Sarah Wayne Callies finds Council of Dads more challenging than The Walking Dead

The A.V. Club

"Working in something that’s a really grounded reality in Council Of Dads, I find that it’s actually a lot harder in some ways," Callies tells The A.V. Club of her NBC drama, which returns tonight. "When you have a concept, it’s easier somehow to—you’re inventing more, so it lands differently in your heart. I’ve never been more tired than I was on Council Of Dads. But it wasn’t a physical exhaustion. The days on Prison Break or Walking Dead or Colony, it was usually two days an episode of physical work. And it’s great, because there’s no acting, right? If you’re running, you’re running. If you’re in the rain, you’re in the rain. If you’re in a car crash, you’re in a car crash. There’s something very straightforward about that kind of work. And there was nothing like that on Council Of Dads. It was just show up and try to be honest." In a separate interview with Hollywood Life, Callies says her new role as Dr. Robin Perry in Council of Dads is uniquely special to her. “In some ways, this role took more courage than anything I’ve done before because there’s nothing to hide behind,” she said. “There’s no concept. There’s no zombie apocalypse. There’s no prison. There’s no alien invasion. You just have yourself and the work, and you do it as honestly as you can. I was actively looking for something to put hope into the world. I think we know who we are by the stories that we tell as a culture. I’ve been a part of some really bleak and violent stories, and there’s a place for that. That’s important, too. I feel like our culture got weak and violent — politically and environmentally and economically — and I wanted to tell stories about people who show up for each other like it’s an Olympic sport. I wanted to tell a story where at the end of it, you may have cried, you may have laughed, but hopefully, you feel like, okay, we can do this. We can get through this and we can get through it together. That mattered a lot to me to put that out in the world.”