[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, Season 1, Episode 3, “Bye.”]
Anne, Jadis… whatever name you call her, Pollyanna McIntosh‘s Walking Dead survivor (the first character to appear in three different series within The Walking Dead Universe) is an unmovable force— one that can’t help but get in the way for Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and surely will cause trouble for his katana-wielding love, Michonne (Danai Gurira), as well in AMC‘s latest spinoff, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.
Though Rick and Michonne technically have Jadis to thank for Rick’s survival after the bridge explosion in the mothership series, it’s also because of her that Rick is even trapped in the Civic Republic. And Jadis isn’t done with these two yet…not even close.
Below, McIntosh, who took a break from shooting Netflix‘s fourth season of Outer Banks in Morocco to chat with us, dives in on what’s to come.
We are now seeing so many more sides to Jadis in The Ones Who Live. You’ve been developing this character for years and years. When I talked to [TWD Chief Content Officer Scott M. Gimple] earlier this season, he called Jadis a “trickster” character. I was curious to know what you think of that word as a descriptor for her. Is Jadis a trickster?
Pollyanna McIntosh: That’s one part of her, for sure. And I think [it’s] a part she’s fairly proud of because it’s not only how she keeps herself engaged and feeling alive, you know, but also how she gets things done. And she’s actually gotten quite a lot done, you know? I always call her sphinxlike.
If you were just to describe her as “trickster,” I think it might suggest she just does it for kicks. But she’s definitely got reason behind the action she takes. And also, I think one of the really, really fun things about playing her, and I think, hopefully, one of the fun things about watching her is that you never really know what the hell she’s up to.
In this third episode, Rick vows to kill her. But then later on, he takes it back and throws Jadis’ “people are a resource” line in her face. They really play with each other. Do you think that Jadis sees Rick as a true threat? Or is he more of a formidable opponent?
Oh, I think he’s a threat. He’s a genuine threat. Not just to her position, but more importantly for her, to the greater cause [of the CRM]. And she knows that she bloody allowed it to happen. Just like she has so much guilt over losing her people, because they were in her care, I think she is also a little frustrated by the fact that she brought him in, and knew that he was an A, and protected him with the B status, and also protected herself with that. I don’t think they would have taken her in [without Rick].
What can you tell us about her role in the last three episodes?
Well, I think it’s fair and just to admit that she’s clearly the fly in the ointment. She’s a thorn in his side, and he’s a thorn in hers! But I think probably most of the audience are going to want this beautiful, possible, heroic love story to continue, you know? And most people will not want everybody back in Alexandria to perish. I think even Jadis doesn’t want them to. But I think it’s fair to say, without any spoilers, that she’s the conflict. She’s the barrier.
In addition to being a woman of many names, personalities — she’s also a woman of many haircuts. Do you have a favorite, and how did you land on the present-day cut that we saw in World Beyond and that we now see in The Ones Who Live?
Great point from Hairdressing Weekly, thank you so much. [Laughs] You know, it’s fun. It’s so fun for me. The memes have been hilarious. Like, you know, who wore it better, Jadis or He-Man?
I think my favorite is the original: the short bangs with the dark into the blonde. I came up with that hairdo playing the leader of a biker gang in a movie called Revenge Ride. So I auditioned with it and thought, well, they’re never going to go with this hair, but I literally don’t have time to fix it, and at least they maybe remember me. And then they went, yeah, we’ll have you, and we’ll have your s**t haircut. And then they sort of, you know, orange-d it out a bit on the bottom.
This one I came up with when we were doing World Beyond, and I thought, OK, so she’s involved with the CRM, in a position of power. She’s a leader again. Let’s hearken back to the old Jadis and show that she really isn’t Anne anymore. Instead of her hair growing out natural, she’s gone back to that short bang that really says “watch out.” There’s an edge to that. There’s a discomfort that it puts in the viewer, especially a female, to have that haircut. And it gives her the advantage of the other person being a bit on the back foot, which is like the way she spoke in the junkyard—her language and all of those things put people on the back foot. So I wanted to hearken back to that because she really is trying to figure people out as a warrant officer and trying to get s**t done. And then I thought it would be fun to just shave the bottom half because it said military to me. With the top half being separate, it was sort of like a Joan of Arc bob.
Steve Swisher/AMC
I love that.
Right? Just the idea of like [Jadis] truly believing in what she believes in and truly feeling she’s fighting for the right cause. And she’s damned if anybody thinks otherwise. She doesn’t care.
Now, the trailers show glimpses of a car chase that you’re involved in coming up. Can you say anything about that, or what it was like shooting that moment? Was that new territory for you?
It was new territory for me. And of course, in the brilliance of the show, I look like I’m doing much hairier driving than I am. I got to swerve and do lots of, “ahhh,” you know. But I never actually threw a car into another car. But it was really, really fun. I love nothing more than connecting with another actor, but I also really love pretending something is happening that isn’t. It’s part of the job, right? So acting, physically, like I was bashing into another car from the inside, there’s a lot of freedom in that. And all I can say about it, as far as the scene is concerned, is that I hope the viewers find it as exciting as it was to film. She’s put through her paces in that scene.
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, Sundays, 9/8c, AMC and streaming on AMC+
