'The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon - The Book of Carol' | Variety Studio presented by Google TV
Norman Reedus (Cast/EP), Melissa McBride (Cast/EP), Louis Puech Scigliuzzi, David Zabel (Showrunner/EP), Greg Nicotero (EP) step into our video studio at San Diego Comic Con 2024.
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00:00The camera guys, remember they're like, they do one take, right?
00:03They do this sort of thing, and they all stop, and they start rolling a cigarette,
00:07and they're like speaking French, and they're talking, and I'm like,
00:10what are we waiting on? Because I'm in Georgia, it's like, factory, get the machine moving,
00:15you know what I mean? And I'm like, what are we waiting on? And I don't know if it was you or
00:20Clemence explaining to me what they were saying, and they were like, what story are we telling
00:25with this camera movement? And I was like, just take your time.
00:34I don't know if this is the place I'm supposed to be,
00:37thinking about all the people I left behind. I wonder if they're still thinking about me.
00:42I want to just start by kind of asking if the producers, if any of you guys want to talk about
00:45this, why Spain? Why that's the next location you want to head to?
00:52That's you, boss.
00:52Oh, all right.
00:53Why not?
00:54Well, yeah, sangria, tapas, good food. But it's part of the progression of Daryl and Carol trying
01:02to get home. And they find their way there through a bunch of surprising and cool, compelling reasons,
01:09but Spain is right across the border from France, and they end up there.
01:14Yeah, okay. Is the goal to kind of just keep hopping across the map as long as you guys can?
01:21Well, it keeps it fresh for sure. I mean, one of the reasons we went to Europe to begin with was
01:27to really have a whole new journey and take the characters that we know and put them
01:34in a strange land and sort of get that vibe. So any opportunity that we can to continue
01:41exploring the world is a great opportunity for these characters.
01:44And it's one of the things that distinguishes us from the other Walking Dead shows is that
01:48we get to sort of show how different parts of the world have responded to the Walker apocalypse
01:53and the different impacts it's had in different places and come up with some cool new things that
01:58you don't see in the American version. And we're better.
02:04You're better. There you go. Well, okay, so rewinding a little bit.
02:09Melissa, at what point did you decide that season two was going to be
02:14your return and that this was going to stretch out longer?
02:18At what point? That would have been, there was stuff to work out when he was shooting
02:26the first season. So Carol makes an appearance in the very end. What was the question?
02:34I guess at what point did you decide like you'll be the chapter two?
02:40Season one.
02:41Yeah, it was pretty early on. When I came on to start working on season one,
02:47Melissa and I met and talked and started talking about it then. So it was pretty early in the
02:51process. And the plan from pretty early in the process was to bring Carol on at the end of
02:56season one and into season two. It was before the scripts were written for season one.
03:00Yeah. Oh, okay. So very early on.
03:04When we find Carol, how is she versus the last time we, I guess the last time we saw her not
03:09counting in the finale of season one, how has she changed?
03:13Um, here's what I think. I think that she is concerned about where her friend is.
03:24But I also know that when things get quiet, things get stirred.
03:29So she's on a mission to find her friend.
03:35For several reasons.
03:37That's what I can tell you.
03:39Obviously, we know they-
03:40That's what I can tell you?
03:41I owed her money. She was like, uh, yeah, yeah, all of that. But I mean,
03:47one of the good things is the relationship that they have. She doesn't, she can feel it. She can,
03:54you know, something doesn't feel right. Like, it's like a premonition.
03:57She senses something's wrong.
03:59It's not just like, oh, he should have been here Thursday. So it's kind of,
04:04they sort of finish each other's sentences.
04:07Like a twin thing, almost.
04:09I know how you can feel.
04:10Yeah, a little bit. Like a cosmic, there's like a cosmic connection.
04:13Yeah, kind of, sort of.
04:15Do you feel like it's the same with, can Daryl feel that Carol is?
04:19Yeah. And we've had storylines where one of us leaves and the other one comes to check on them.
04:27And we've both done that, that route. So, um, yeah, I feel like they just, it's, that's how
04:33they are. They're, uh, it's, it's a bond that's, that's a very tangible cosmic sort of bond.
04:41Can you guys tease a little at all, how long it'll take in season two for,
04:46to see Carol and Daryl have this reunion? Since it's not obviously going to be.
04:49No, you can't, I can't tell you that. I can't tell you what episode they connect in.
04:54It's a great journey.
04:56It's a great journey, but it doesn't take that long. Can I say that?
05:00How many episodes did we do?
05:01We only made six episodes.
05:08Louis, I want to ask you about bringing Laurent into this world, kind of, uh,
05:12opened up this possibility of maybe, you know, an immunity, a supernatural element,
05:18maybe something like that. Will that something be something that will continue in season two?
05:23Yeah, maybe. I mean, we'll have to find out. And, uh, he's a bro.
05:28We're just waiting for it.
05:30Spending too much time with these two.
05:33But, but that's right, right? A lot of it is about the people around Laurent and what they
05:38feel about him, what they think, what they put onto him as something to believe in and something
05:42to protect. So we do definitely explore that in season two and it certainly affects what you do
05:48and how, how you're interacting with people and some of the, some of the trouble that you find
05:54as a result of that. Of course.
05:56Okay. Great. Um, Daryl obviously was left with a big choice at the end of season one.
06:03And I, I think a lot of the theme of this new family and what family really is, is something
06:09that I think that was a reason that Walking Dead was so popular in the beginning. I mean,
06:12because it's a found family, uh, and that theme, is that going to be, I guess, what are the themes
06:17we're going to expect going forward and in season two? And if that theme is going to continue as
06:22well. That's a big theme. Uh, you know, Daryl sort of finds a sense of family with these people
06:29that he didn't see it coming. He was just, he accepted a mission to get to a certain spot to
06:34get out of there. And that journey along the way, uh, real life things happen between he and the
06:42people that he's met and he starts to care about them. And by the, by the last scene of season one,
06:53uh, it's a real sort of hacking a machete to get to the boat and what, and, and, and it's, uh,
07:02the guilt of leaving them behind. I mean, he's never left the Abbey. He's never been out in
07:09the real cruel world. So, uh, I don't know, Daryl's just not the guy to leave them high and dry and
07:16bail. So, uh, you know, that's the sense of family is a big part. He's got a family over there. He's
07:21got a new family here. What does he do? You know? And I think maybe that's part of the thing she can
07:28feel. Yeah. Well, it's also interesting because we've set up at the end of season one, that
07:35Carol is on a mission to find her friend, but Daryl has no idea that she's looking.
07:40So Daryl is getting sort of more and more, um, dug in with this group of people. Plus, you know,
07:46something that we haven't talked about a lot are the villains in the show, because we have some
07:51really fantastic actors. Uh, we have Roman and we have Anne and it's a different kind of villain
07:57that we've ever experienced in the walking dead universe before. And it's, and it's exciting
08:03because they just, they're bringing another level to it. But I like the idea that Daryl really
08:09doesn't know she's coming and there's a possibility that, you know, he's going to get, you know,
08:15really drawn to staying with these people. It's either that or season two opens with, with, uh,
08:21Laurent torn to pieces by zombies on the beach and Daryl on the boat going later. But I will say
08:27like season two does allow us to like get more deeply into the, into the antagonistic characters
08:32who are played by great actors and gives us a lot more room to sort of expand on them. And just to
08:38finish up that thought that the whole thing is really about the definition of family or home,
08:44which are kind of interchangeable or connected at the very least. And the interesting thing is
08:48that Daryl kind of stays because he has this sense of responsibility to this new family and home
08:53and Carol kind of leaves in search of, in a way, her family and her home, which,
08:59which is sort of personified by Daryl. There's also like the mythology of this kid and what he
09:05means to the people get up and fight. Like it's, he's almost like this mythical creature. Um,
09:13so there's that, there's that old brave heart. Come on, this is our day thing. So
09:19there's that with the bad guys and the bad guys sort of fighting that from preventing that from
09:24happening. And then you've got this kid who's, who's looked at as, I guess, just as a kid from
09:30Daryl. Right. Yeah. And then, but also what he means, like he means you can't just drop that
09:36ball off. Not just cause he's a kid, but because he's a thing, you know what I mean? Yeah. He's
09:43the reason to get up and fight, you know? How different has it been? I mean, now heading to
09:48another country, but even just going back to filming, not in the U S I mean, how, what have
09:54you guys been doing outside of filming? What do you do for fun when you guys are, when you, what
09:58don't we do? We lived in Paris for a year. It was, it was pretty great, but I'll tell you that one of
10:04the things that's most interesting is, um, I directed the premiere for season two and a lot of
10:11it deals with Carol and a lot of it deals with Daryl stories. And I think one of the things that
10:18we did really well in season one was give the flavor of the other country. You know, we, we
10:22really leaned into, you know, the mythology of what a post-apocalyptic France would look like.
10:30And, you know, the locations that we went to Marseille and Marti and all these beautiful
10:35places. Yeah. And gave, gave the world a vision of what those places looked like. So to be able
10:43to continue that, um, and we do it a lot in season two, we hit a lot of other really unique places.
10:50That was something that was very different. And, you know, the filming style, some of the directors
10:54and the cinematography really, we wanted to sort of just embrace a different style. You know, we
11:00used a lot of steady cam and, you know, there wasn't, I don't think we ever put the camera on a
11:04dolly ever. It was always, it was always developing shots where you're introducing little pieces of
11:12information as the camera weaves and moves and tells our story. And that was a lot of fun for me
11:17as a director who had done 40 episodes in the original series. So I enjoyed, I enjoyed that
11:24quite a bit. So I had that and then, you know, the stuff with Carol. So I shot partly supposed to be
11:30the U.S. and then partly in France. You know, the, the, we were filming one day when it's season one
11:37and, uh, you know, you're on this show that's, you know, we're shooting in Georgia and it's
11:41like boom, boom, boom, boom, and it's getting bigger and bigger and becomes this monster of a thing. We were
11:46sitting there and the camera guys, remember, they're like, they do one take, right? They do this sort of
11:52thing and, and they all stop and they start rolling a cigarette and they're like speaking French and
11:57they're talking and I'm like, what are we waiting on? Because I'm not used, because I'm in Georgia, it's
12:02like factory, get the machine moving, you know what I mean? And I'm like, what are we waiting on? And I
12:06don't know if it was you or Clemence explaining to me what they were saying and they were like,
12:11what story are we telling with this camera movement? And I was like, just take your time,
12:18but that's like what Greg's saying with the camera work and everything. There's like,
12:24we've jumped off that super fast moving train and we're like making this very artistic, poetic
12:30story somewhere else. It's, it's been a real joy, you know? That's incredible and it gives you more
12:35time to hop over to a Taylor Swift concert when you're over here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean,
12:40there's lots of fun things to do in Europe. Of course. Did I tell you I was a Taylor Swift?
12:44Is there? You mentioned it. Literally yesterday. Yeah, I'm so tired. What's your favorite era?
12:52Oh shit, I don't know. I don't know, but I, I mean, I like songs. I don't know which. Okay,
12:58what's the song? I like, look what you made me do. Look what you made me, made me do. Oh,
13:05and I like, oh man, shut up. I have like, I have a five-year-old daughter who loves it, right?
13:12But like that one song that's like, love her. When my five-year-old daughter, I'm like, stop it.
13:17You know, there's a lot of songs. I don't know what era that is. I love that. All right. So our
13:22last thing we're asking everybody, it's okay. Yeah, this is, this is the last one. Let's talk
13:27about Taylor. What, is there a show that's on your watch list for this year? Yeah, The Boys.
13:34Any of you? Yeah, I like The Boys a lot. That show's fun. What about you? I don't know,
13:42there's so many. Yeah, I have a lot of catching up to do. I don't know. I'm loving House of the
13:49Dragon. Great show. Can't wait. Showgun I heard is awesome. The Bear's good. I kind of, you just
13:56made me think of this too, but I kind of want to see Fallout. Greg is nominated for an Emmy for
14:01Fallout. Oh wow. Amazing. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. Thanks for coming by. Cool. Thanks for
14:07having us.