WSC Cleveland: Michael Cudlitz on relationships and life after ‘The Walking Dead’
Michael Cudlitz (Abraham)’s panels are always energetic, sarcastic and full of funny onliners. #DolphinSmooth. He talked about directing, his take on Rosita’s baby daddy drama and if Abraham would beat Beta.
“That’s interesting. That would have been a nasty ass fight, just from size alone. I mean, that was a nasty fight as it was. And I like what they did, because, not that a smaller guy who’s a better fighter can’t take down a big guy, but just what the character Beta represents. Daryl is more of a like, in this situation, you know, great fighter, but more situational and he’s using his mind. I thought it was the perfect way for him to defeat him,” said Cudltiz. “But him getting up, that’s on him. I mean, the dude fell how many stories and then was like ‘what the hell?’ I don’t know, they (Abraham and Beta) would’ve been beating the crap out of each other for a long time. I usually get the Negan thing like ‘so who would win in a fight between Abraham and Negan?’ No, come on, Abraham would kick the shit out of him.”
Abraham didn’t do a great job of breaking up with Rosita, but Cudlitz explained that while they loved each other, they weren’t in love. Once he saw how much Rosita loved him, he broke it off because he didn’t reciprocate the feelings. He cares about Rosita and is happy she’s happy with Gabriel.
“He’d be fine as long as she was happy. I mean he shit that bed. You know, he loved them like family, both Rosita and Eugene. So he wants nothing but good for them. He probably would have had some really awesome conversations with her about it. Like ‘so, tell me about this priest. Really, how does that work?’ He would need some educating on how priests make a baby. Well, I guess the priest didn’t make a baby, right,” joked Cudlitz. “How do you make a baby with a priest? You go see a doctor.”
On a more serious note, Cudlitz, who is now directing for the show loves how the stories have evolved.
“I think the show is sort of in a really cool transition point right now. I love the character Rick but the fact that they’ve taken out Rick… removes anybody’s ability to go ‘well, in the comic they did this. But in the graphic novel, they did that.’ We’re, we’re beyond that now. So you’re either in or you’re out. You know, I mean, like you’re either on board for the stories we’re about to tell, new stories with a lot of new people, some of which we’ve never heard of some from the comics,” said Cudlitz. “But you know, you can’t count on it being anything like the comic at all. So it becomes, it’s not even a point of reference anymore. So I think it frees everybody up.”
“Geographically, we’re sticking to the to the comic book, meaning that we’re finding that the world’s that they’re finding. And that’s about it. …Which is a huge freedom, I think, for everybody involved,” he added.
He also talked about how his experiences as an actor have shaped his approach to directing saying “it’s about filling in what you don’t know.”
When not directing, Cudlitz can be seen next in the movie Driven, in theaters August 16.
When Beth “grows up” she wants to see her creations appear on the screen and stage. In her free time, Beth blogs about her love of craft beer and writes screenplays. She received her bachelors in journalism from Youngstown State and received her masters in communication from The University of Akron. She is honored to be a part of the FanFest family.
