‘The Walking Dead’ Postmortem: Andy Lincoln on How Rick Got His Strut Back

Warning: This interview for the “Rock in the Road” episode of The Walking Dead contains spoilers.

Rick Grimes was a tormented man throughout the first half of The Walking Dead’s seventh season, but with Sunday’s midseason premiere, “Rock in the Road,” the Ricktatorship is back! The Alexandria leader is no longer willing to accept living under the rule of Negan, and he’s busily trying to assemble an army to take on the Saviors and make sure no other communities have to kneel to the murderous baddies, either.

Andy Lincoln talked to Yahoo TV about Rick’s new attitude, that French Connection-y walker kill car scene, Rick’s friendships with Daryl, Morgan, and Father Gabriel, and how this week’s lighter — even funny — return will carry over throughout the rest of the season and lead to “one of the best season finales we’ve ever shot.”

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Yahoo TV: Congratulations — Rick Grimes is back! This is a great way to start the second half of the season.
Andy Lincoln: It was so good to have a little bounce back in his strut, as it were. Poor Rick and the gang have had a rough eight episodes, and to just start to fuel the flame of the fight was enough to get everybody’s juices flowing. I’m excited to see how the sequence on the road turned out, because it was really good fun shooting it.

I love that scene so much. It reminds me of ‘70s action movies, the fun and the spirit of it.
I’m so glad you said that, because while we were shooting it, the location, the cars, and the whole flavor felt like we were in a French Connection car chase. It was crazy.

It’s also kind of a romantic moment for Rick and Michonne, because they’re working together. They’re being clever. I think one of the big advantages for them versus the Saviors and Negan is that they very much use what they’ve got, whatever they can find. It’s great that they get this win together.
That’s it. You’re absolutely right. They’re always pulling for one another, and they’re not alone. I think that that’s absolutely key. It was a really, really fun return, and it sends a signal to what the rest of the [season is] about, and we’re definitely moving in a very dynamic direction towards what I think is one of the best season finales we’ve ever shot.

That’s saying a lot.
Yeah. What I will say is, I’ve never seen a crew or cast more ready to return to continue the story. It was cool.

You guys will be shooting the 100th episode as the Season 8 premiere. Does it feel like it to you, that it’ll be 100 episodes?
Yes. I felt every second. [Laughs] No, let me qualify that. It has been and continues to be the greatest, most extraordinary journey I’ve ever been on, certainly on TV. It’s an extraordinary job and it’s an extraordinary privilege to be able to play a guy for this long and not to have been bitten yet. One hundred episodes is something worth celebrating, in my opinion. One hundred hours of this story is a terrific accomplishment for everybody that’s involved and everybody that’s been and is with us and will join us in the future. It’s a very, very astonishing thing. It’s unique to my experience in the industry. I’ve never been longer than two years on any project, so to return … I can’t wait to read the 100th episode. I have no idea where we start or what we’re doing, but I can tell you, it’s going to be big, is what it’s going to be.

“Rock in the Road” is a pretty funny episode, one of the funniest of the entire series. There are so many lighter little moments, especially for Rick, who doesn’t often get the chance to be so lighthearted. Did you have a favorite?
Not really, but I did have a conversation with [showrunner] Scott [Gimple], and he said, “You’ve got to turn on a dime in this one. There’s got to be a freedom in the man,” and I suppose it is through the thrill of the fight that Rick’s able to rediscover a new sense of himself and a lightness and just another facet of his personality, which has been so … I’ve grown a frown. There are lines on my face now that are etched in my face because of playing this poor man. I suppose he’s got dimples the same, just between the brow a little bit. The mere fact that he’s liberated enough to go, “It doesn’t matter. Even if we go, it’s not important anymore. What’s important is the future and our children. We have to be true to ourselves” — I think that that’s really thrilling. That’s why I’ve enjoyed it so much.

Also, some of my favorite performances in movies, even in very tragic situations, are not without a good dose of humor. A very good friend of mine says that it’s a violence to ask anybody to sit in the dark for two hours without a couple of jokes, and I agree with that. The lovely thing is that the writers room has got a lot of fun people in it, and hopefully we can deliver a few of the raised eyebrows. I mean, look, some of my favorite performances in action movies are funny: Indiana Jones, I think, is a brilliant creation. It’s always a shock that he’s in this incredible predicament, and then the absurdity of the jokes. Some of the best jokes are in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and they’re thrilling and they’re funny. I suppose that’s the benchmark. Whether or not we get anywhere near would be a joy, but certainly that flavor, that fun in the fight, is what I was aiming for in this back eight.

This adventurous, slightly lighter tone continues throughout the rest of the season?
Oh, yeah. The next episode is bananas. You wait. It’s absolutely bananas. I don’t know what they were drinking or eating in the writers’ room, but basically everybody was asking for some after they read that script.

After the great reunion in “Hearts Still Beating,” we continue the Rick and Daryl bromance when Rick leaves poor Daryl standing there at the Kingdom. It’s as if he’s leaving him on his first day of kindergarten and Daryl doesn’t think he’s ever going to see him again.
Those puppy eyes. Those Norman Reedus puppy eyes. “Pull yourself up, man. We’re just going on a run. Calm down.” It’s just great getting the gang back together, and it’s such fun playing, too, with that guy. Such a fine actor and a great friend. It was a bit like, “Oh, so you go off to do the really cool action sequence, and I’m left here with the tiger,” and I went, “Yeah, that’s pretty much what’s going on.” That has been so much fun as well in the back eight. I can’t believe I’m saying the word “fun.” It was such a diametrically opposite half season to the one that just passed, certainly for my character, and I know most of the other family members as well. There’s a very cool trajectory that we’re moving towards — a very definite finish point in this eight, and it was very, very exciting reading the episodes as they came out because everybody got a sense that there was momentum building.

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Father Gabriel … everyone sort of jumps to a conclusion right away, that it seems like he has stolen the town’s few supplies and selfishly gone off on his own. Rick doesn’t, though.
I’m on Team Gabriel. It’s just Rick on Team Gabriel, man. I’m not having that. He’s one of my best buddies now. I hated him six episodes ago, but now he’s my man.

Rick is certain that Gabriel has noble motives, even aside from finding the word BOAT written in the notebook. Why is he so sure?
He knows. There’s been enough incidents where this man has proven himself, particularly with, obviously, Judith and the battle for Alexandria. There have been moments where this guy has stood up. Even most recently with Negan, where he makes a judgment call about Maggie. In the midst of despair, he’s still steadfast. For everybody else to come to that conclusion [about Gabriel] doesn’t compute with the cop. The cop smells it and goes, “No, no, no, no. That’s not the guy. He is not that man anymore. I know him.” There’s many things you can say bad about Rick Grimes, but he’s a pretty good judge of character, and particularly people that he values as friends.

Rick and Morgan’s friendship has been rocky, but they have always respected each other, even through some extreme differences. Why doesn’t Rick hug Morgan when he meets back up with him at the Kingdom?
Because there’s a problem there. Of course Morgan’s like a pillar in history to Rick. But also, he’s one of the few people that will stand up to him in opposition and say it and not be afraid to say it. Their friendship, it was left in a place where they couldn’t see eye to eye, and there was a point at which there was a heartbreak, certainly from Rick’s point of view, that he couldn’t come with him on this call. He couldn’t understand Rick’s call, so there’s still a guardedness to their friendship. They draw from a deep well, those two characters. That’s why it’s so much fun to play.

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You’ve spoken in the past about how, before each season, you usually try to find books to read that will speak to you about the themes of the season. Was that the case for Season 7? Was there anything in particular you read to get you into this mindset?
No, not really, because [it was] a carryover. It was very, very important to me to try to get back to the place where we left [at the end of Season 6], to try and find out where that was and continue that theme. It was a tense two half-seasons for me. [The first half of Season 7] I was very quiet, I was very isolated, and it was about holding my breath. I watched a lot of documentaries and things, and I was interested in certain things about confinement and oppression. I watched a great documentary called 13th. It was about the 13th Amendment. Very, very compelling, and there were just things that resonated with me that just help. But the second half of the season was much lighter. It’s because there’s a sort of freedom in the fight. It was much more about really connecting with other actors in the scenes. Not that we don’t before, but there were certain things that Rick was going through, very personal pain. This is much more about us really building bridges between established relationships, but also between communities.

The characters, and the audience, had to go through that part of the story to really make this part resonate. But it must have been a relief to be back together, largely, as a cast too, for the final half of the season.
Yeah, it was really, really, really good to be able to act with old friends again. Also, there were certain scenes that just click because you get a sense that, “Oh, this is where we are again.” For me, it’s a bit like The Magnificent Seven. It’s one of my favorite movies, which is, you have all these people that should never fight together, suddenly, for some reason, feel this incredible bond with one another. I think that that’s sort of in the DNA, in the fabric of the show, and I think certainly never more than this back eight.

I love what you said about feeling like you were holding your breath. That really does sum up Rick’s first half of Season 7.
Yeah, I think he was. I think he was accepting things for the sake of the community. If he stood up in any shape or form, he knew that this guy [Negan] was pushing him to try and do it: “Go ahead, I dare you. See what happens.” He really had to suck it up. But fortunately, it’s just such a relief to be able to have gone back and to have his heart back. I think that this episode is very much an indicator of certainly where we’re headed, which is a very, very thrilling season finale.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC.

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