Audiences might know this British actor best as one of the loveable stars of 2003’s “Love Actually,” but a zombie plague on AMC’s “The Walking Dead” has put Access Hollywood.com’s newest Rising Star, Andrew Lincoln, back in the spotlight – covered in the guts & glory of the undead!
The 37-year-old actor, who has starred in a slew of project across the pond since “Love Actually,” told Access he’s “thrilled” that his freshman series has already received the green light for a second season.
“It’s terrific news… I’ve been speaking to a lot of my co-stars as well and we just love making it and we’re really, really looking forward to getting stuck in that Atlanta heat again,” he said. “It was pretty grueling. You sort of grow used to it, you get back into it; but it’s perfect for the show because it’s kind of apocalyptic.”
Though the series is filled with zombies roaming the streets in search of something to feast on, according to British actor who plays a sheriff in Georgia, the undead are not the show’s villains.
“The most gruesome things are actually between the humans themselves,” he explained. “I don’t want to spoil it, but there is one scene, one of the actors – a brilliant actress named Melissa Suzanne McBride – used a pickaxe at one point and I watched it from the van and I just thought, ‘This is too strong.’ You saw all the faces of all the other characters just watching the scene and all of us just looked absolutely God smacked. Like, ‘This can’t be right!’”
One aspect of starring in “The Walking Dead” that Andrew never expected was the amount of screen time his own flesh is getting.
“This wasn’t the arrival into your country that I had expected. I didn’t think I was going to be looking like I just woke up from a coma in some boxer shorts. But for some peculiar reason in my career I’ve always seemed to [be naked,]” he said with a laugh. “I don’t know why it is. I wish I knew and I’m desperate to change this, but it doesn’t seem to be the case. You know, like be on a series where you can’t actually be naked.”
As for Andrew’s workout secrets, he credits the warm weather of Hotlanta – where the AMC series shoots – for helping to keep him toned.
“The work was the workout. Just filming in Atlanta was the workout,” he explained “But I run, I run a lot. I started to run a couple years ago – long distance running. That’s how I sort of maintain my fitness.”
Running is a skill he’ll be using in the three upcoming remaining episodes of the show’s inaugural season.
“I don’t really want to spoil anything. We sort of push the breaking point in episode five and it all breaks loose in episode six,” he revealed.
If a zombie outbreak were to actually ravage the earth and the human race was forced to give up its daily creature comforts – Andrew told Access that the thing he’d miss most is something for which his character also longed.
“A hot shower! That would do it for me. I hate to wake up, oh, and my coffee maker,” Andrew said.
“The Walking Dead” airs Sundays on AMC at 10 PM – with Season 2 slated for fall 2011.
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