On Fear the Walking Dead, Karen David plays Grace Mukherjee, the grief-stricken former power plant worker and radiation expert who lost her daughter in childbirth last season. Now she's faced with trying to survive a nuclear fallout with an orphaned baby girl. In this interview with amc.com, she talks about navigating Grace's postpartum depression, the tension in Grace and Morgan's relationship, and the unique challenge of acting while wearing a gas mask.

Q: This episode is a great showcase for both Grace and you. What was your reaction when you first read the script?

A: Well first of all, thank you. Gosh, where do I begin? I was so blessed with Season 6, Episode 12, "In Dreams" that I honestly didn't think it could get any better than that for me as an actor and for Grace. Then Season 7, Episode 2 (episode link) comes along, and I was so excited and overwhelmed at the same time—in a good way. We're making mini-movies with each episode and continuing with this anthology style, and this episode very much focused the lens on Grace, navigating through her grief and postpartum depression.

In this new season, we’re in a nuclear, dangerously-radiated, apocalyptic world, which Grace definitively did not want to be a part of! I was so excited to delve right into it and play through Grace’s constant fluctuating emotions from moment to moment. It's been a thrilling journey for me as an actor, and I'm doing things I've never done before. Working with [the episode's director] Michael Satrazemis again meant that I knew I was in a safe place to allow myself to go to those dark places with Grace. This is a side of Grace we've never seen before, and the journey for her this season has certainly kept me on my toes.

Q: When you say you're doing things that you've never done before, are you referring to the dark emotional stuff?

A: Oh yes. Grace's journey is all about her postpartum depression. I'm really proud of what we've done and so excited for everyone to see this episode, which is essentially a continuation of "In Dreams." I immersed myself in so much research of women and families that have experienced infant loss. In fact, October is Infant Loss Awareness Month. Although it’s getting better now, in the past it’s been very taboo for families to talk openly about the loss of their children, and I don't think people quite understand that. So I'm really glad there are organizations that help these families so they feel heard and seen, because they do want to talk about it. I think many people think that they don't, but they do want to talk about their experience and remember their baby. I was so devastated hearing these stories from all these families, so I really wanted to channel their experiences and emotions into Grace's storyline. If there was any way that I could make their stories be heard and seen through Grace, then that was such an honor.

Q: When we spoke last season, we talked about how Grace might deal with the loss of her baby. What can you say now about her state of mind when we first encounter her in Season 7?

A: We're now seeing Grace's postpartum depression really sinking in and affecting her and how she sees everything and everyone around her. She is consumed with her grief and her loss, and being alive in a world that she knows all too well [with regard to] the implications and repercussions of a nuclear fallout. Her relationship with Morgan is strained, and Baby Mo is like her kryptonite, a constant reminder of what she has lost with Baby Athena. A seed of resentment and overwhelming frustration begins to grow, and that sends her plummeting down this spiraling path. Basically, we're witnessing Grace going through all the stages of grief, and it's this tsunami of chaos and emotions for her, which brings her to the brink of having a massive mental breakdown.

Q: Can you talk about the challenges of wearing a hazmat suit and a gas mask while filming in this post-nuclear fallout world that is Season 7?

A: Being in full-on layers and wearing a hazmat mask in the blistering Texas summer heat only added to the misery and the intense uncomfortableness of this new apocalyptic backdrop. Every minute in that suit was challenging, but this is exactly what it would be like, if not a gazillion times worse if we were actually in such a horrifying situation. The experience was incredibly humbling, and I kept constantly reminding myself about the reality of what Grace and the rest of the group have to now try and survive and deal with moving forward this season.

At one point, Lennie [James] and I were just giggling behind our masks because there we were with our masks fogging up while still saying our lines to each other. We couldn't see each other at all! Other times we were shouting at each other because we couldn’t hear each other through the mask. There was a lot of mask acting, using our body language to try and express our emotion at times. It's a new acting technique called the hazmat technique. (laughs) We were like, "Okay. It's time for hazmat technique acting!"

Q: There's that moment where Grace is ready to give up, and she takes her mask off. Morgan tells her to put it back on—I was thinking you must have been so happy to take that mask off for a few minutes.

A: We wanted to keep the integrity of the storyline and the facts of the situation, but we would constantly check in—would they be wearing a mask at this point? Is this a moment where they can take the masks off because this particular area is not as radiated as other areas? We were constantly making sure that we were doing everything properly, because Grace with her scientific mind would be relentless in making sure everyone was protecting themselves and being as safe as possible.

Q: Despite everything he's endured, Morgan is an optimist and dreamer who always believes another utopia can be built and everyone can be saved. Grace is decidedly neither of those things at the beginning of Episode 2. Is that a source of tension in their relationship?

A: Oh, it's a major source of tension between them. At the same time, it was Morgan's optimism that was so refreshing and different to come across in the apocalypse. It’s also one of the many characteristics that Grace admires so much about Morgan. His relentless positivity, his strength and determination, or stubbornness, depending on how you look at it, which is based on hope in what is possible. They are the very things that drew Grace to Morgan and made an indelible impact on her life. Morgan saved Grace back in Season 5 because of the kind of leader he was and the person he is, which is why it's heartbreaking to see these two souls become so fractured in how they view their future together.

Grace, quite simply, is exhausted with life, and exhausted with the pain and eternal hardship of existing in such a grim reality. Losing Athena cemented her feelings about her existence and her purpose in life. She knows what's in store for everyone, and something she doesn’t want to see the people she loves and cares deeply for, especially Morgan, to have to go through. She’s constantly questioning her purpose in life after losing Athena. She really did try to convince Morgan that being happy in another realm was going to be far better than what's to come. She went through it with the people that she loved and cared for back at the nuclear plant, such as Athena's father, and she just could not go through that again. Then of course Baby Mo changes all of that.

Q: Of course there's lots of editing involved, but that’s one amazing baby who seemed to do everything on cue. What was it like working with her?

A: Her name's Aveya. Aveya is this sweet, adorable, cute little superstar. Her big eyes are so emotive. You just can't help but fall in love just looking into those eyes. When she cries, you want to cry—and she did that very well right when we needed her to cry. There’s nothing about the apocalypse that would make a baby ever feel completely comfortable, but there were tender moments when she was fast asleep in Lennie's or my arms, which was so precious. You just wanted to hold on to those moments for as long as possible. The world felt right in those moments. She kept us on our feet, constantly crawling everywhere. Lennie and I were running after her and trying to keep her amused in between takes. She's a really funny, cheeky, and magical baby girl, and it was such a delight to see Lennie being all giggly and cooing over Aveya. She was such a joy to work with.

Q: Strand, via Howard, offers shelter to Grace in his Tower and she refuses. Can you talk a little about Strand's role as an antagonist in Season 7?

A: We are all in for a ride this season with Strand's determination to wreak havoc on everyone and everything. He was always plagued by his demons, but when he realized he survived the worst of what could happen at the end of Season 6—a nuclear fallout—that propelled him into thinking that he’s invincible and ignited this warped savior ideology. He truly believes he’s the only one to finally put things right, and if he can personally benefit from that, have complete autonomy, and be the dictator, even better.  

Q: By the end of Episode 2, how is Grace able to arrive at a place of peace, love, and acceptance where Mo is concerned?

A: Where there's darkness, there's light. I think when Grace sees a very frightened Baby Mo—innocent, helpless, without her biological parents, and in grave danger—Grace's maternal instincts are set alight. In that frightening and chaotic moment when Baby Mo's life is at stake, Grace is quickly reminded that she and Baby Mo have both experienced immeasurable loss. Their shared trauma and tragedy unifies them, and creates this maternal bond with Mo. It finally clicks that here’s a real opportunity to be the mother she wanted to be for Athena, and that Mo gives her a renewed sense of purpose and brings them closer to the family that Morgan wanted so much for them.

Q: Since you're a singer as well, I'm glad we got to hear you sing a little bit in this episode.

A: That scene when Grace is singing to Baby Mo is a prime example of darkness and light, and everything that Morgan talks about—hope in the future, seeing the good in others, and what is possible. I feel like that scene really, really evokes everything that Morgan stands for, and to see Grace allowing herself to step into the light, I feel that now she's on a path of healing.

As an actor, I'm so excited to play these emotions. We know Grace is a very methodical, very factual, scientific, led-by-the-facts kind of person, so to see this emotional side of her is so out of her comfort zone. It’s also humanizing at the same time, especially when she comes out of the grocery store at the very beginning and has this meltdown. It's just too much for her and overwhelming. To see her navigate through her grief, and come out at the end of Episode 2 stepping into the light towards hope, really makes me excited for Grace.

 

 

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