MINNEAPOLIS — The March 17 episode of “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live” may have been the most intimate hour in the franchise’s history with a lot more tears than zombies.
It made sense to have Danai Gurira write the script. The local college grad not only portrays the drama’s Michonne, the survivalist who wields a katana sword with the same authority that Dirty Harry had with a .44 Magnum. She’s also the accomplished playwright behind the Tony-nominated “Eclipsed” and “Familiar,” which was staged at the Guthrie Theater in spring 2018.
In the pivotal episode, Michonne and her lover, Rick (Andrew Lincoln), come to a crossroads in their relationship, exchanging harsh words and passionate kisses as the building they are hiding in begins to crumble. Michonne must determine whether she can convince Rick to desert the army that has recruited him or if he is too brainwashed to defect.
Gurira, who co-created this sixth “Dead” spin-off that airs at 8 p.m. Sundays on AMC, analyzed the action last week in a phone call from Los Angeles.
Why was this episode the one you wanted to write?
That’s easy. It was a two-hander in which they really had to face each other. As a playwright, you always want that juicy interaction with two people who have to grapple with something.
Did you take the same approach you would to a play?
I’ve been writing teleplays off and on for years now, so I know how to step into it. But there was very much a clear journey we had to take that we arced out back when Andy, myself and Scott (Gimple, the third co-creator) sat down in a hotel conference room. It was always clear what had to be accomplished.
Except for zombies, it’s only the two of you. How did that change the mood on set?
Me and Andy are both from the theater and we’re also great friends. That allowed us to buckle in and get in the meat of the thing. We worked on it like a play with lots of rehearsing. It gave us a chance to grapple with this high-stakes, make-or-break energy in a space we never had when we were on the mothership. I was kind of sad when it ended.
There are some moments of humor in this, like when we learn that Rick can’t drive a shift car. Were you purposely looking for chances to lighten the mood?
I always do that. Even when I have a play set in a war zone, there’s humor. It’s just part of life. You don’t want to shut that out.
Michonne reveals that one of her favorite books as a kid was “Ramona the Pest.” Was that tidbit autobiographical?
A little. That book was always around the house. That and S.E. Hinton’s novels. I was the youngest of four and it just kept being passed down. It just came to me while I was writing.
Michonne also shares that she studied art history and creative writing in college. Was that based on your time at Macalester (in St. Paul)?
No, no, no. I was a social psychology major with a lot of focus on African American studies and theater.
Did you return to the show so you could find more layers to Michonne and dig deeper?
We were never not going to tell her story. When I left initially, I was always contractually obligated to do this with Andy. It was just a question of what would be the format. The idea of completing our love story, which was Andy’s brainchild, was always the plan.
When you first started playing this character 12 years ago, you told me you could barely recognize yourself in Michonne. Has that changed?
She’s gone through this great journey where she’s opened up and become more vulnerable. And as time went on, I found more and more of myself in her. But she has always remained herself. She’s always doing things where I go, “Oh, I wish I had done that in my life.” By the time I was in the throes of this character, it was like, “She’s more than a woman to me.”
