Calgary Expo 2021 Laurie Holden Panel

September 11, 2021 at 6:46pm
By Joelle Rondeau

At the Calgary Expo 2021 there was a Laurie Holden panel at the BMO Center front stage where she went over her career. The showcase event started with details about her time on The Walking Dead, alongside appearing in Amazon’s upcoming The Boys season three.

She actually just finished shooting the role where she will be the Crimson Countess in that series. Further roles mentioned included The X-Files and The Americans. Outside of acting she advocates against people trafficking and mentioned that the issue is very close to her heart and she does whatever she can to help.

Continuing on details about The Boys cast she notes they’re awesome people and the series has a great show runner. It’s an international cast with a very diverse background that work hard while providing a professional and kind background. At that point the conversation shifts to her going over details about acting in general.

An actor’s work happens prior to showing up on the set, there’s lots of prep work. You must learn the entire character prior to shooting. With that, the first season of The Walking Dead was very hard on her. It was difficult dealing with the heavy emotional toll the character had taken. Your body doesn’t know you’re acting, so that impacted her directly. Mentions really immersing one’s self in the role.

Then for some fun chats about the zombie school folks around her went to, with a dance background. All of the zombies have their own back stories and they were very nice on set. Made it harder for her to kill them. On set, Scott Wilson “Hershel” was her favorite cast mate, like a surrogate uncle.

A question was then asked about what she learned about herself while working on The Walking Dead. A reply was given, ”I’m stronger than I realized”. Another note was that fans think she was that character, and that actors in general don’t have control over what happens so it’s rough to deal with an audience reacting in a negative way.

It’s somewhat of a compliment in that it means she performed well, but notes that actors are separate from the roles they perform. It took a more personal direction afterwards talking about her family’s history of acting, and how she missed acting while in school so she began to shift back towards it. That emotion is universal, with The Majestic being the role that rekindled her passion for acting.

A final note was on the suggested romantic combination of Andrea and Michonne. They loved each other, they were each other’s person. It can be whatever you want it to be, friendship or romantic and how you perceive it. That about sums everything up, we have additional panel and other coverage from the show in our hub.

View our Laurie Holden Panel Coverage
View our Calgary Expo 2021 Hub