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'The Walking Dead' actor reveals he shot his death scene with his fly down
As we get closer to the end of The Walking Dead, we say goodbye to yet another character.
Major character deaths on The Walking Dead are nothing new at this point. With many of the show's key characters, the question is no longer will they die but how will they die, and how will their death impact the other survivors in the core cast? On this week's episode of the AMC hit, yet another major character said goodbye, and in this case, the story of how the actor bid farewell is almost as interesting as the character death itself.
**SPOILER WARNING! Spoilers ahead for The Walking Dead episode "What's Been Lost"**
After spending much of Season 11 terrorizing the show's heroes, former Commonwealth Deputy Governor Lance Hornsby finally ran out of room to run in Sunday's episode. After cutting a deal to help out Carol and Daryl, Lance saw an opening to get rid of the dynamic duo for good and decided to pull a gun on them. He was answered with an arrow to the neck from Carol and left to bleed out on the ground, putting an end to his time as one of the show's major latter-day antagonists.
It was a key moment in wrapping up the series' core narratives, but for the man who plays Lance, Josh Hamilton, it all began with a rather mundane question about his living situation.
"When we were shooting in Georgia, I had to rent my own apartment and my lease was going to be up after a certain date and I had to ask," Hamilton told Entertainment Weekly when asked how he found out about his character's death. "[Laughs] I kept bugging production saying, 'Hey, I know you might not know exactly, but should I do another month on my lease?' And they were like, 'Uh, no, you'll be done by this date.' I was like, 'Oh, okay.' So that was the first heads-up, because I was like, 'That seems a little early.' [Laughs] But then I got that final script. So it wasn't out of the blue."
After the awkward discovery, the time eventually came to shoot the death scene itself, which involved racing against the clock to get the night shoot done before time off began for the crew, and Hamilton working to keep the right amount of blood in his mouth to look convincing enough for the takes. When the moment finally passed, things got even weirder, as Hamilton realized a key part of Lance's always-important wardrobe was...out of place.
"And when we finally got it, it was like, 'Yeah!' And they ran off because they had to pull the plug at the end of the night. And then I realized that my fly had been down that shot. [Laughs] First, I was like, 'Oh no, my fly is down!' They're like, 'We'll fix it in post.' And I was like, 'You know what? Don't. It's actually the perfect insult to injury to Lance, for someone who was so fastidious about his appearance.'"
The Walking Dead: Come for the gruesome deaths, stay for the wardrobe malfunctions. The final four episodes of the series will air over the next four Sundays on AMC.
If you're looking to satisfy your zombie craving immediately, head over to Peacock and check out the movie that kickstarted the entire genre: George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead. Or check out the SYFY original series, Day of the Dead.
