Fear the Walking Dead Karen David Reveals Graces Tragic Backstory
Karen David portrays Fear the Walking Dead's newest cast member, and she had some secrets to share about Grace's past, present and future.
This week's episode of Fear the Walking Dead introduced a new character to the team as they searched for Al and encountered some enigmatic impediments. After spying some walkers grasping at a bird cage, Morgan meets Grace, a former nuclear plant manager on a very singular mission, and he learns that they crash landed into quite possibly the unluckiest location imaginable. CBR spoke with actor Karen David (Galavant, Once Upon a Time) about Grace's intentions and her own trepidatious introduction to the horror genre. She revealed what joining the post-apocalypse has meant to her as an actress, as well as some touching insights regarding Grace's motivations.
"Grace worked in upper management at the nuclear plant and when the apocalypse happened her initial call to action was to bring in all her colleagues into the plant to make sure the generators were working effectively so that we could help others in such a disastrous time," David explained, detailing some of the character's tragic backstory. "She called them all in and called them to bring their families as well cause she thought that she could keep everyone safe at the plant. They certainly had enough food and supplies to last them all a long time."
We learn in "The Hurt That Will Happen" that the plant generators malfunction causing a catastrophic accident that will not only kill her colleagues and their families, but also spread deadly radiation throughout the area. The way David describes it, Grace has taken the entire responsibility for this personal apocalypse on her shoulders, mostly due to her own lack of ability to see the the scope of the world crashing down around her as she and her staff remain largely cut off from everything that's happening around them.
So, she's taken it upon herself to capture every walker that originated from the plant that could potentially spread radiation poisoning to unsuspecting survivors. Her mission is incredibly important, as we see later on in the episode when Morgan and Alicia realize the people in the campgrounds burned irradiated walkers and became victims themselves when they were exposed to the ash.
Karen David found herself in a similar predicament to Grace when it came to facing the apocalypse unprepared. "When The Walking Dead first came out and everyone was talking about it, and I was watching some of the trailers and then I got really scared because I have to let everyone know - I told Ian and Andrew when I first met them, 'I just want you to know, I am the biggest scaredy cat in the the whole world,'" she joked. "I don’t watch horror genre films or tv shows 'cause I get so scared easily and I’m the type if I have to watch I will watch during the day with the curtains open, the sun shining in... I feel like I’m going to school now and I’ve started binge watching from Season 1 of [Fear], so I’m a newbie to this and I’m thoroughly enjoying it now..."
Grace isn't handling her new existence with exactly the same optimism as Karen David, but she has found some like-minded individuals in Morgan and Alicia. Everyone on Fear currently is driven by a fervent desire to alleviate personal guilt through good deeds. But because she was also exposed to deadly levels of radiation when the plant suffered its catastrophe, her absolution is on a tighter schedule. "She doesn’t know how long she has," David said. "As far as she knows the clock is ticking and she could die any second, and so for her, it’s about living in the moment and doing what she can in the moment. She can’t think about tomorrow, it is what can she achieve and fulfill in a day. What can she do that will protect everyone and make sure that they don’t make the mistakes that she’s made and what can she do to help contain this disaster at the plant and keep everyone away from harm?"
Ultimately Grace brings with her the potential for the crew to do some real, quantifiable good, even if they'll never meet the people they wind up helping. And if Grace can't finish her mission, perhaps it'll fall to Morgan and his crew to pick up the slack. But another concern when dealing with radiation is that it affects all organic matter - including walkers. And if there's a virus running around that can turn human beings into literal zombies, what will contact with atom-scrambling radiation turn the zombies into? Looks like Season 5 of Fear the Walking Dead has the potential to mutate the zombie apocalypse into a nuclear one.
Airing Sundays at 9 PM ET on AMC, Fear the Walking Dead stars Lennie James, Colman Domingo, Alexa Nisenson, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Garret Dillahunt, Jenna Elfman, Austin Amelio and Karen David.
Alexandra is a Los Angeles-based writer/comedian. Her pop culture obsessions include, but are not limited to, Game of Thrones, Kate Mulgrew, Preacher, Star Trek, Tyler Perry movies, Bryan Fuller, and the Oxford Comma.
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