TWD’s Beth and Daryl reunite on Emily Kinney’s podcast

Norman Reedus reveals his artistic side in Emily Kinney’s podcast.

Like many performing artists stuck at home during the pandemic, The Walking Dead alum Emily Kinney turned to creating a podcast to keep her busy. Starting in May, she created a podcast, My Caffeine Withdrawal, that would deal with two of her life passions – coffee and artists.

Over the course of the 20 episodes, she has featured performances from bands and included artists as varied as Josh Nador and K.Flay, but in recent weeks Kinney has turned to her old haunting ground of The Walking Dead, where she played Beth for 4 years.

Her Walking Dead co-stars, including Lauren Cohan, who plays Beth’s sister Maggie have been hit guests on the show, and this week featured probably her most anticipated guest – Norman Reedus.

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Kinney and Reedus became friends when their stories became tied together during season 4 of The Walking Dead. When the  Governor blew up the prison and scattered the family to the winds, Daryl and Beth found themselves together trying to survive in the wild.

They struggled through their differences and individual pains and grief to grow together and reach a place of comfort before it was all taken away again as the hospital group ran Beth over and kidnapped her.

When eventually Beth was discovered again at the hospital, a tragic showdown led to Beth’s unnecessary and violent death, shocking the characters and audience alike and giving us the iconic scene of Daryl carrying Beth’s limp body into the parking lot to a sobbing Maggie.

Thankfully, My Caffeine Withdrawal gave Reedus and Kinney and chance to catch up and put all that pain behind them. Both acknowledged that when a character is killed off, the actor often feels the need to cut ties with the show for the time being in order to move on emotionally.

Interestingly, it turns out that a video of a hummingbird is what brought about the reconnection of the pair. Kinney believes she sees hummingbirds as a sign from the universe of where she should go. So, when Reedus recently posted one on his Instagram, Kinney knew it was time to get back in touch with her old friend.

Reedus agreed that he, too, believes in signs and told a story of recently seeing 21 shooting stars in one night.

Perhaps due to the pair’s long-time connection, Reedus was particularly open about his beliefs, past, and creative processes throughout the interview. He spoke at great length about his origins as an actor, resulting in a moving story about working on his first movie, Floating.

He explained how he used his own personal pain caused by his father’s impending death into a scene and saw how it affected the entire cast and crew. This made him truly understand the process of acting and released it was more than pretty people standing around.

Speaking from his vacation home in Costa Rica, Norman talked about the projects he’s undertaken during the lockdown, including the fiction book he’s co-written and the real-life people who inspired the stories and characters in it.

Kinney and Reedus also connected on the topic of music, discussing the creative process and music they love listening to – with Reedus giving Kinney some recommendations. Reedus revealed he has recorded a spoken-word album with his friend Howie B, much to Kinney’s excitement.

Neither actor talked much about their time on The Walking Dead. However, Reedus revealed that the longer he is on the show, the more he wants to be involved in other aspects of the process and is interested in editing, music and production.

Reedus has recently signed a deal with AMC, which establishes his own production company Bigbaldhead Productions which includes an adaptation of Aftershock Comics’ Undone By Blood.

One thing that is patently clear through the podcast is that once you are TWD family, you are always TWD family, with Reedus sharing a story of Sarah Wayne Callies meeting his mom who was living in Iraq when Callies had traveled there for a charity.

Kinney agreed that no matter whether or not you actually acted with another star, all TWD actors are connected and part of the family and both Reedus and Kinney expressed how glad they were to have reconnected.

Of course, with the show title, they also talked about their love of coffee, with Reedus giving a detailed description of his coffee-making process, which involves an old sock. Really. That alone makes the lively podcast worth listening to.

You can listen to My Caffeine Withdrawal on Apple, Spotify, or your usual podcast platform.