‘Fear the Walking Dead’: Karen David Was “Honored” to Tell Grace’s Devastating Story

True to form, AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead celebrated Mother’s Day the only way the franchise knows how: by putting Karen David’s expectant mother Grace through the wringer.

In the hour, titled “In Dreams,” written by Andrew Chambliss, Ian Goldberg, and Nazrin Choudhury and directed by Michael E. Satrazemis — spoilers past this point — Grace and Morgan (Lennie James) are trapped on the road by the mysterious End is the Beginning people. Grace is unconscious and stuck in a lucid dream state with a girl named Athena (Sahana Srinivasan). Morgan is fighting off zombies, and an on-the-warpath Riley (Nick Stahl), who is looking for the key Morgan came into possession of earlier this season.

And all the while, the very pregnant Grace is in labor. She eventually realizes that Athena is her daughter — or who her daughter could grow up to be some day. And in the future world of her dream state, Grace dying and Athena living is the thing that brings Morgan’s burgeoning community together. She basically forces Morgan to give the key to Riley so he’ll leave them alone, and then gives birth, fulling expecting that she’ll die in the process. She doesn’t, though. The baby is born dead, and the episode ends with a stunned Morgan and a devastated Grace alone with the stillborn child in a barn.

“For Grace, and as an actor, I was so honored to tell Grace’s story and so excited, for lack of a better word, to be challenged in this way,” David told Decider. “I wanted to make sure that I got that balance correct in honoring dearest friends and close family members who have experienced this.”

For much more on the episode, including preparing to tell this unique, heartbreaking story, whether Morgan and Grace’s romantic storyline is off the table, and what’s next as we head into the season’s endgame, read on.

Decider: I was a little worried we were going to be doing an exit interview today. But in some ways, at least for Grace, where she ends up is much, much worse.

Karen David: I would imagine for Grace, too, that it should have been her, not the other way around. I know a lot of people were thinking that it was Grace’s exit, and believe me, I think Grace did too. And that made it more so utterly devastating.

I know that Ian and Andrew sit everybody down if there’s going to be some sort of exit, but was there a point when you were reading through the script where you thought, “oh no, is this my last episode?” Or did you know what was happening going in?

It’s the nature of a show, we take nothing for granted at any point. Any of us could go, it’s just that kind of show and set in the apocalypse. Also coming on to the show, I always knew that Grace was on this ticking time bomb, you just don’t know when the effects of post-radiation exposure, when the death angel would come knocking on her door.

But they told me about the storyline pre-pandemic, so in a way with everything that unfolded with the pandemic and all that, I had this gift of time to really sit with what was to come and to prepare. Definitely as an actor, this is very emotionally, physically and spiritually challenging. I know it’s a very sensitive subject, and a subject that is culturally taboo, where many families who have been through this have not felt comfortable to talk about it openly. I’m very proud of our universe, very proud of Ian and Andrew and Nazrin, who found that delicate balance with telling such a poignant and beautiful story.

For Grace, and as an actor, I was so honored to tell Grace’s story and so excited, for lack of a better word, to be challenged in this way. I wanted to make sure that I got that balance correct in honoring dearest friends and close family members who have experienced this.

Even putting that last scene aside, there are so many big emotional swings in the episode. Was there one in particular that was the most challenging for you to tackle?

I think it was every scene. Every scene in this episode was going to be challenging. I was in every scene. There was no rest for Grace and I, but I was so excited. When we had the prep meetings, Michael Satrazemis, our wonderful director, he sat me down with [Jalaludin Trautmann], our magnificent DP. They were showing me the storyboards and just about the colors, those fuchsia and pink hues and those tones of what her unconscious state would be taking her to. It really excited me, and gave me this idea of what was to come for Grace, and what I needed to do. If you had looked at my script, it is like a roadmap, literally, with different legends and colors of like different beats and moments between the unconscious state, and the conscious state, of where Grace was.

I was just so excited, but I also knew that every beat, every moment in this episode counted, because it had a direct impact on what was to come. I mean, certainly that last scene was the ultimate as far as being a huge emotional weight, which I knew was coming. That scene… One take, that’s all we needed. Mikey asked me, he said, “Do you want to go first?” And I didn’t know what the answer was to that. I said, “Yeah, let’s let’s just do it.”

Lennie and I and Mikey had agreed that we didn’t want to see the prosthetic baby which special effects made. Oh, they did such a phenomenal job, but we didn’t want to see the baby, we didn’t want to over rehearse the scene, we just read the lines without emotion just to do our marks. It was going to be what it was going to be, we didn’t know.

The moment when Lennie put the baby in my arms, it just broke me. You know, I’ve done a lot of research, I talked to my family, my dearest friends who have been through this, I sat through copious amounts of interviews with different families who were so brave and courageous to talk about their experiences of infancy loss. My tears were for all of them. My tears were for my family, my tears were for my dearest friends. I cried hard for them. And it wasn’t really acting in that moment. It just broke me. But to be surrounded by such an incredibly supportive and loving crew you know, even Roman and Chris, our cameramen, AD cameraman, they were right there with me. They were there, like they said, “we’ve got you Karen, we got you, you don’t have to worry about a thing. You just do what you have to do.” The whole crew just kept coming up to me right from day one giving me hugs and cheering me on saying, “We love you. We love Grace.”

We shot this episode just before Christmas and the holidays. But everyone came together. I love our TV family so much, and I could not have hoped for a more loving and supportive crew. Lennie is the best scene partner that I could ever have hoped for or dreamt for, and to be handling such a such a delicate and painful storyline. Again, he elevates you as an actor, he makes you a better actor and just thinking about it gets me emotional because it is truly an experience that as a family, we’re generally always rooting for each other. But this particular episode, because we knew what was coming, just to see how everyone came together… It’s going to be one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, and certainly memories that I will carry in my heart for the rest of my life.

What was it like working with Sahana Srinivasan in this episode?

I was really excited when I read the storylines for Grace, knowing that this was going to be such a wonderful opportunity for a younger South Asian actress. I was so excited for whoever got this role. Sahana came in and I think it was a great learning experience for her as a newcomer, I hope she had a lot of fun. I think she had a lot of fun. It was an experience that I think she’s going to hopefully carry in her heart for the rest of her life, and her journey too.

From a viewer perspective, one of the hardest scenes to watch was the one where Grace is trying to get Morgan to give up the key. There’s this moment where you just snap at Lennie James and he jumps backwards that I thought was so powerful. It made me gasp. What was it like filming that scene in particular, and with Nick Stahl who was also there, of course?

Nick Stahl, so wonderful to have him on our show. That scene was tough, because as we know, Grace is very pragmatic. She’s led by facts. She’s not the type that’s guided by her emotions and certainly this whole episode, we’ve seen a very different Grace. We’re seeing mama bear Grace come out, we’re seeing more of an emotionally connected Grace come out, which is so wonderful for her and for the viewers to see.

Having been through this experience in her unconscious state, she is so convinced by what has transpired and happened in the unconscious world, that nothing will convince her otherwise. So when she tells Morgan that the cost of peace is coming from her daughter, Athena, she knows that in her mind, that is her reality. She knows that it’s this child that is going to bring the community together. She really believes that.

It’s almost quite Biblical. Them in the barn stables, amongst the hay stacks, her giving birth, and what the birth of Athena would mean for the community, as well. In that moment, she’s thinking about her welfare, the baby’s welfare, Morgan’s welfare and nothing, nothing is more precious than that. Even if it means giving up that key. Her hormones are raging at this point, she’s been through a massive explosion, she was unconscious, everything is heightened in that moment, and she’s so convinced in her mind that this is the right way to go give the key back. I think Morgan has no choice.

I had talked to Ian and Andrew a couple of weeks back and they were a little bit waffle-y on Morgan and Grace’s romantic future. Given the events of this episode, and where Grace in particular is left off, is romance off the table at this point?

The loss of a child for any parent who has been through this experience, but for Grace, in this case… You never get over it, you can only hope and pray that each day will become more bearable, that you can live to see another day without feeling that enormous sense of loss and pain. It will have an impact on her relationship with Morgan and the rest of the community, and for Grace, moving forward.

For Grace, it’s the seven stages of grief. I can only hope and pray that she finds some sort of peace or solace, but right now, it’s just too raw. She is going to go to a very dark place. This is post-natal depression, and then some. Again, this is something that our universe has never done before, this kind of episode stylistically, aesthetically, storyline wise. And I’m really proud that we’re talking about these sensitive subjects and hoping that it might bring some sort of comfort, or make those that have felt that they’ve had to suffer in silence… I hope it makes them feel seen and feel that this is something important that they feel they can talk about openly.

At the end of the episode, The End is the Beginning folks have this key. We don’t know what it opens yet. We’re heading towards the endgame with the season. What can you tease about that, as well as how Grace is going to work into the overall story?

For Grace certainly, moving forward, it’s about her working through her grief, and how that fits into everything that’s happening. Grace will always have that scientific, pragmatic side to her where, when it’s needed and called for, it might almost be a perfect distraction for her from her grief. But it’s that battle between the two that she’s going to be having to fight through moving forward.

It’s gonna be a roller coaster of a ride of what’s to come. There are a lot of questions that many of the characters have moving forward, and the more they see the signs, the more worry and concern [as they] try to fit those pieces of the puzzle together. So at some point, hopefully, it’ll all come to fruition and start to make sense.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.

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