TWD: The Ones Who Live Star Reveals Surprising Details of Final Episode, Memories From Set (Exclusive)

Pollyanna McIntosh opened up about those final scenes as Jadis in our exclusive interview.

By Brandon Davis

Pollyanna McIntosh joined The Walking Dead near its peak, becoming infamous leader of the trash heapster scavengers known at the time as Jadis. She would transform from a strangely short spoken woman with a unique haircut into an ally to Alexandria known as Anne. Ultimately, McIntosh's Jadis had a bigger purpose than being the love interest to Seth Gilliam's Father Gabriel or helping to take on Negan and his Saviors. Jadis would rescue The Walking Dead's leading man Rick Grimes in the show's ninth season, flying him off in a helicopter to The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, a new series which followed many years later. However, it was this new series where Jadis' story would come to an end.

McIntosh previously reprised the role in The Walking Dead: World Beyond, where she showed more of her villainous side and took out one of the show's main characters. Despite being a hero in The Walking Dead's ninth season, her returns proved to lean in the villainous direction with McIntosh's excellent presence drumming up the exactly-as-intended strong, emotional reactions from viewers. Ultimately, in The Ones Who Live's fifth episode, Jadis came around to Rick and Michonne's survival and spared them, providing the necessary information for the couple to escape safely. In the same episode, flashbacks showed Jadis' human side thanks to a nuanced performance by McIntosh, which also brought Gilliam's Gabriel back into the series for the first time since The Walking Dead wrapped with its eleventh season. 

With The Ones Who Live sealing the fate of Jadis before the end of its first season, having her be the latest enemy of Rick and Michonne to perish after starting a fight they couldn't win, McIntosh spoke with ComicBook.com about the journey. As the story goes, learning of Jadis' death came in a way that is different from most of the other actors whose characters in the zombie universe perished before hers, yet she did get to have a good time with some extra sequences after filming Jadis' final moments.

ComicBook.com's full interview with Jadis actor Pollyanna McIntosh can be found below!

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(Photo: Pollyanna McIntosh as Jadis in The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live)

ComicBook: Congratulations on an epic run in The Walking Dead universe. You were a huge part of this show and I'm happy for you and I know it's opened a lot of doors for you, so I'm happy for you and it's been fun to watch. When did you find out this was the end of the road?

Pollyanna McIntosh: I found out, I think it was on the first day of shooting with Andy [Lincoln], and Andy was like, "So, how are you feeling about your death?" I was like, "Oh, well now I know that it's definitely happening!" [Scott] Gimple had said, "Oh, obviously, we may go in that direction with..." I was going, "Of course, we may go in that direction. We don't want her killing one of them." So it made a lot of sense. And then Andy being an exec producer on this, of course he was very involved, so it was quite right that he said it. But at the same time, Gimple was like, "No! what?" It's okay. We're all friends, we're all family. It's fine. It's all good. I'm excited. I was excited.

CB: So, how did the cast and crew kind of send you off when they called? That's a wrap. That's a series wrap on Pollyanna McIntosh?

PM: Oh, lots of love and hugs and I tried to cover them all in blood.

CB: You got one of the epic kind of Rick Grimes staring down the barrel send offs, which there aren't. I mean, was that the last thing you shot? What was that final day?

PM: Actually, the last thing I shot was a funny one. The stunt driving and the car, sorry, the car chase piece where Jadis and Rick and Michonne after each other. Michonne's driving because of course Rick can't drive which was great fun. Yeah, I thought that was a lovely little moment. I love the elements of wit that they've kept in the show is just so, such a pleasure to watch and to read. So the last bit I came in to do the interior of that scene of the "Crash! Bang! Wollops!" because the rig that we had, one of the cars that we had that we were driving, there was electrical problems with it. So we were like, "Yeah, let's not carry on today. It's not seem to be happy." So I came back the next day, literally just got in at the end of the day into the car with all the mount on it and went, "Oh no!" Got smacked around a bit and then that's Pollyanna. It was very sweet.

CB: It sounds like almost unceremonious that you found out from Andy. You just kind of came in to do a pickup shot! 

PM: Stop working your journalistic magic. I'm trying to make this sound dark!

CB: I imagine when you join The Walking Dead, you probably have maybe a picture in your head of how it ends. How did it compare to sort of any expectation you might've had years ago when you first joined The Walking Dead?

PM: I'm entirely in the moment, man. Hell yeah. I don't have no expectations. I'm just living the moment.

Honestly, three episodes in, I was still like, "Really? I'm still alive?" You know what I mean? You never know when it's coming for you on that show. So to leave alive, to leave the flagship show alive was just extraordinary. Did I tell you this about the song I wrote for Andy?

CB: No!

PM: You know that song by the Stones? "Angie?" Angie! Angie! I changed it to "Andy" for his sendoff party and then the last line is like ain it great to be alive. And I sang, "Ain't it great to leave alive because who leaves The Walking Dead alive?" And me and a bunch of folks sang that to Andy, including Danai [Gurira] and Christian [Serratos] and Khary [Payton], and I think Josh sang it with us as well. McDermott. Yeah. So I've just had no expectations and yet have felt very, very lucky. And then on this one I was like, well, it's just as it should be that she dies. My God, this is perfect. It's perfect place to die. Yeah,

CB: Gives you some closure to take with you. 

PM: And there's always Tales of the Walking Dead!

CB: Hey, you never know because there is so much story, right!

PM: Story everywhere. Humans just be interesting!

CB: I feel like with Andy and Danai being executive producers on this show and you have the scene with them in the cabin, I felt like the three of you just had such a good chemistry and so much conviction in the story you're telling. Your timing, your performances were all so good. Do you feel like you guys hit a whole new rhythm this time around?

PM: Yeah, thanks for that. No, it's really nice to hear because I definitely felt it in the rooms and really enjoyed it and it felt very easy and very fun. And I've always loved Andy and Danai. I've always loved how much themselves they are as people. There's no bullshit whatsoever. And it was the working in scenes together and the commitment and the passion for the audience and for the characters is really, really strong with them. And I feel the same way. So it worked really well together in the moments, I won't speak for the audience, they can decide that for themselves, but in the moments it worked, I felt it was working really, really well. And I looked at each other at one point and we're like, huh, yeah, we didn't really get to do this much before, huh? Because even in the scene where Michonne and Rick come back and after all my people have gone, we're still quite separated by space in that episode. And when Michonne with Rick, it's Rick and I who are doing the talking and Michonne is observing and she's not very happy about a few things a few times. So, really when I kind one-on-one with her about "laying with him after," and then The Ones Who Live, it's really the only times we've been really eye to eye of any import.

CB: I didn't even think about that being one of the last times they interacted with that line that the fandom went crazy over.

PM: Some people got real mad.

CB: Of course they did. This all leads to the ax being lodged into Jadis, into Anne. They love to craft these incredible for violence, these stunt rigs. Did you have to have yourself rigged with anything? How'd you guys pull that off?

PM: I did. We had the ax half sticking out of my stomach wounds with some, I remember there was a lot of velcro involved and the bed rig was pretty cool as well with the bullets shooting through and And that was a real cabin that we were in, which was pretty cute as well. So, we were properly in the woods in a cabin, which was great. It could have been a whole another horror movie, Cabin in the Woods! That was all fun and games.

CB: You get to work with Seth Gilliam again, which was a huge surprise. I feel like Father Gabriel is the outlet for both the audience to get the peak at it but also for you as a performer to kind of explore the humanity of Anne really actually show us who she is and the weight she carries. What did you feel like you were getting to do with those scenes and show us with the size of Van we don't see anywhere else?

PM: There's such nuanced situations between her and Gabriel each time because there's, like you say, there's so much she's carrying and the massive wait five minutes that Rick is alive and that she could alleviate him and so many of the people that she knows and cares about back home, even that on its own is just so huge kind of running under everything. And then the secret she's keeping about what's going on. But her need to sit in confession with him to a degree and to mull over these big ideas that she doesn't get to do with anybody in her world, in her community. And she has no scavengers community left to talk with. She's really set herself up in a situation where she's kind of friendless and loveless in the world she's in. And that's necessary for her to do the things she's doing. 

I think that with scenes like that, you're just so glad that you have Seth to work with because you really want to keep it honest and you could overdo it. You know what I mean? You can totally overdo it and be like, Oh, I'm really conflicted!" And just in the moments of being heard, taking him in even his beauty and his wisdom and his kindness and this man I've been with that I've been with physically and mentally in such strong ways, such connective ways, and now I can't connect anymore. I'm not allowed to connect anymore, but I'm reaching for it and he's saying all the right things, but that's what she came to him for and they still can't get along. They still can't. It's pretty beautiful. Yeah, it's good old Scott Gimple with his complex relationships that he creates.

You're trying to serve what's been written, you're trying to serve an audience is really smart and has really loved this show, and you can think about it in a lot of different levels and a lot of technical ways. I thought it was really beautiful, for instance, that there's a little flash in his eyes when he says, "I've been using, with Rosita's help, on the hand radio trying to find you." And the audience knows, "Oh my God, that's your love who is dead, who has past that we love and Jadis doesn't know that he's had anything to do with her in that way." You know what I mean? So he is just so adept with that little flash in his eyes. I saw all of that as an audience member. So what I'm trying to do is going back to that is I hope that people get to see themselves reflected some of those moments. That's what I always hope and get to think about things and feel things and get to feel a sense of connection from watching it. I certainly think that they gave me a great opportunity to earn my death with those scenes. I thought that was very smart for the audience to start feeling things again for Jadis. Like, "No! Not again. It's too much!"

CB: I can't believe this might be the last time I ever asked you a question about The Walking Dead. It's been half a decade! Your last act as this character is to help Rick and Michonne. Ultimately, you've played this character who has been on the dark side, been on the light side, has walked the line really tightly. What do you think this kind of says about the character?

PM: I think that ultimately Jadis does what Jadis feels is right, and sometimes it's not what we feel is right, but she always does what she feels is, and I think here is just the same. And I think it's not lost on her that she gets to sue Gabriel to some degree when he gets to see them eventually, she hopes that she gets to tell him through that act that he was right again and that that's who ultimately she needs to be and needed to be and was. I think she, she's showing respect to Rick and Michonne as well, which she always had. She always had that respect.

So, ultimately she's given over to what is, and she's grateful for it. And she's grateful for what can be because she ain't never going to get to have that love. But ultimately, if she had succeeded with the CRM, if the CRM had succeeded where she felt that they could, there would be a world in which love and all its joys and all its freedoms and art and everything else could be possible again. And I really think that that's where she was at ultimately. She was at that I have to go through this in order for that to be possible. And I don't get to have any of those things in the meantime because if I did, I wouldn't be able to do these things. But this is my sacrifice.

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