I thought it would fit a niche. I didn't anticipate, nor do I think anybody did, that it would become this global phenomenon, the way that it has. The critics have been so kind and favorable, it has really garnered such wonderful praise, and the numbers have been through the roof. It's actually been quite surreal. I'm still pinching myself because it's amazing. For me, we went to Atlanta and we spent our summer shooting this little zombie show, and it was ours. It was our sweet little zombie show [The Walking Dead], and the world has embraced us.

I don't want my tombstone to say actress. I want it to say human being.

When forced to survive in an apocalyptic world, there are some characters that embrace their higher selves with some emerging as natural born leaders, and others succumb to their more base and primal selves and basically transform into savages.

I was pretty nervous when I met Robert Kirkman. It's very strange to meet someone who created you. Andrea [ from The Walking Dead] is still very much alive and kicking, seven years into the comic book, so to meet Robert and be like, "Hi, I'm Andrea," I had to just hope that he was happy with the decision.

I thought it would fit a niche. I didn't anticipate, nor do I think anybody did, that it would become this global phenomenon, the way that it has. The critics have been so kind and favorable, it has really garnered such wonderful praise, and the numbers have been through the roof. It's actually been quite surreal. I'm still pinching myself because it's amazing. For me, we went to Atlanta and we spent our summer shooting this little zombie show, and it was ours. It was our sweet little zombie show [The Walking Dead], and the world has embraced us.

The pain doesn't go away. You just make room for it.

I knew that we'd have a big following because the graphic novel [ The Walking Dead] is so popular, and I knew that with Frank Darabont and Gale Ann Hurd at the helm that we were doing something very special.