When Andrew Lincoln stepped away from The Walking Dead part way through season 9, the TV series not only lost its lead but a hugely talented performer who had given his all to the show since it began. Thankfully, the British star hasn’t said goodbye to the role of Rick Grimes forever and will return for his own movie trilogy. Still, it’s a blow not to have Rick on the series anymore. Likewise, the cast and crew miss having the actor as well, who’s known for being an all-round good guy.
A friend to all he may be, but it sometimes hurts to be playing Lincoln’s enemy on screen. Andrew J. West portrayed Gareth, leader of the Terminus gang, in season 5 and he found out the hard way how “intense” Lincoln gets when he’s acting. West revealed to the Talk Dead To Me podcast that Andy took his character’s hatred for Gareth very “seriously” when performing – and he had the bruises to prove it.
“He is so method,” West said. “He is, look, he’s the nicest, warmest, most welcoming dude in the world. I love him to death. I had such a great time working with him. He takes his job so seriously and I loved it,” he continued before joking: “But, I will say I probably still have welts on the side of my body from when he was whacking away at me with a rubber machete during the church scene.”
He went on to joke (we think) that he’s still not fully recovered from that beating all these years later.
“I think six years later I’m still healing from that,” West joked. “The guy, he’s so committed to what he’s doing and he’s so intense.”
Like West says, Lincoln’s mostly known for being gracious and kind to everyone on set. Former co-star Jon Bernthal has spoken about how much his friendship with the actor means to him in the past, while Vincent Ward has revealed that Lincoln had his back when producers failed to tell him his character Oscar was getting killed off.
The first Walking Dead movie is currently in the works, but it doesn’t seem to be getting here as soon as intended – it’s not yet ready to go when the industry kicks off again, for instance. Rest assured, though, Rick Grimes will return.