http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/li...poilers-andrea-laurie-holden-interview-431969
This is a good interview, but I think I must have misunderstood. Here are some of the highlights:
The Hollywood Reporter: When did you find out that Andrea was going to die?
Laurie Holden: I got the official word a few days before we began principal photography on the finale. [Departing showrunner] Glen Mazzara called me. It was a shock to everyone. It was never part of the original story document for season three and was rather unexpected. That said, this is The Walking Dead and the show is not conventional by any means. We know as actors going in what this gig is about. You just roll with it. I had one hell of a run and feel blessed to have had three great seasons.
THR: If Andrea wasn't supposed to die then what was the original story?
Holden: Andrea was always supposed to save Woodbury. But she still did. There was peace to her death because she was reunited with her best friend and her family. In those final moments, she learns that the children and everybody at the prison survived. It's a pivotal moment for Rick Grimes. Her death does propel story forward because when you think of it, in spite of her incredibly tumultuous journey she had, the people of Woodbury did escape and reach their sanctuary and none of the people of the prison were killed. After an entire season of seeing Rick's descent into madness and tortured by the ghost of all things past, he heals by that interaction with Andrea. In those final moments, he gets what she's all about and what she's been fighting for. It's an enormous wakeup call for him and allows him to snap out of his state of insanity. The Rick Grimes we've rooted for and have loved since the beginning -- the strong, capable leader who believed in humanity, community and hope -- is back and there's a healing there.
THR: What kind of conversations did you have with Robert Kirkman about killing Andrea and taking such a major detour from the comics? He told us that there was a lot of debate about killing her off.
Holden: I've never had more people rooting for me in my life. The executive producers and the writing staff didn't want it to happen and were cheerleaders for me. It was a difficult decision and a hard decision but at the end of the day, it may have been the right decision. Andrea had three amazing, great seasons and her death wasn't in vain. It's a depressing and dark episode but out of that death emerged a lot of hope and transformation. It was the right ending.
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THR: The way the scene was filmed when Andrea frees herself, it seemed like it really could have gone either way for her. Was there talk about changing her outcome?
Holden: There were two versions of that that were shot. The first one portrayed her as the ultimate victim and that was not the story that I think needed to be told or that any of us could put our shoulder behind. We went back and did another version -- the final version -- which is much more satisfactory. Andrea went out with grace, dignity and was reunited with people she loved and was able to voice how she felt and what was in her heart. After a tumultuous season, I'm so grateful that she was able to say what needed to be said and share that with her family.
