Parker Posey on The Surprising Emotional Weight of Her ‘Tales of The Walking Dead’ Episode

When the first stills dropped for Tales of the Walking Dead, AMC’s new anthology series set in the universe of TWD, the clear highlight was from the episode starring Parker Posey and Jillian Bell. Titled “Blair/Gina”, the picture showed the usually comedic duo bedraggled, and wearing outrageous outfits. It was clear a romp was in the offing!

And “Blair/Gina”, which premiered on Sunday (August 20) is a romp for most of the running time, though definitely not in the way viewers might have expected… At the dawn of the zombie apocalypse, an overbearing boss (Posey) and her put-upon employee (Bell) find themselves stuck at a gas station. A fight breaks out, a gas tanker explodes, and they die… And then they’re back at the office, restarting the day.

Yep, Blair and Gina are stuck in a time loop, straight out of Groundhog Day. And the episode does through all the tropes of the format as they figure out their situation, become resigned to it, and ultimately grow as people. It’s that second part where Posey, in particular, found surprisingly deep and poignant emotional resonance, thanks to dual, real-life tragedies.

“When I was doing the second season of Lost in Space, [writer/producer] Kari Drake was there when my father passed and it was a real fight or flight kind of situation,” Posey told Decider. “She had lost her mother within the year, and she happened to be there when I flew down South to see him. And then when I came back and had to work… [Long pause] She wrote this… I was quite moved to read this interpretation, and to have it be funny and have so much energy and so much wit, and also really be about the loneliness of grief and what fight or flight looks like.”

Drake, of note, worked with Posey on both Lost in Space, and wrote this past weekend’s episode of Tales of the Walking Dead. To find out more from Posey about the process, how she recognized one of the zombies from Blade: Trinity, and some ideas for where Blair and Gina might pop up next, read on.

Decider: When I was talking to showrunner Channing Powell, she said that they wrote this role specifically with you in mind. What’s it like when someone approaches you with a project in that way? Does it feel good? Is it more pressure? How does that strike you?

Parker Posey: When I was doing the second season of Lost in Space, [writer/producer] Kari Drake was there when my father passed and it was a real fight or flight kind of situation. She had lost her mother within the year, and she happened to be there when I flew down South to see him. And then when I came back and had to work… [Long pause] She wrote this… I was quite moved to read this interpretation, and to have it be funny and have so much energy and so much wit, and also really be about the loneliness of grief and what fight or flight looks like.

So, back to your question, because I’ve had people write parts for me before and being able to fit into a writer’s head and have them write for me is really great. So, I feel really lucky. I mean, I’m a middle-aged woman. I’m so lucky to be working. Geez. Yeah.

To talk about the episode itself, I was surprised to see that throughout your extensive filmography, I don’t think you’ve done a time loop episode before. You’re always resetting and filming multiple times anyway in TV and film, but you’re doing that even more for a time loop. So, how do you craft a performance arc from that? Or is it just about trusting the directors and editors to get it right?

I was a big fan of Twilight Zone and Night Gallery as a kid. Right? And there were these kind of psychological, experimental things that they were doing in the early days of that. So, of course I trust the editors and the direction. What happened in this case was it felt like I was out of order even shooting the episode, because we weren’t supposed to shoot all of the office stuff starting the third day of filming. So, it was a cover set. I didn’t know. I was like, “So, if it rains, we’re going to be shooting in the rain. Right?” I said, “If it rains, because I have a lot of material, we’ll be shooting in the rain or will the office be a cover set?” And they said, “Oh, we’ll be shooting in the rain.” I’m like, “Great.” I was down south taking care of my mom, who had triple bypass surgery in November. We shot this in Atlanta, in January.

I guess all of this is to say, back to grief and kind of the mindset that trauma puts one through. You can probably hear it in my voice right now. I’m remembering what that time was like. You trust, you always just have to trust the process. Right? You leave it up to the gods, you leave it up to the editor, you leave it up to all those people. You just have to trust that everything’s okay. There’s so much fear. And with fear comes stress management. And that to me was also something that I felt… It’s something that I was thinking about while I was shooting, and my mom was recovering.

One of the things that’s very surprising about the episode is it’s not just a romp. As Blair and Gina get worn down, it gets dramatic and deeper to the point where you’re just exhausted and sitting on the floor, talking to Jillian Bell’s character. What was it like playing that aspect of the episode?

The writing’s so good. Jill and I would talk about wanting this to continue, wanting this to branch out. We wanted to branch out into other episodes in the Tales of the Walking Dead. Wait, did you just see Blair and Gina in someone else’s episode? It was just a great tone to have the more meaningful questions and seriousness, and as well as this kind of exhilarated fear. I thought Kari did a terrific job and Michael [E. Satrazemis] in directing that. We lost some time because of weather. We didn’t have a lot of time to shoot. We didn’t have a lot of time to rehearse. It was really fast and furious, these things. So, we were pressed for time, but I think that’s just how it is. And it was great. I loved working with Jillian so much, and the whole cast. We had a great time. And going back to this kind of time loop thing, it’s just a great trope. I really like it. Do you like kind of Memento type, Groundhog Day things?

Yeah, definitely. I love time loops. And it’s fun to see it in a zombie context.

Yeah. The way that people are kind of in their own timeframe. Right? We don’t really meet each other as directly as we think we do.

For the record based on what you were saying earlier, I’d love to see Blair and Gina just walking through the background of every Walking Dead show from now on, fighting and bickering.

[Laughs] Exactly. We were exactly like that. Like, “I can’t find my purse,” and just being in the background. And Gina just singing in the car on the radio, just out of the blue like, “Oh, what is she doing there? Oh, I’m glad she’s okay now.”

There you go. They have Norman Reedus, Daryl Dixon show set in France. There doesn’t need to be any explanation. They’re just walking by the Eiffel Tower. We go from there.

Exactly. Eating a croissant. Yeah. “This is delicious.”

Very general question before I let you go, but I’m always curious about what your experience was like working with the zombies. I’ve talked with so many people in the franchise where it’s just this jarring experience of, of course they’re regular people on set, they’re going to craft services like everybody else — but what was your experience like working with them?

Oh my God. I left my mom. She was three months in recovery with triple bypass surgery. And I see Lex [Geddings] and he’s like “Parker,” and he plays one of the walkers and he’s like, “Remember me from Blade Trinity?” And I’m like, “Oh my God, how are you doing?” And, “Oh, my wife and I are here. We live outside of Atlanta. There’s a lot of work down here.” I’m like, “Wow, that’s great. And yeah, Atlanta’s, they’re calling it East Hollywood or whatever they’re calling it now.” He’s like, “How are you doing?” And I’m like, “I’ve been taking care of my mom. It’s been pretty stressful, but I’m taking all these herbs and I think I’m handling it all really well.” And he’s like, “What’s her name?” And I’m like, “Linda.” And he says, “Oh, my wife and I will pray for her.” I’m like, “Oh my God, that’s so sweet.”

And then throughout production, he’s like, ‘How’s your mom?” I’m like, “She’s doing well,” but he’s like… Veins popping out of his head. So, it really made me laugh for someone to be so sweet, but looking like someone bit his neck off. It was just kind of absurd. And it’s scary. It was like, “Okay, well, you’re getting eaten today.” And it’s scary. I really get scared. Yeah. But the actors are great, creature actors, the actors who play… Like Brian Steele who played The Robot on Lost in Space, I worked with him as well in Blade. He played the demon. So, there’s just such an interesting group of people, performers, and it’s a certain kind of head space. And I love that physicality. I enjoy working with them.

Awesome. Parker, thank you so much for taking the time. I’m definitely pulling for the Blair and Gina’s European Vacation spinoff.

Yeah. Thank you. I hope it happens. Fingers crossed!

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Tales of the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC, and a week early on AMC+.