Christian Serratos Q&A With AMC

Recently, actress Christian Serratos who plays Rosita on the hit show The Walking Dead sat down for an interview with representatives from AMC.  Here are some highlights from that conversation:

You made it through your first season alive! How were you preparing for your role as Rosita before you showed up?

"Of course I did my research on the show and the character and the history of the comic books. I got a sense of what fans liked about Rosita and what they wanted to see from her. I should have probably been preparing a little bit more physically, but I wasn’t, so I got thrown into the workouts during filming. Being thin is really deceiving. I managed to be thin with absolutely no muscle whatsoever!"

Is the physicality of the role something that you enjoy?

"That is one of my favorite parts! I’m not a good worker-outer. I don’t have a gym membership. It’s an ongoing joke that I need help opening a water bottle. So it’s really good that I have this because it’s encouraging me to keep up with everyone and make sure that I’m fit."

How similar are you to your character?

"I’m similar to her in the way that she is very headstrong, which in my case is a nice way of saying stubborn. But she’s very brave. She’s the type of gal who knows what she wants and what she’s doing, but I think she’s a lot more brave than I am. She’d be my best friend. She’s a lot like one of my best friends at home who I’ve known for ten years."

You’ve been on Twilight as well as American Horror Story. What draws you to dark and frightening shows?

"I’m starting to think they’re more drawn to me! I do like the realness of the acting that you do you on things like The Walking Dead. It’s not just a show about zombies, it really has to do with people, their will to survive and what’s going through in their heads. That kind acting is a lot more personal to me. I think I’m funny, but it’s just a different thing being good at comedy, and I just happen to be good at this."

How closely do you think you resemble your comic book character?

"I think I do look like her! It’s cool for me because being a part of Twilight, everybody wanted to see what you looked like and they had their opinion of what you looked like in the book. This time around, it’s not up to your imagination. It’s drawn right there. She’s a really tough gal, and I think it’d be really hard to not keep her that way. I have a knife, and I have of course my Rosita holsters that you see in the comic book. With two guns and a knife, I’m fully equipped."

What was something new you learned from your time on set? 

"I had never shot a gun before in my life, and I got to set, and I thought there was going to be really intense training. But they put a gun in my hand and said, “This is what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it. Go do it!”  I had to learn quickly."

You grew up a figure skater. Did you get to show off those skills at all? 

"It’s weird because people always ask, “Did you grow up a tomboy or a girly girl?” I grew up doing competitive figure skating, and because of that I was trained in ballet and jazz. But then on the flip side, my dad always wanted a little boy, so I had BMX bikes and stuff. I did look to see if they had a skating rink here in Peachtree, but they didn’t."

You can catch Christian on season 5 of The Walking Dead which premiers this October.