Den of Geek: How did this role come to you initially?

It was a pretty old fashioned journey.

And about three weeks later I walked onto the set.

What was it about her that appealed to you?

Shes a working mom.

I hadnt done that before.

Trying to find that balance, which is pretty elusive.

I understand that your daughter in the film was actually played by your real life daughter.

She was, thats right.

Although, you know, when we showed the movie originally my daughter never appeared in the film.

She was a character that you get to know off screen through various phone calls.

And howd she feel about it afterwards?

I never want to do it again.

Shes more interested in doing special effects makeup, which is better.

I think it must.

Well it was certainly a pretty fundamental part of my upbringing.

But for this, I just found a professor.

I had gotten a textbook on meteorology and found it more or less impenetrable.

But it was fun.

I kind of got off on it.

I think weve globally got a sense that something is going on with the weather for whatever reason.

Something is going on with the weather thats relatively unprecedented.

And I think that makes us all nervous because we dont know whats coming.

People were stranded in cars and sleeping in a Dunkin Donuts.

That kind of thing is happening regularly all over the world.

This is your first foray into a big special effects movie.

Did you make any adjustments acting wise?

I would say we had 50 percent practical and 50 percent special effects.

And what it meant for us is that it spared you the indignity of trying to act the tornado.

Youre able to respond with your body in the moment which I think is a lot better.

I think Steve saved us from a lot of that.

What do you think draws audiences to these scenarios?

Whats your perspective now on your time onThe Walking Dead?

Gratitude, gratitude and more gratitude.

There was a huge sense of collaboration with one another.

And Im so grateful for that.

I learned a better way of working.

I learned a new way of working.

I learned a more collaborative way of working because people were so open with one another.

And thats a huge gift.

Ill take that with me everywhere I go.

Do you tune into the show when you could?

I dont have a TV so I actually never tuned into the show.

But you know, the checking in I do is with my friends.

Melissa to this day is one of my dearest friends, you know.

Whats coming up for you after this?

I just did a movie calledThe Other Side of the Door.

I just finished that in India a couple of weeks ago.

So thatll be coming out and that was an amazing experience creatively.

So were working on all those fronts.

Into the Stormis out in theaters this Friday (August 8).

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