TWD: Maggie & Leah's Fight Was Sort Of Inspired By A Charlize Theron Action Film
One of the most pivotal moments in Season 11 of "The Walking Dead" was the midseason finale, titled "Acts of God," which saw Lance Hornsby (Josh Hamilton) landing a devastating blow against the survivors — attacking and later capturing the communities of Alexandria, Hilltop, and Oceanside with the help of soldiers from the Commonwealth.
As a part of this attack, Lance hires Leah Shaw (Lynn Collins) to execute Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan), which she gladly accepts to get revenge for Maggie's attack on the Reapers. This leads to one of the most climactic moments of the episode when Maggie and Leah become locked in a desperate fight to the death inside an abandoned cabin, a fight which was actually heavily inspired by Charlize Theron's "Atomic Blonde."
"Catriona McKenzie, who directed that episode, wanted it to be sort of inspired by 'Atomic Blonde' and how savage that fight is, all of her fights are, and they're fighting to the death," explained Cohan during an interview with Decider. Indeed, the fight in question is undeniably brutal, as Maggie and Leah throw themselves at each other like animals and end up bruised and bloody by the end of it all, just like most of the fights in "Atomic Blonde."
Lauren Cohan had plenty of fun filming this savage fight
Anybody who's seen Charlize Theron's "Atomic Blonde" can draw an easy parallel between the heavily stylized violence of that movie and the ferocious battle between Maggie Rhee and Leah Shaw. Despite how bloody and horrific this fight is, Lauren Cohan herself says it's one of her favorite scenes in all of "The Walking Dead."
"It was like, one of my favorite scenes I've ever done on 'Walking Dead.' It was so fun. Lynn is so invested and fierce and fun," Cohan said. "And we wanted to make that fight as brittle as we could, and not hold back." Although Cohan certainly had a lot of fun filming this incredible fight sequence, she also went on to emphasize how sad and poignant this moment is: saying that both Maggie and Leah have shared experiences of grief and loss, and the fact that they are not able to see eye-to-eye is extremely powerful.
"It was an outpouring of all the rage and the grief and the loss and the basic survival, animalistic survival that this world really is and calls for sometimes," she said. Cohan's comments make it clear that this particular fight had an enormous impact on her, not only because of how fun it was but also because it symbolizes much of the tragedy at the heart of "The Walking Dead."