The Walking Dead: The Secrets to Gale Anne Hurd’s success

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 09: Gale Anne Hurd attends AMC's 'The Walking Dead' Season 6 Fan Premiere Event 2015 at Madison Square Garden on October 9, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Imagesfor AMC)
NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 09: Gale Anne Hurd attends AMC's 'The Walking Dead' Season 6 Fan Premiere Event 2015 at Madison Square Garden on October 9, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Imagesfor AMC) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Gale Anne Hurd is one of the most successful producers in Hollywood. If you listen to her answers in interviews you can glean some of her secrets to success.

I’ve seen Gale Anne Hurd on Talking Dead and enjoy listening to her insights about the The Walking Dead and the characters. I was not aware of her other projects and past success until I started watching The Walking Dead. Of courseI realize now the long-term power player that she is.

I love reading about her and reading her answers in interviews. Before I even get to that, I must mention that part of my impression of her has also been formed from Twitter. She tweets articles almost daily about The Walking Dead and the cast members of The Walking Dead.

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 09: Producer Gale Anne Hurd attends the season six premiere of 'The Walking Dead' at Madison Square Garden on October 9, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 09: Producer Gale Anne Hurd attends the season six premiere of ‘The Walking Dead’ at Madison Square Garden on October 9, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images) /

If you follow Gale on Twitter, you are completely in touch with what’s going on in the world of The Walking Dead. Obviously, it’s in her best interest to tweet about her show, but she tweets about the other projects of her cast. She tweets with affection. She seems to genuinely love her TWD family.

When talking to the Hollywood Reporter, her answers were so crisp and kind and direct. I won’t say they were looking for dirt because I can’t say that with certainty, but they did ask some tough direct questions and her answers were pristine, honest and loyal.

She didn’t blame or deflect or come off wishy-washy. It’s a great article. I won’t quote everything here, please read the article to see how she answered questions about the turnover of show runners, including Darabont, what she learned from her ex husbands, how things work at AMC, and much more about the business side of The Walking Dead. 

More from Undead Walking

One of her best pieces of advice was something that we should all try to do, if we have the luxury of doing so, and something she learned early in life, “Work with the best; don’t work with assholes.”

Something smart Gale said back when working on Fear the Walking Dead that I think has to be crucial to success in Hollywood, and certainly in everyday life, was about focus and blocking out negativity, which she referred to as noise. (Via Blastr)

“I think the biggest challenge is tuning out some of the noise of what people may want, whether people think we move too slowly, too quickly, and basically make sure that we stick to the characters and their arcs dictating not only each episode and the many arcs of the season and the half season. That is absolutely key, and I think, knock on wood, that has contributed to the success of the show thus far and we’re not gonna change that.”

The Hollywood Reporter has cool pictures of Gale’s office!

Next: Who will survive 6B

Gale has a few other projects in the works coming up soon, SyFy’s Hunters and Face Off. And Spike’s Pendergast from the novels of Lincoln Childs.

I’m happy that Gale Anne Hurd is part of The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. I’m glad that she’s also having such success in other projects, like so many of The Walking Dead family members, past and present.