Finding the moral center in a universe of zombies

Starring in a series about flesh-eating zombies wasn’t what initially worried Sarah Wayne Callies when the cable network AMC asked her to audition for "The Walking Dead."

Callies feared boredom. It’s what she calls "the great trap of television" for actors and audiences alike.

But the grim world of "The Walking Dead" is full of complicated characters, disturbing graphic violence and a relentless, dark view of humanity in a post-apocalyptic landscape.

And, oh yes, it’s a huge hit, too.

The critically acclaimed series, which concludes its second season tonight, has become the most-watched drama on basic cable. The season two premiere in October drew 7.3 million viewers, and when the show resumed last month after a short hiatus, that episode drew 8.1 million viewers. The third season will be even longer, with 16 episodes ordered.

Callies, who grew up in Hawaii and graduated from Punahou School, almost missed out on a role that has redefined her popularity.

"To be honest, I just dismissed it out of hand because I don’t watch horror movies," she said. "Then I read it, and I realized it wasn’t about zombies at all. It was about survival and the ways we distort ourselves to survive. And I think that is a really interesting story."

The 34-year-old Callies took the role of Lori Grimes and discovered what she has called "a reluctant matriarch."

"What I liked about her is she seemed to be a woman on fire," Callies said.

Her character has a son, a husband whom she initially believed dead, and a lover who was once her husband’s best friend. Grimes serves as the emotional center of a group of survivors, insisting that it is not enough to simply avoid being eaten — they need to retain the soul of who they are.

Callies is best known for her role as Dr. Sara Tancredi in the Fox series "Prison Break." She loved the character, a gentle woman who was a fan favorite.

"I was curious about playing someone who wasn’t immediately likable," Callies said of her "Dead" role. "Somebody who is really, really, really complicated and who had done the wrong things for the right reason."

The AMC series shoots in Atlanta, working through the sweltering summer months. Callies said the first season was so difficult she lost 15 pounds. After the second season she was "wiped out."

"This show takes more out of me physically than anything I have ever done," she said.

When she’s not working, she’s at her home in Vancouver, British Columbia, and sometimes returns to the isles to visit her parents, University of Hawaii professors Valerie Wayne and David Callies.

Growing up in Manoa, she felt the tug of acting, but when she went to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, Callies tempered her degree in drama with a minor in women’s studies because she always wanted a backup plan.

"At a certain point I decided I had to fail at acting before I would settle for anything else," she said.

She has found a great creative atmosphere in cable, which allows productions to take greater risks because they are not as regulated as traditional network programming.

"I think there a lot of creative people who have wanted to tell dangerous stories for a while, and this golden age of cable has thrown the lid off things," she said. "In the pilot of ‘The Walking Dead,’ we shoot a little girl (zombie) in the face in the first 90 seconds. We can’t do that on regular network television."

So much for boredom.

AND that’s a wrap. …

Mike Gordon is the Star-Advertiser’s film and television writer. Read his Outtakes Online blog at honolulupulse.com. Reach him at 529-4803 or email mgordon@staradvertiser.com.