah Wayne Callies, who played Lori Grimes in the first three seasons of "The Walking Dead," recently talked about how important it is for her to have an honest relationship with her viewers.
Callies' Lori received a lot of negative reactions from fans during the second season of the hit AMC post-apocalyptic drama. Some described the character as an overprotective mom to Carl (Chandler Riggs) and a terrible wife to Rick (Andrew Lincoln). In fact, there was a significant segment of the show's viewership that called for her demise, until it finally happened in the fourth episode of the third season of the series.
But when asked in a recent interview with IGN what it was like for her to experience that kind of backlash as an actress, the 37-year-old said, "Actually, I think it's wonderful. I think it's really honest. I come from theater...there's something about having a relationship with your audience that feels very honest as an actor."
"I don't need people to like me. I want people to engage with the stories I'm telling and feel passionate about them," she added. "So if they're feeling passionate about them one way or another, I feel like I'm doing my job."
Meanwhile, Callies spoke about her San Diego Comic-Con reunion with her former "The Walking Dead" co-stars during a roundtable interview at a press junket for her latest film "Into The Storm."
"We were all together at Comic-Con, which was a trip," she told Zap2It. "Jon [Bernthal] was there for 'Fury,' which looks amazing. I was there for this and they were there for 'The Walking Dead' extravaganza."
She continued: "We all got together and had dinner and there's a lot of love there. A lot of love there. I see Norman [Reedus] quite a bit and Andy [Lincoln]'s family and my family are really close. I think those are bonds that will hopefully last for quite a while."
During their reunion, Callies was also reminded of a promise she made when she auditioned for "Into the Storm." "Melissa McBride (Carol) actually taped me in her trailer," she recalled. "I jokingly said, 'If I get this, I'm going to get you a bottle of wine.' Then I saw her last week at Comic-Con and she said, 'Where's my wine?' So I'm going to send her a nice bottle of wine soon."
As for her role in "Into The Storm" which opened in theaters on Aug. 8, she said that it was far different from her character in "The Walking Dead."
"You can kill zombies if you're on 'The Walking Dead'... but in any story about man versus nature, it's not even a fair fight," she said in an interview with Irish movie website Movie.ie. "There is no way to battle a tornado and win, the best you can do is run and hide, and try and help as many people as you can in the process."
"The Walking Dead" Season 5 premieres on Oct. 12 at 9 p.m. on AMC.