The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus left co-star sobbing on set with poignant child abuse confession
NORMAN Reedus has forged a close bond with co-star Cassady McClincy.
The pair play Daryl and Lydia on the AMC zombie drama, which aired its mid-season finale last week.
Now the cast have opened up about some significant moments during filming, particularly in relation to Lydia’s feelings of isolation in the Alexandria community.
During season 10 episode Silence The Whisperers, Lydia is set upon by a gang in a revenge attack motivated by her mother’s brutal beheadings.
Lydia protests that she too was a victim of her mother, opening up about the abuse she faced as a child.
She was even brainwashed to blame her father for the cruelty, in a storyline that was explored with a series of flashbacks.
As Daryl recognised her scars as a former child abuse victim himself, he pulled her in for a hug – a moment that was not laid out in the script and was instead improvised by Norman Reedus.
Cassady was so overwhelmed by the gesture, that when the director called cut, she had to walk away from set and compose herself before continuing with filming.
This revelation came in a new video on Easter eggs published by the Walking Dead team, revealing that Norman had made it a habit to improvise moments that resonated with Cassady.
Back in February, Norman gave fans an insight into Daryl’s relationship with Lydia in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
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“[Daryl] caught a glimpse of the switch marks on her arm, so when she does it, he grabs her arm and he pulls the sleeve down. He’s like, ‘I knew it. I know what that looks like’, because Daryl was an abused kid as well,” he said.
“He knows what a birch tree switch can do to an arm, what it looks like — so when he catches a glimpse of it, he’s pulling down the sleeve to let her know that he knows what that is,” he went on.
“Now once you break that ice, you can start to have a conversation. She’s not going to take that well.
“She’s not going to just cry in the corner. She’s going to keep on fighting, which is what Daryl would’ve done too.”
At the end of the midseason finale Daryl found himself stranded in cave full of walkers.
He found himself in the sticky situation as Carol bolted after Alpha upon spotting her in the forest, ultimately being lured into the subterranean trap.
The Walking Dead returns to FOX on February 24 and is available to stream on NOW TV.