Ross Marquand Feared For His Life While Filming The Walking Dead's Season 11 Premiere
Few AMC shows, outside of perhaps "Breaking Bad," have been as influential as "The Walking Dead." Not only has the success of the horror-drama led to a whole pile of upcoming spin-offs, but the series also inspired a legion of me-too zombie shows all across the television landscape.
Part of what kept "The Walking Dead" fans coming back week after week was its unpredictable nature. Established and still-growing characters alike were regularly killed off throughout the 11 seasons of the series, resulting in a constant feeling of tension and dread that few shows can match.
However, to hear Ross Marquand tell it, it wasn't just his character, Aaron, who was in danger in a pivotal scene from "No Other Way," the Season 11, Part 2 premiere of "The Walking Dead." In an interview following the airing of the episode on AMC, the actor described how anxious he was while shooting the basement rescue sequence.
Marquand was worried for his own wellbeing while shooting the basement scene
"The Walking Dead" actor Ross Marquand sat down for an interview with Insider and discussed Aaron's daring rescue of Judith (Cailey Fleming) and Gracie (Annabelle Holloway) in "No Other Way," Episode 9 of Season 11. As the waters rose in the flooded basement where the two children were hiding, and walkers loomed amid the dark waters, Aaron leapt into the fray to save the kids from certain death.
While the scene was undoubtedly tense for viewers, especially considering the aforementioned high body count among the characters on "The Walking Dead," Marquand said the scene had him nervous as well. "I thought I was gonna die in real life at some of those parts, honestly," Marquand said of his experience filming the sequence.
"Everything is rigged for safety. Everything's totally fine," Marquand said. "But when we were crawling across that pipe, that thing was just leaking water left and right, 'cause it was supposed to, my arm kept slipping off. You've got a mace arm — there's your support — and then this arm kept slipping off the damn thing."
Well, when it comes to acting with a medieval weapon for an arm, it's only natural that there might be some complications. Luckily for fans of "The Walking Dead," all three characters survived the scene and lived to fight another day across the remainder of the series.