Melissa McBride ‘had no intention of acting’ before The Walking Dead and instead worked as casting director
MELISSA McBride plays the longest serving female cast member on The Walking Dead, but it turns out her place on the AMC zombie drama is an unlikely one.
McBride worked as a commercial casting agent for years before dabbling in acting, securing roles in the likes of Walker, Texas Ranger, The Mist and In the Heart of the Night.
Now her former co-star IronE Singleton has spoken about her journey onto one of the most successful dramas in TV history.
"It’s special to see what Carol has been able to overcome," Singleton, who played T-Dog for the first three seasons of TWD said on the latest episode of Skybound's Talk Dead to Me podcast.
"And we were talking about it. Melissa, she actually called me last week, or a couple of weeks ago. That's my girl, I love Melissa,” he went on.
“Melissa started in Atlanta, and I would actually audition for Melissa because she was a casting director for commercials in the past."
He said of her casting: "We had the same agent in Atlanta and Frank Darabont called our agent and personally requested Melissa McBride because he remembered her from The Mist, and he asked her to be Carol. And she had no intentions of acting anymore.”
Not only was McBride about to walk away from acting altogether, but apparently she’s not particularly keen to pursue it once her time on The Walking Dead comes to an end.
Singleton exclaimed: "I was asking her about that, I said, 'How crazy is that, Melissa?' I said, 'Are you planning on doing some more acting after The Walking Dead?' She's not in search of it!
"She's like, ‘I'm not really in search of anything, but if something falls in my lap, maybe.' But otherwise, I said, 'You had no intention of acting anymore, ever again, and that opportunity came.' Look at her now, I'm so happy."
The world of The Walking Dead would certainly be very different without Carol.
Alongside the likes of Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Michonne (Danai Gurira), who bowed out of the show earlier in season 10, Carol has proved to be one of the most formidable combatants and demonstrated major growth.
Season 10 saw Carol turn to drugs to cope with her grief after losing adopted son Henry.
She found herself consumed with revenge and endangered her group in her reckless pursuit of Alpha (Samantha Morton).
It was later revealed that Carol had set Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) free from Alexandria’ prison to murder Alpha, which naturally her carried out with panache.
The Walking Dead is available to stream on NOW TV.