Fear the Walking Dead 501: Danay Garcia talks filming those painful scenes

In our recent interview Fear the Walking Dead star Danay Garcia shared what it was like to film Luciana’s painful scenes in the season 5 premiere.

Danay Garcia and I have a little running joke that we share. Every time I talk with the Fear the Walking Dead star she tells me that things can’t get any worse for Luciana, and yet somehow Luciana manages to find herself in increasingly perilous situations. I spoke with the multi-talented Garcia ahead of the season 5 premiere and she shared what it was like to bring Luciana’s agonizing ordeal to life in the season premiere “Here to Help”.

“We filmed those scenes on my second day back on set,” Garcia told me when our conversation shifted to Luciana’s injury. “Luciana is dealing with this injury and it can’t get any worse, which is also a metaphor for season 5. She’s pinned right now and she can’t move.”

Not only does Luciana have to deal with the injury itself, but she had to endure the metal rod being cut free, she had to make the bumpy drive to the truck stop and she had to suffer through having June pull the rod from her shoulder, all while being awake and conscious.

Though I’ve never had kids myself, there was only one thing I could compare her scenes to: Childbirth.

“It’s funny you say that,” Garcia laughed. “The women of the cast who don’t have kids – Maggie, Alycia – asked me if that’s what childbirth was like and I told them it could be just as bad.” And Garcia would know. She’s the proud mom of a 17-year old son. “Even the producers came up to me and told me that it looked so painful!”

Now that Fear the Walking Dead has premiered, Garcia shifts her attention to La Cura. La Cura is a film that Garcia wrote, co-directed and produced under her This Is Happening production company, and it is the film that will kick off opening night of the Baja California International Film Festival on June 20.

Stay tuned for more of my conversation with Danay Garcia, and keep watching Fear the Walking Dead to see what happens as Luciana recovers.