“I hadn’t slept for three days.” Andrew Lincoln's exhausting experience became his blessing on The Walking Dead

Exhaustion proved to be the salvation of Andrew Lincoln, who years ago was competing for a role in The Walking Dead.

Edyta Jastrzebska

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Source: The Walking Dead, Frank Darabont, AMC, 2010

Andrew Lincoln is the star of The Walking Dead. The actor not only played the lead character in the original series, but also became a leading character in the spin-off The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. Rick Grimes is a beloved character by fans, which is partly due to Lincoln himself playing him, whose portrayal of a struggling zombie apocalypse father at the head of a group of survivors captured the hearts of viewers.

Andrew Lincoln, in an interview with The Guardian, confessed that thanks to The Walking Dead, his dream of getting a leading role in an American production was about to come true. Or at least that's what he hoped for, but the birth of his second child, or rather the lack of sleep that came with a baby at home, posed a problem. For the casting for the role of Rick Grimes, Lincoln went after three days without sleep, but it turned out that exhaustion helped him convince TWD creators.

I hadn’t slept for three days, and I was shell-shocked. I had this apocalyptic chic that probably fitted the bill. I looked like I’d survived a zombie apocalypse.

Sometimes adversity can be used to one's advantage. Andrew Lincoln is a perfect example of this – lack of sleep helped him fit into the expectations of the creators, who saw in him Rick Grimes. And betting on him turned out to be a good decision – Lincoln became the face of the series, successfully convincing viewers who became involved in the fate of the character he played.

And so much so that they were eager to watch the spin-off The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, which was met with a positive reception.

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Edyta Jastrzebska

Author: Edyta Jastrzebska

A graduate of journalism and social communication as well as cultural studies. She started at Gamepressure.com as one of the newspeople in the films department. Currently she oversees the Gamepressure movie&TV newsroom. She excels in the field of film and television, both in reality-based and fantasy themes. Keeps up with industry trends, but in her free time she prefers to watch less known titles. Has a complicated relationship with popular ones, which is why she only gets convinced about many of them when the hype around them subsides. Loves to spend her evenings not only watching movies, series, reading books and playing video games, but also playing text RPGs, which she has been into for several years.