Quint from Aint It Cool news recently visited the set of AMC's television series The Walking Dead and saw tons of behind the scenes stuff. He even saw a horrific scene from the first episode in which Andrew Lincoln, portraying series star Rick Grimes, shoots a zombie girl in the face. Here's the photo right before he pulls the trigger.
That zombie child is Addy Miller - who we learned was cast as one of the undead not long ago. During the set visit, Addy had amazing makeup effects on her face that looked like a hole in her cheek with the teeth clearly visible right through the side of her head. The effects are nothing short of incredible and gruesome all the same.
Another cool behind the scenes deal during the visit was when Quint noticed Andrew Lincoln escorting an older man onto the set - his father in law - Ian Anderson - who also just happens to be the guy who plays flute for Jethro Tull. Cool huh?
The scene in question that was being shot with the little girl plays out with Rick at an abandoned gas station looking for a car with a gas can in hand. He hears a shuffling sound and notices what he believes is a small girl. “Little girl! Little girl? It’s okay, I’m a police officer.” says Rick. When he goes around the car where the child is he sees her slowly turn around to reveal bloodshot eyes and a gaping hole in her cheek, clutching a bloody teddy bear in one hand. Rick is terrified, sad and confused. Zombie or not - this is a small child. He fires - takes her out and the ring of the gunshot attracts other zombies who were laying in vehicles. Rick then has to get the hell out of dodge.
This is the first shot of a zombie in the series - up until now Rick has seen nothing but corpses.
Frank Darabont looked like he was a little kid on Christmas morning - extremely excited. Darabont loves him some shooting kids in the face action. Apparently Darabont is shooting the pilot much like he did his earlier films - long steady shots and no shaky cam.
Andrew Lincoln mentioned that he and Darabont were talking about Rick's character 45 minutes before the set visit and shot of the zombie child scene. “Even today, Rick shooting the little girl took a sliver from him.” said Lincoln.
The pieces are already being put into motion early and the traumatic sequences which begins to shape this series won't take long to get rolling.