Yahoo News TWD star admits to "lazy" performances and thinks Carl could've been recast
The Walking Dead's decision to kill off Carl Grimes was a very controversial one, but actor Chandler Riggs has admitted to being unhappy about some of his "lazy" performances.
In a Reddit post from November 2018 that has resurfaced via ComicBook.com, the actor openly critiqued his portrayal as Rick's son – who died in the middle of the eighth season – in response to a user saying he "wasn't a strong enough actor" for the part.
"Been rewatching TWD over the last couple of months and I agree lol," Riggs replied. "I think I was decent for the first few years, but I definitely got lazy when I should've utilized the writers giving me more material."
Riggs said that "for seasons 4-7 (and some of 8)", school was his primary focus and that he "put a lot more effort into my education than into my craft".
"This is super evident as I'm watching my earlier lackluster performances," he added, before saying that he worked extremely hard on his performances for his final few episodes as Carl "to leave a strong legacy" for the character.
"I feel my performances have become so much powerful and include an amazing amount of depth," he wrote. "I'm super proud of them."
Riggs then commented that if the writers had chosen to keep Carl, the show would have been "better off recasting" the character, especially as Carl becomes a large focus with the Whisperers and Lydia.
"In hindsight and in the best interest of the show, I do feel like if I didn't get killed off, things would not have gotten better on my end, and TWD might've been better off recasting Carl," he said.
"Don't get me wrong, I loved everything about playing Carl and it would've been really awesome to play out all of those storylines, but I would have been juggling college and the show, and my performances would suffer because of it as shown when I was in high school.
"Yeah, I sucked when it mattered but I'm a good actor now I promise."
Carl's storylines from the comics have been split up for season 9 of The Walking Dead – with Henry (Matt Lintz) taking over for the TV show's adaptation of the Carl and Lydia relationship at Hilltop, and Carl's younger sister Judith (Cailey Fleming) filling in for the TV show's version of the Negan scenes at Alexandria.
Riggs recently landed a role in ABC's A Million Little Things.
The Walking Dead airs on AMC in the US and on FOX in the UK. You can also catch up on the show via NOW TV.
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