‘The Walking Dead’: Lynn Collins Discusses Leah’s Surprising Return

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Most The Walking Dead fans probably expected that Lynn Collins’ Leah didn’t disappear forever at the end of last season’s “Find Me.” The first official romantic interest for Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) in ten seasons of the series wasn’t just going to wander off into the woods and never be heard from again. But it’s distinctly possible that nobody predicted the big twist — and spoilers past this point — that Leah is a member of new villains, The Reapers.

Turns out, even if you, the viewer, didn’t know Leah was one of the bad guy group, that was a large part of why Collins signed onto the role.

“The Reapers really speak to this extremist point of view that I feel is totally parasitic, and in society in general,” Collins told Decider. “And I was like, I definitely would love to expose a little bit of that and bring that to the floor, and play with it and see if I can be part of that level of catharsis for some people who may have been raised that way, or experienced that kind of extremism.”

In the episode, Daryl is running through the woods with his faithful companion, Dog, when they bump into a lone Reaper who — shockingly — the canine immediately runs to. Turns out it’s none other than Leah, the woman Daryl literally shacked up with for a few months while searching for Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln). After disappearing from their cabin, Leah headed back to her previous group: The Reapers, the same people currently hunting Daryl.

The rest of the hour finds the Reapers mercilessly interrogating Daryl about his group (he says it was a coincidence he was on the road with everyone else), and ultimately getting nearly burned to death by their leader, Pope (Ritchie Coster). But the main emotional fulcrum of the episode? Leah, who discovers that perhaps The Reapers aren’t exactly what she thought they were when she joined back up.

To find out more about the episode, what actually happened with that montage/love scene last season, and most importantly working with Dog, read on:

Decider: We got to see a pretty highly anticipated reunion between your character and another character this week. So, what was it like working with Dog again?

Lynn Collins: [Laughs] Dog is more important than Daryl.

Absolutely. I think everybody agrees.

I love working with Seven, he’s such a sweet dog. I also loved that the writers wrote that a dog stays with their alpha, and that in this moment he’s like, oh, I’m standing with the lady with the gun y’all. I know the power lines right now.

Dog - The Walking Dead _ Season 11, Episode 4 - Photo Credit: Josh Stringer/AMC
Photo: Josh Stringer/AMC

To take a big jump back though, I think most viewers of had a hunch you weren’t gone forever after your episode last season, but how much was laid out for you about your return, back when you first signed on the show?

Quite a bit. It was, I knew that I would come back in this group, The Reapers. But what happens after I did come back, I didn’t know. And I kind of still don’t know, they’re all deciding that, the writers are still working all of that. I knew when I got this job, the contract was through the last season. That’s why I jumped, because I was like, this is such a cool opportunity, there’s so many twists and turns for this character, and Daryl and Leah’s relationship. The Reapers really speak to this extremist point of view that I feel is totally parasitic, and in society in general. And I was like, I definitely would love to expose a little bit of that and bring that to the floor, and play with it and see if I can be part of that level of catharsis for some people who may have been raised that way, or experienced that kind of extremism.

There are obviously a lot of expectations that come with being a romantic interest for Daryl Dixon. What has the fan reaction been like since that first episode aired?

There are people who hate Leah. There are people who love Leah. There are people who want Daryl and Leah to be together… The passion is kind of unparalleled. I don’t know of any other show in history that has the kind of fans that are this emotionally involved. I think it’s exciting. [Norman Reedus] keeps saying in these interviews, “I am not the writer. My job is to tell the story that I’ve been given, and I can’t control what happens. I can’t control where the character goes. It’s just my job, fill it as best I can.”

At the end of the day I feel like the conflict between love and hate… I think that says that’s a good thing. It is. It’s a good thing. I do have a particular fan that I’m in contact with who was like, “please, please say that she does not become like a terrible villain. Please tell me that people are still going to be able to love this character.” I was like, “I don’t know.” I really don’t know because all of these characters on some levels are gray and are making good decisions, bad decisions. I don’t know. We’ll see, let’s see what they keep writing.

I do, of course, want to ask you about this week’s episode, but before that: there were a lot of theories about why the eventual love scene in Season 10 was in more of a montage and very vaguely alluded to. Some people thought it was to not disappoint other Daryl shippers. Some people said maybe it’s because of COVID protocols. I was curious if you could provide any clarification there in terms of why it was executed this way.

I mean, there were COVID protocols to begin with, so there was no kissing allowed. Also, I think the writers really did take into account: how far do they want to take it? The fans are a big part of where the writers take the storyline. Also… I feel this way and you tell me if you do, the vision is what’s so much more sexy to me. For instance, somebody in lingerie or somebody completely naked. The idea of the allowing the imagination, or, the audience member or the reader to fill it in is always so much more exciting and stimulating than anything we can actually see. I could even take that a step further to: our sexual imagination as human beings probably exceeds what we’re able to actually physically experience, because the mind is meant to expand. That’s why reading is so important, because it makes your imagination grow and expand and structure itself outward. It would have been great to see more how were they really shacked up? What was really happening? For all of these shippers to have to fill that in for themselves, gave them a gift.

Lynn Collins as Leah- The Walking Dead _ Season 11, Episode 4 - Photo Credit: Josh Stringer/AMC
Photo: Josh Stringer/AMC

To jump into this week’s episode, this is a very different Leah that we see here. How did you as an actor find the connective fiber between where you were back in Season 10 and now when we meet up with you in Season 11?

When working on a character, especially somebody that hasn’t had the arc that this character does, what’s so important is the intention. What is her intention? What is she living for? When we find Leah and Daryl, and they’re in their cabin, it’s living for each other, right? I mean, they have these families that are out there and she doesn’t know where hers is. She doesn’t know if she’ll [find] them again, but they bond because they really have each other, they’ve shared their grief and then he leaves and she is found by this family, then it becomes all about protecting the family… Which is The Reapers. The third line is she wants to protect the people that she loves.

What ends up happening is then Daryl comes into this situation, which is somebody she loves. Now she has to choose between him and the family she loves. What a great character to play because the writers have given me just so much to push up against. How she’s different is, she has to go back … into that crazy extremist society, and try and deal with doing with the absolute opposite of that.

What was it like working with Ritchie Coster as Pope?

Okay. First of all, what a kitten. Second of all, one of the most incredible actors I’ve ever worked with in my life. Working with him and Norman at the same time, and Alex [Meraz], I was so lucky. There’s this thing that I say, when something really good is happening and I want more of it. I say, yes, thank you more, please. You know, I tell the universal soup, whatever we’re in. Yes. I want more of this. I just kept saying that after every take with these guys. Ritchie is so fun. He is so available. He is so committed. He is so fearless in his choices. We were able to go to these places, where a take would be done and we’d be like, yes, this is why we do this. This is why we do this, to really throw stories like this all the way to the top, to where we even we get notes of, okay, that was too much. We’d be like, great, fine. We can always dial it back.

He carried a knife on his wardrobe, on his costume the entire time he played the part. I can’t tell more of the story. It’s just… He had lots of knives, tons of knives, hidden all over his costume. Maybe at some point, if we talk again, when the season ends, I’ll tell more of a story, but it felt like, the relationship that Leah and Pope have is incredibly unique and special. To explore that with him was so fun, and really healing for me. I have a ton of Daddy issue and he really held my hand as we went through some really difficult scenes that were actually super healing. I can’t say enough about him as a man, and what an incredible husband he is to his wife, and how supportive he was of all of us, and dedicated. I just never complained, can’t say enough about him.

Ritchie Coster as Pope, Lynn Collins as Leah- The Walking Dead _ Season 11, Episode 4 - Photo Credit: Josh Stringer/AMC
Photo: Josh Stringer/AMC

The moment when Leah comes out of the burning building, after Daryl has thrown her out to safety and is confronted with Pope, seems like a real big turning point for her; in terms of a relationship with Pope, with The Reapers, and potentially with Daryl.

It’s a fascinating scene, isn’t it? Truly fascinating, because we debated it. Does she know that this is about to happen? Who knows that it’s about to happen, in this moment where she realizes they’re all in on it? And who are they actually testing? There’s a scene where he says it’s that he was testing Daryl, but in reality, I think the primary test was testing her. What was he going to do if they survived? Which, they did. The question I believe with Pope was, okay, who is she going to choose now that she knows I could have killed them both today? Where is her true allegiance? In that moment, she realizes there is no choice, but to choose The Reapers because if I choose Daryl, then we both die. Her choice is to fall back in line. At least, the way that I did it, was because she wants to protect Daryl. She’s the only person who can.

The scene, right at the end, when Pope throws one of The Reapers into the fire and holds his face there is terrifying to watch on screen. I was curious to hear what it was actually like in real life, because obviously they’re not burning a guy. So what did you actually see when that was happening on set?

The special effects… God bless Troy [Collins Jr.] and his team, especially as I’ve seen, [are] so amazing. We did it a lot of different ways. You do it without the fire. For instance, when we did the house burning, there was some fire in there, but most of it’s CGI, except the shot when you’re seeing the whole entire cabin burning down. We actually did burn down the whole cabin, but we do it without the special effects as many times as we need to get the coverage of actors performances. Then we specifically go in with the dangerous elements and do it in a very specific contained, controlled way. The actor did a couple of takes where he was with near fire, and then we pulled him. It’s illusion where the camera, there are certain angles where you can make it look like he’s in a fire, but he’s technically not. Then they actually put in a dummy that was actually burning. Then they go on in the post production path and they accentuate all of that to make it look real.

Seeing as this probably won’t be the last we see of Leah, what can you tease, if anything, about what’s coming up for her in the subsequent episodes?

I mean, we really look all have to watch because it’s all still being written. I’ve known since my contract began last October when I was filming, “Find Me.” She’d be back and have kind of a rough beginning of what maybe the first couple of episodes… But there are so many twists and turns, and I just don’t want to spoil it for anyone.

Well, as long as we see more scenes of Leah and Dog, I think everybody will be very happy.

Sweet Dog.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC, and a week early on AMC+.

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