The 'Walking Dead' Scene That Almost Made Lauren Cohan Quit the Show

By Vivian Kane | The Walking Dead | February 2, 2016 |

By Vivian Kane | The Walking Dead | February 2, 2016 |

To be an actor on a show like The Walking Dead must be a surreal experience. Setting aside the popularity of the show, and the fame that comes with that, for most actors, if they’re doing a commercial, a play, a movie— whatever the job— a role lasts anywhere from a few hours to a few months. Sometimes longer, but even most Broadway actors in the longest-running of shows don’t stay in a role for upwards of six years. Add to that the gruesomeness of a show like this, and that has to be a weird brainspace to maintain.

Lauren Cohan (Maggie) speaks to that in this clip from an upcoming Inside the Actor’s Studio episode that’ll feature Robert Kirkman and the show’s cast. She’s near to tears talking about how challenging it is to dive into material like this, both professionally and personally, and she reveals the scene that almost broke her. Back in season three, when she read the script for the episode where Maggie had to (three-year old spoilers here, I guess) perform an emergency C-section on Lori, Cohan says it was nearly too much.

Because of the cast’s “ridiculously incestuous” living situation (um, more on that please), Cohan is able to go next door to talk to her on-screen husband for advice.

I knock on Steven [Yeun]’s door, and I said, ‘I have to leave the show, I don’t think I can do it.’

It affects you so deeply to the core to dive into so much of this material.

And then I realized, that’s why I have to do it…We watch to feel and to—hopefully—honestly portray something.