Michonne keeps two walkers as pets. (
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For fans of AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” the graphic-novel fantasy is about to get real. The katana-wielding, zombie-slicing Michonne is finally on the scene.
Even though the series hasn’t closely followed the popular comic, there would have been hell to pay if the fan favorite didn’t pop up at some point.
Viewers got their first glimpse of Michonne at the very end of the Season 2 finale. Just as it looked like sharp-shooter Andrea (Laurie Holden) would succumb to life as a zombie, she was snatched from the literal jaws of death by a mysterious cloaked figure with two armless, jawless walker pets chained behind her. As she freed Andrea with a slice of a gleaming katana, fans didn’t need to see the woman’s face to know Michonne had arrived.
“Michonne has figured out how not to just survive but thrive in this realm,” says Danai Gurira, the actress who’s been tapped to play the part. “She has a formidable energy to her. She’s a powerful chick.”
Although tiny, Gurira, 34, is also a powerful chick. Born in the US of Zimbabwean parents, she returned to Zimbabwe, where she was raised, when she was 5. She came back to the US to attend Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., and then received her Master of Fine Arts from New York University.
Since then, Gurira has made a name for herself as a playwright, winning an Obie award for her play “In the Continuum,” which she co-wrote and starred in, as well as the NAACP theater award for Best Playwright for her play “Eclipsed,” about civil war in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
She’s also writing a trilogy of plays about her native country’s recent history. The first part, “The Convert,” played this spring at Los Angeles’ Kirk Douglas Theater, and is moving to the Woolly Mammoth Theater in Washington, D.C. in March 2013.
Besides appearing on such TV shows as HBO’s “Treme” and Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie,” Gurira will star in “Ma George,” an independent film premiering at next year’s Sundance Film Festival.
How Gurira would also find the time to shoot a cable series in Atlanta seems a mystery, but she says the part of Michonne was so enticing she was willing to postpone her other creative endeavors.
“I’ve actually always wanted to get dirty and do some kicking and punching and battling. I’m the sort of person who loved watching Angelina Jolie kick butt in a movie like ‘Salt,’ ” she says.
That’s definitely the attitude Gurira needs to play Michonne.
Like anyone else who survives the world of “The Walking Dead,” Michonne has adapted quickly. She’s learned to swing her katana sword with lethal efficiency. And Gurira had to bone up on Japanese sword fighting.
While earning her MFA from NYU, Gurira had some stage training in sword fighting, like using English broadswords in a Shakespeare play, but she says that’s nothing like swinging a super-sharp katana.
“I am pretty active and athletic,” she says, “but learning to use the katana was like starting from scratch. I was in utter pain after the training. At first, I was thinking, ‘Why am I doing this?’ but then I learned to enjoy myself. I started to have a really good time with the weapon.”
She was invited to audition by one of the show’s casting directors, but admits she was too much of a “scaredy-cat” to have seen the show. Clearly, some research was in order.
“After watching a few episodes, I realized this world isn’t about the zombies. It’s ‘Lord of the Flies.’ It’s about who you become because you aren’t going to be who you were before.”
After shooting 13 episodes, she says living in a post-apocalyptic zombie-filled world is something she’s gotten used to, much like Michonne herself.
When Season 3 begins, Michonne and Andrea have become close friends.
“Michonne has seen something in Andrea that she trusts and respects,” says Gurira. “Andrea is another strong woman, and truly strong women want to be around other strong women. They know that iron sharpens iron.”
Playing Michonne also has taught Gurira not to fear the zombies.
“Michonne isn’t scared of the walkers,” says Gurira. “She looks at them as lesser life forms.”