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Hi, actress Sarah Wayne Callies here (Prison Break, Walking Dead, and my new movie Into the Storm). AMA!
Let's talk about acting, let's talk about the IRC, let's talk about anything you want. My latest movie is Into the Storm out this Friday August 8. AMA!
https://twitter.com/reddit_AMA/status/496768186965327872
http://instagram.com/p/rVOHekmrWj/?modal=true
update
hey guys... i have to give the computer to steve quale, our Into The Storm director, for his Reddit AMA. thanks for your awesome questions and for participating. my fans have always astounded me with their care, their sensitivity, and their passion. thanks to you all so much, and i hope you love the movie! bye for now....
Jux_87 karma
When I enter your name into Google, the first suggestion is "Sarah Wayne Callies feet." Is that weird?
johnmong84548 karma
Hey Sarah. As somebody who holds Prison Break in such personal high regard, I'm curious as to what your opinion on it is. Do you think it should have remained a mini-series like originally intended, or that it was better being expanded into multiple seasons. Also, what differences would there have been if it did end after only one season?
SarahWayneCallies114 karma
such a cool question.... the worst thing you can do is 'stretch the taffy to thin'... make more stories than there should be in order to keep a series alive for the sake of people making money. i was glad the show ended when it did because the writers told me they were out of stories to tell and didn't want the show to get silly. i do think the first two seasons were our strongest, and the intricacy of season one was so extraordinary.
Eno9445 karma
Hey Sarah, would you allow it to your daughter to watch your death scene in The Walking Dead? And if she has already seen it then what was her reaction?
SarahWayneCallies85 karma
My kids are too young for that right now... eventually i'll let them watch if they want to, but i'd prep them first. But i find that children by and large are pretty good at understanding the difference between reality and fantasy.... you know?
judomonkeykyle41 karma
Did you read the Walking Dead Comic to prepare for the role? If so, did you like it?
SarahWayneCallies66 karma
i read the comic between my first and final auditions.... i thought it was amazing, very brave and so powerful.
carrielour31 karma
Have you stayed in touch with Wentworth Miller or any other Prison Break co-stars? I loved you and Wentworth's chemistry :)
SarahWayneCallies72 karma
living in different cities, wentworth and i haven't been able to stay in touch as much as we'd like. but i have a world of respect for the personal choices he's made recently: i was hugely happy for him and proud of him when he came out as gay. it was a brave choice, and one that i imagine will have a powerful impact on the lives of young men and women in the LGBTQ community.
Raisicheesy27 karma
How do you feel about the fact that most of the TWD fans hate your character ?
SarahWayneCallies94 karma
you know, in my experience the fans that come to talk to me have nothing but love for lori. i hear from lots of people who appreciate that she was nuanced, complicated, real, and flawed. the love i've gotten from fans for lori's time on the walking dead has been so moving, and i have been so grateful for the people who have the respect and admiration for her that i do. i think she's a remarkable woman: brave, passionate, relentless in her determination to protect her family. after all, she saved rick's life - if she hadn't warned him about shane he would likely have been killed.
that said, there will always be people who don't like a character, no matter who you play. that kind of reaction is fair well within the rights of any viewer. if the issues lori raised initiated interesting discussions, i'm all for it. we learn from our disagreements and we grow when we listen to others....
Mashayous23 karma
Hi Sarah, im a big fan of you from The Walking Dead. Really liked your portrayal of Lori and it was always exciting to watch you on screen.
My question is: What was your most memorable scene from The Walking Dead? And what made it so memorable?
SarahWayneCallies53 karma
thanks for your kind words!
the most memorable scene was probably the last. saying goodbye to chandler as lori was saying goodbye to carl was an extraordinary thing to have to do. i have such respect and love for that young man who i met when he was just a kid. it broke my heart that i wouldn't be there for him on set anymore and i wouldn't get to watch him grow up and keep an eye out for him.
there was also my last scene with jon bernthal, the one by the windmill at the end of season two. jon is like a brother to me and i am unquestionably a better actor for having learned so much from him. again: it broke my heart to say goodbye. but then, i suppose i'm also hugely grateful to TWD for being a job where i got to form such bonds with wonderful people...
DramDemon23 karma
- Do you still watch The Walking Dead even though you aren't on the show?
- Who was your favorite cast member from The Walking Dead to work with?
SarahWayneCallies76 karma
that whole cast was amazing... i made so many friends working on TWD and feel so enormously grateful to all of them. one of my favorites was Melissa McBride, because she came up with the most amazing little improvs between takes. sometimes she'd have me in tears.... sometime i'd be laughing my tail off...
as for watching the show, i haven't had a TV in years, so even when i was on the show i didn't watch. i've seen a few episodes here and there, and I'm always so proud of everyone's work. the ep with melissa and chad that mike satro directed last year (the 'watch the flowers' episode....) was just spectacular.....
whitegryffen22 karma
Do you know why they never refer to the walkers as zombies in the TWD series, especially when zombies are such a cultural name?
SarahWayneCallies62 karma
i think they were trying to create a world where 'zombies' didn't exist.... does that make sense? trying to avoid scenes in TWD where people talked about all the zombie movies they've seen - it could have gotten quite self-reflexive. when we call them 'walkers' they're specific to our world and our story.
Velorium_Camper21 karma
Who was the best prankster on the set of The Walking Dead? What's the best prank you 've pulled?
SarahWayneCallies64 karma
andy rothenberg had a day on set that absolutely killed us.... we were shooting a scene in 105 where everyone contemplates amy's death and tries to figure out what do to so she doesn't become a walker. it was HOT. atlanta HOT - that special kind of heat that fries your skin and makes it hard to think straight... and we'd been out there for hours, making the scene. it mattered so much to everyone that we get it right, because wonderful emma bell was leaving our family and we were all crushed by it. there was so much emotion, so much tension and exhaustion. and then in them middle of a take andy rothenberg (played jim - so brilliantly) looks over his shoulder at jon bernthal, blows him a kiss, and mouths the words 'i love you.' i thought jon was going to have a heart attack he was trying to hard not to laugh. it brought us all to tears, we were cracking up so hard. just what we needed....
DrummerBoy21718 karma
Were you upset at all that Lori didn't live longer in the series?
What does Andrew Lincoln smell like?
What's your favorite kind of sandwich?
Are you a fan of TWD as a comic book series?
Do you still keep in touch with the current cast?
Thanks for doing this Sarah, I'm excited to see The Storm and to see you in other great projects by great people.
SarahWayneCallies45 karma
i was happy lori lived as long as she did... you never know on a show like that, particularly when you know she dies in the series. i thought her death was done so beautifully, the way they wrote it....
andy smells like the rest of us on the show: like sunscreen, bug repellant, sweat, and deodorant. but he's a wonderful gentleman no matter what.
sandwich? pulled pork barbecue with cole slaw. oh you just made me so hungry...!
the comic books are rad. groundbreaking.
LOVE the cast and we just saw each other at comic con in san diego. still some of by best friends. nice to get to know new folks like chad coleman, too... they have such wonderful people working on the show... STILL.
you're welcome! hope you like the movie. xoxo
mrsbass7913 karma
Morning Sarah thanks for doing this AMA. When filming Prison Break were any of the cast prepared for the ending?
SarahWayneCallies26 karma
hard to be prepared to say goodbye to a show you love... we did our best to give the show a good send off, but we were all sad....
SarahWayneCallies30 karma
no.... i came back to the show because the fans insisted on it... they were amazing.... put together campaigns to bring dr. t back and made themselves relentless with fox. it was one of the most moving things i've ever experienced, realizing how hard they were fighting for me to go back to that job. i'll never forget it!
HoserUSC9 karma
Did you collaborate with Jennifer Carpenter at all to voice Deb in the Dexter video game?
SarahWayneCallies34 karma
you know, i'm not sure how that credit got onto my IMDB page, but i didn't do the dexter video game - i've never even seen the show! spread the word: that voice isn't me!
SarahWayneCallies41 karma
my porch at sunset with my children and husband, a home cooked meal on the picnic table and friends on their way over to share it.
SlimClanky8 karma
Hey Sarah, big fan from the UK here!
I love all of your roles that I've seen you perform, most notably The Walking Dead, but my question is, what has personally been your favourite role?
SarahWayneCallies19 karma
maybe my favorite role was one i played on stage: marie from 'the guardsman.' she was vibrant, passionate, alive, so complex... wholly feminine, feline... and she didn't get herself killed!
MsJessD47 karma
Hi Sarah, thanks for doing this Q&A. Here's my question, When did you first know you wanted to become an actor? Much love from France xx
SarahWayneCallies15 karma
bonjour france! kind of a hard question to answer because for years i really fought my desire to be an actor professionally. it seemed so unlikely that i could succeed - there are so many people who want to do it who never make it, and i didn't think i could do any better than they could. i was in college when i realized that i would have to fail at being an actor before i could be happy settling for something else.
but the first time i fell in love with acting was at a production of 'the secret garden' on broadway in NYC starring mandy patinkin. i'd never seen anyone do what he did and i thought to myself that if i could be a part of something like that i would be the luckiest person in the world.
RoisinB7 karma
Hey Sarah, do you ever get called any of your characters names in real life, and does it get slightly tedious? :D
SarahWayneCallies30 karma
i really wish they'd changed my character's name on prison break so i could tell the difference between people talking to ME and people who are fans of HERs!
SarahWayneCallies44 karma
well glenn mazara told me about it on the way to the airport to bury his mother who had just died. so my first response was, 'okay, glenn, i'll be fine. don't worry about me. how are YOU doing?'
RoisinB5 karma
Do you think your new film Into The Storm is a film for everyone, or would you say it's just a film for those who love action/thrillers?
SarahWayneCallies15 karma
i'd say it's a movie that's got some tremendously cool special effects that will satisfy anyone who's into that kind of thing (i am - and i saw the movie last night and it's AMAZING), but it's anchored by a simple story of a man and a woman who are separated from their children in a storm and fight like hell to get back to them. in a way, you could say it's a story that pits the power of a parent's love for their children against the power of a storm.
SarahWayneCallies16 karma
magic.
i realized that we can create worlds with our imaginations, and that we can explore what it means to be human by putting ourselves into the lives of other people. it was transcendent to me.... i'd never felt more free or more passionate about anything.
that said, i was a kid, and probably wasn't very good! the techniques and the skills to bring a person to life took time, experience, and training.... but god i still love it so much.
SarahWayneCallies18 karma
i wept when i found out i'd been cast. it meant so much for me to work with gale anne hurd and frank darabont - they were such powerful and creative storytellers.
evilpenguin321175 karma
Where is Carl and why isn't he in the house?
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