The Walking Dead’s Andrew Lincoln says playing Scrooge is a workout

The actor who plays Rick Grimes is starring in A Christmas Carol.

Ahead of his first appearance as Dickens’ Scrooge on Saturday night, The Walking Dead star Andrew Lincoln told BBC Radio 2’s Dermot O’Leary that the performance is a “workout”.

It seems despite getting away from filming in the Georgia summer, Lincoln is still having trouble escaping the heat – even in the Old Vic Theatre, in London, in December.

O’Leary complimented Lincoln’s “Dickensian garb” that he wears in the famed Christmas show, and said he would want to stay in the stylish outfit after the play finished. But Lincoln assured him he wouldn’t want to step into his costume, as it’s “quite sweaty”.

“You know when I agreed to do it I just went oh yeah that sounds like fun, a bit of a Christmas show. It’s a workout. Getting my Scrooge on is quite… you’ve gotta get your Scrooge on.”

Lincoln was quick to reassure O’Leary how grateful he – and the rest of the cast and crew – feel to be working in theatre after this horrific year for live performances due to COVID. He also spoke about how moving it was to hear the musicians and singers live on the first day of rehearsal.

Speaking about the musical element of the show, O’Leary asked if Lincoln had a song of his own to sing in the play.

“I tend to be the guy, like in Love Actually the most romantic movie ever – I’m the guy that doesn’t get the girl. In a musical, I seem to be the only guy without a song. Story of my life!”

Lincoln also talked about his love for Dickens’ classic, revealing he was a total “fan boy” and would normally be in the audience for the show every year. O’Leary agreed, and said in fact he felt that the role of Ebenezer Scrooge was the equivalent of playing Shakespeare’s King Lear, to which Lincoln agreed.

“It’s the Yuletide Lear. To bah or not to bah, that is the humbug! It’s an extraordinary part, and a brilliant thing to be part of, particularly this company. The Old Vic company is amazing.”

Despite the intensity of the show, and the reverence Lincoln has for the source material, he is not ashamed to reveal his favourite version of the work is perhaps not the one people would expect, when O’Leary brought it up.

“I know where I was the first time I saw [The Muppet Christmas Carol], I was with my brother, in Bath, at the Little Theatre cinema. Weeping. When Rizzo says “who did not die” to camera. I’m still going to be watching it, even though I’m giving my Scrooge this year.”

It seems the entire experience of giving his Scrooge is one Lincoln will never forget, with his emotions veering from “euphoria and trauma minute by minute”, but that his overall feelings match that of everyone involved in the production.

“There’s an amazing sense of magic and excitement in the theatre at the moment. Just to be in this beautiful building.”

The Old Vic is an independent theatre and thus does not receive much funding, so they had planned to put the show on to an audience in order to try and save 2020 financially. However, with the continuation of COVID, they were forced into the alternative method where instead of a live audience in the theatre, the show is streamed out to the audience at home.

He then went on to reveal that the entire back of the stage had been turned into “ground control” to allow for the technology required for streaming the show, and that technical staff were doing multiple jobs in order to make it happen, whilst keeping to COVID rules.

O’Leary and Lincoln’s conversation was cut short when a call for Lincoln to go to the stage could be heard in the background. However, you can expect a much longer in-depth discussion when O’Leary interviews Lincoln for “In Conversation” on Thu 17 Dec at 8.30pm GMT (3.30pm EST). Tickets are £20.

You can watch Lincoln’s turn as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, a version by Jack Thorne, streaming from the Old Vic Theatre from 12 – 24 Dec 2020. Tickets start at £10 (UK) but patrons are encouraged to pay as much as they can afford to help theatres stay alive during the pandemic.