Greg Nicotero talks ‘The Walking Dead’ season 5, the trough scene
While attending the Walker Stalker NYNJ Convention at the Meadowlands Expo Center, Greg Nicotero discussed AMC’s The Walking Dead with Media Mikes, recounting the episodes he shot as director, creating certain effects and the background on the intense “trough scene” in the season five premiere.
Greg Nicotero discusses “The Walking Dead” season 5, beginning with the trough scene
“[Showrunner] Scott Gimple is really good at sort of pinpointing which episodes he wants for which director but he’s had me direct the premiere for the last two years and I directed the finale this year too,” Nicotero explained, after giving a brief overview of his role since season one. This led into him expanding on the background to the premiere – an the trough scene.
“… I’m really proud of that scene because I feel like Scott and I really crafted that scene together. Because he pitched the original idea and we had really sort of both kind of immersed ourselves into making it as good as it could be. And I remember, the first time we screened it for the crew, I leaned over to Scott at one point and I went ‘I wonder if we went too far’ because it’s so uncomfortable and it’s so brutal and it’s so relentless. But the truth is, Terminus had to be portrayed that way otherwise it wouldn’t have felt authentic so I’m really really proud of that.”
In fact, even the cast hadn’t experienced the blood squirting effects yet and Nicotero explains the scenario during the interview.
“As a matter of fact when we shot that scene, I had designed a rig for the slit throats and they hadn’t seen it tested. So when they were all leaning up against the trough and we did Robin—who played Sam, who was the first kill—they were all leaning up against the trough and we pumped the blood. And they, just out of the corner of their eye, just saw the blood shoot over the trough and then in and it started flowing down…They were all pretty…I know Steven (Yeun) and Norman (Reedus) were like ‘Ahh, what did I just see?’ Because all they saw was out of the corner of their eye blood spraying, and blood hitting the trough and then it running down the trough past them. So I think we can still, I think we’re still good on grossing them out.”
The Walking Dead continues to be the biggest show on TV and the second half of season will begin in January. Check out the rest of the interview HERE
The “trough scene” – The Walking Dead season 5
