The final season of Fear the Walking Dead arrives Sunday, May 14, and Kim Dickens is back as the Clark family matriarch, Madison. After several seasons away from the series, original cast member Dickens told What to Watch in a pre-season interview that season 8 is very different from previous seasons and this version of Madison is the darkest version of the character.
Having seen the first three episodes of season 8, What to Watch can confirm that this season is very, very different from any other season of the show. The stakes are higher. There are lives on the line. And things are dire for just about everyone. It's an interesting place to find Madison Clark who, as fans know, has always managed to get herself out of any situation she was in.
What to Watch asked Dickens if she was surprised by how dark season 8 is, and Dickens didn't mince words. "When the gentlemen (showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg) pitched me this season and everything when I was invited back, they sort of told me where they were thinking to start [the season] and how dark it was going to be. And they weren’t kidding! I mean, Madison, that was the lowest and the darkest I've ever played her in any of the seasons."
Dickens focused on how to bring that kind of darkness to life in her character. "For me it was about digging deep in a real come to Jesus moment for her," she said. "The first scene, the whole first episode especially, is very dark. There were even some scenes where we were in a small space with the whole crew. There were two actors and we were there for a full day, maybe two. There were a couple of things that happened where we were just all quiet. All quiet. And then the next day we all kind of went to work saying, 'wow, that was hard' or whatever. But we gave it the silence it needed and tried to give our best performances so that we could define our starting place."
Dickens' co-star Danay Garcia, who plays Luciana, was on set that day shadowing executive producer Michael E. Satrazemis, who directed the season premiere. "I was not acting in it," she said, "but I was behind the camera following him around. And I had the script and I saw the whole thing come to life. And I remember thinking this is dark, and that's coming from me being used to [the show's] darkness!"
"Danay was a real comfort during that time," Dickens noted, smiling.
Fear the Walking Dead season 8 premieres Sunday, May 14, at 9 pm ET/PT on AMC.
