Lennie James – The Walking Dead

By: Kelly Kearney

Q) You have a 6-part British thriller series coming out on February 28th titled “Save Me” where you play Nelly, a complicated man whose charged with the kidnapping of his estranged teenage daughter. Can you talk a little bit about the series, Nelly’s journey to find the real kidnapper and where you found the inspiration to create such an interesting and multifaceted character?

Lennie: I didn’t really think of it as trying to create a complicated character. I was just trying to create a real character. I wanted to take a genre, the thriller genre, and test myself as a writer and speak to some of the rules of that genre and mesh it with some of the tropes while setting it in an ultra-real environment so it wasn’t too fantastical. That was kind of my mission in the beginning. The thing I wanted to do with Nelly was to explore a complicated journey to redemption. Mostly, when you have a redemption story the hero goes on their path to do the right thing and in the end he or she wins. I wanted to explore the price of single-mindedly going on one journey and what the cost of that is to Nelly and the cost that it is to the people directly around him, his wider community and his friends and neighbors. That’s what I wanted to explore and on one level it’s an impossible journey, but it’s the only way that Nelly can be involved in this thing, this kidnapping, that has happened to his child. He’s not her official guardian. He signed away his parental rights to his daughter ten years ago so that her step-father could adopt her. So, the police have no reason to talk to him to explain how the investigation is going and they have no responsibility to him. He’s completely on the outside of this thing that is happening to his flesh and blood. The only thing he can do to be involved is to set off and try and find her on his own.

Q) Not only are you starring in “Save Me,” you also produced and wrote the series. What is it like seeing your ideas translate on screen and where did you come up with the idea for the story?

Lennie: I’ve always got ideas bubbling around in my head and there was an idea that I was letting bubble around and a small part of that idea was a little bit about a father who had been absent in his child’s life – a father who was brought back into their life because something happened to his kid. When I got a telephone call from Ann Mensah. who is the head of Sky Drama, she contacted my agent and asked if I had an idea I might want to pitch. When I was informed about that, I was filming in Detroit at the time and I had a long weekend off and started working on the idea and let it grow and gestate in my head. Once I decided the type of man I wanted Nelly to be, location and other characters just fell into place and grew from there.

Q) The show is dark and compelling, but it also has a touch of humor to it. Was it important to you when writing the script to infuse some light moments into this often frightening and tragic journey?

Lennie: It’s very important for me when I’m writing that I try to create something real. I think regardless of the situation, no matter how heinous, dark and painful it is, somehow people find a way to smile or laugh. I think it’s why funerals, at the end of the night, often wind up with people laughing and dancing and just trying to find that way through their grief and hardship. It was very, very important to me that there wasn’t slapstick humor, but human humor in the way that people react to situations. I mean, yes, this terrible thing has happened to Jody. She’s been taken away and Nelly and Claire (Suranne Jones) and the immediate community around Nelly – they’re involved in this and it can feel all-encompassing, but it doesn’t take up every single minute of every single day. They’ve still got to eat and buy clothes and pay their bills and they’re still going to have a drink and a laugh and try and get through it and put it in perspective. When people try to put things in perspective they more often than not use humor.

Q) “Save Me” will air on Sky Atlantic and NOWTV in the U.K., but are there any plans to bring this show to an American audience? Perhaps a streaming platform like Netflix?

Lennie: I absolutely hope it comes to America. Even though it’s a story set in a specific place in London, it’s a universal story and my hope is it gets to as many places around the world as humanly possible. I know we have had some offers from America and other places around the world and at some point, soon, I’m sure there will be an announcement of the different places it will be playing.

Q) The show is directed by the fabulous BAFTA winner Nick Murphy. What was it like bringing these characters to life with Nick? Was there a time where his direction offered you a different view of the characters you wrote?

Lennie: Yes, and that’s exactly as it should be. Mostly, my day job is an actor and as an actor it is always a collaborative process. The best days of work are when all the people who come to do their job alongside you are working at their peak and bringing their best selves to the job. That’s what I wanted with “Save Me” and that’s certainly what I got with Nick. I was very clear that I have written this, but when we’re on set and shooting it I’m just one of the actors. When we were shooting it, it was very much Nick’s set. He’s the one with the skills in that department so it was Nick and Chas Bain, who is our fantastic cinematographer. There were lots of things in “Save Me,” these kinds of inserted moments where you’re given a glimpse of the world around that are one hundred percent because of Nick. Like the housing estate or the lady in the burka on the skateboard, those were all touches Nick brought to it. Those moments when Nelly is being interrogated, there’s a long moment of silence. I wrote that scene because I wanted you to realize this story is about this man and it is going to get real as it gets real with him. That moment of silence in that scene, it was a note from Nick and it was entirely his idea. All through this story, I am absolutely aware of what I brought to the table, but also very much aware of the contributions of the rest of the cast and crew. I absolutely celebrate the job we’ve all done with “Save Me” and a lot of that is where my pride for the project comes from.

Q) Of course, most everyone knows you as Morgan Jones on “The Walking Dead” and everyone is talking about that gruesome and gut-wrenching encounter with the savior in the premiere. Has Morgan finally crossed a line he can’t come back from? What was it like filming hat messy and horrifying scene?

Lennie: The scene was very, very, messy and the gut pulling stuff was the last scene of the day. [laughs] It was late at night and close to dawn and there was an immense amount of bloody liquid involved in that stunt. From the waist down, I might as well have been swimming in blood. Of course, it all had to get cleaned up before I could get into my car to drive the forty-five minutes back to my apartment. So, I remember it being very messy and the special effects and makeup team (Greg Nicotero’s team) were beside themselves with joy and were giggling like little school boys. It’s one of those beautiful moments filming this show and I mean we are eight and a half seasons in, that there are still moments when the person whose directed more episodes and created more walkers and special effects stunts than anyone else still finds a way to giggle and get excited about a stunt with his team – it’s really a testament to the work that they do over there. I can say it was lovely and surreal. [laughs] As for Morgan and crossing over to the dark side, I think for the remainder of the season, we will see exactly what it’s going to cost Morgan to get to the other side of this war.

Q) By now, most American fans know Morgan is headed to “Fear the Walking Dead.” How were you approached about joining the crossover?

Lennie: At the beginning of every new season the cast has a one on one sit down with Scott Gimple and depending on where you are in the world, depends on how it gets done. Sometimes it’s over a breakfast in L.A., sometimes it’s a coffee at Scott’s house in Georgia and sometimes it’s on the go once you’ve arrived on set. I had my meeting with Scott in Senoia, where we shoot the show. We went through the normal conversation of what’s going to happen to my character that year and then I left. Then, about three days later I got a call from Scott and he said he had forgotten to talk to me about something and would I mind coming back and having another meeting. I went back and wondered what it could be that he had forgotten to tell me. He told me that he was going to step back from show running “The Walking Dead” and Angela [Kang] was going to step up. He was going to become the overseer of the brand with both “The Walking Dead” and “Fear the Walking Dead” and asked me how I would feel about moving from one to the other. I swear to God it was the last thing I expected him to say and it took me completely by surprise. After that, he kept talking and it was like I was in a wind tunnel. All I heard was ringing in my head and because I was so taken aback when he asked me if I had any questions I just said, (sounding dazed) “No, I don’t know what to think at all. I’m gonna go and drive home and speak to my wife about it.” I also asked permission to speak to Andy [Lincoln] about it and Scott said he would like to have a conversation with Andy first and let him know what was going on. I said, “Well, do that quickly because I need to have a conversation about it,” and he did. I went home and talked to my wife and then a couple days later I went out for a curry with Andy. We chatted through all of the ramifications, notions and ideas of this and a few months later I made a decision that I believed was in the best interest of us all. I took a long time to deliberate it because it was a big decision. I’m protective of Morgan and conscious of his position with the fans and within this world so it took a while.

Q) Playing a character for so long, you must really get to know what makes them tick. So, what makes Morgan tick? What makes him go from this gentle, family loving, life-respecting man to a full-blown beast mode killer?

Lennie: It’s a very simple thing. It’s about survival and about what it’s taken Morgan to survive. One of the things I love about playing Morgan and it’s this way for many of the characters on the show and unlike any other show I can think of, is that the characters bring our history with us all the time. The audience of “The Walking Dead” are aware of the characters’ histories because they’ve witnessed them. You know, in the mid-season premiere when Morgan was at the window overlooking the Savior’s compound and looking down the scope of the sniper’s rifle, it echoes the first time we were introduced to Morgan when he tried to be brave enough to end his wife’s suffering. One of the things that make him tick is literally the road he’s had to go down to survive. The switch he can make from killing to the need that he has to not kill happens because he knows what it costs to kill and what it costs to experience loss. He knows that in this particular moment in time he can’t avoid this war and the only way he’s going to be able to survive it is to go through it. He knows what head he has to put on to get to the other side and that’s what we’re witnessing at the moment.

Q) Morgan tends to run the gamut of emotions. From the pacifist who believed “all life is precious” to the silent assassin we saw in the mid-season premiere. Through all of his changes, one character seems to consistently be able to pull him back from that murderous ledge. How would you describe Morgan’s relationship to Carol (Melissa McBride) and why is she the one he most relates to?

Lennie: I describe Carol and Morgan’s relationship as a kind of “Shawshank,” love affair. In the sense that they are two people who have met each other in a certain place and time in their lives and what passes between them is a growing and loving friendship. They see something of themselves in each other. They are both people who had been defined before this apocalypse, defined by who they were married to and who they were mother and father to and that was their world. It was their journey in that world. Now, their positions in this present world are completely dictated by the severing of those relationships and no longer being a husband, a father, a mother or a wife. I’ve said a few times that I think Carol is one of the few people in our present grouping who may have crossed paths with Morgan in the other world. They may have inhabited the same space and there’s a familiarity between the two that I think sits at the heart of this friendship. The things that Morgan and Carol are going through, they recognize it in each other, but they’ve also felt it. That’s what draws them closer and closer together. It’s a meeting of souls and a meeting of experience and I am very lucky I get to stand opposite Melissa and share some really lovely scenes.

Q) Lennie, is there something you would like to say to your fans and supporters and also, are you working on any new projects they can look out for besides “The Walking Dead,” “Fear the Walking Dead” and “Save Me”?

Lennie: “Save Me” and “Fear” has pretty much taken up all the spare time I have in my life at the moment. Listen, certainly my journey with “The Walking Dead” and transference to “Fear the Walking Dead,” my position in this universe is one hundred present down to the fans, how they’ve reacted to my character and how they championed for him. He came back because the fans couldn’t stop asking where Morgan was and when was he coming back. So, I am very thankful and uber aware that the journey I’ve gone on in the last eight to ten years has been because of the fans interest in my work. “Save Me” is another side of what I do and it’s something I feel very lucky to have worked with the group I did. It was another project that I am very proud to put out and have the fans see and I hope that they enjoy it.

“Save Me” can currently be seen on Sky Atlantic. The series is on Now TV and Sky Box Sets after broadcast.