WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Fear the Walking Dead Season 6, Episode 13, "J.D.," which aired Sunday on AMC.
The latest episode of Fear the Walking Dead focuses on June, Dwight and Sherry. However, the trio is separated after an unknown man starts a shootout. Later, it's revealed the stranger is John Dorie's father, John Dorie Sr. Aside from delivering a gorey walker sequence, "J.D." provides valuable information on the cult leader Teddy and offers the protagonists -- and the audience -- an opportunity to say goodbye to John after his heartbreaking death earlier in Season 6.
CBR had the opportunity to speak to the episode's director, Aisha Tyler of Criminals Minds and Archer fame. "J.D." marked Tyler's directorial debut within The Walking Dead universe. Along with her experience, Tyler also discussed creating one of the bloodiest walker gags in Fear the Walking Dead history.
CBR: Were you a fan of The Walking Dead universe before this directing opportunity?
Tyler: I was! I was a big fan of The Walking Dead universe and had been on Talking Dead several times and was a fan of the comic books. When I had a podcast, I actually had several people from the universe on my show. I had Robert Kirkman on and Steven Yeun. So, I’ve always been a big, big fan of the show.
How did the directing opportunity come about?
They just knew that I was a fan of the show, and I’ve been directing other television shows. I also actually had Greg Nicotero on my show. So, they knew I was a fan, and I just had a meeting at AMC and expressed interest. I said, “I’m just really passionate about this franchise and would love to direct if the opportunity comes up.” I honestly don’t think I ever thought that it would, not that I’m a negative person or anything like that. It’s just you know people are always like, “It’d be really great to direct that show.” But you imagine such a well-established franchise and well-established world that they have their favorite directors that they have back. So, when the opportunity came up, it was a wonderful surprise and a real thrill.
This episode goes into Teddy’s backstory. We get to see John Sr.’s chaotic notes and theories. You’ve been on shows like Criminal Minds and CSI. Was that crime show experience helpful when shooting these scenes?
No [laughs]. You know, the action on those shows is very different. But that is the space that I work in as a director, like my feature was a thriller, and the shows that I’ve directed all have an action component, so that’s really my background as an actor in the genre as a fan and a director. They have an incredible team there, but action is really my passion. That was the stuff that was the most fun for me, choreographing that stuff and really planning it out. Then coming up with a walker gag that hadn’t really been done in The Walking Dead world was also really important to me.
It was really tough to do. It’s been on for a long time, and they’ve done some pretty cool stuff. So coming up with that undercarriage walker gag, we worked really hard to do something that hadn’t been done in The Walking Dead universe yet -- and we did, which was really fun for me as a director.
For sure, that was actually my next question. That walker was probably one of the gnarliest things I’ve seen in Fear the Walking Dead.
Oh good! I’m so glad!
Do you want to talk a little bit about shooting that scene and working with the special effects team?
Absolutely. The special effects team run by Greg Nicotero, that’s the best special effects team in the world. This is what they do best -- the walker stuff. We just had the most amazing stunts and special effects group that worked on this. That walker gag really evolved over time into the thing that it was. It was great to develop this concept with them. Then we had a stunt performer in this rig that they built, which was up toward the upper ribcage of the walker, and she’s stuck through the bottom of an RV that we built from scratch so we could put holes and everything like that.
Then we had 100 feet of intestine that we wrapped around the dry shaft. Then we had these guys pumping blood. It was really fun [laughs]. I’m a Walking Dead fan, so I was really like, “Why don’t you go hard with the walker gag.” And I kept telling them, “More blood! More blood!” They were looking at me, and I was like, “Go! Go! More blood!” We got to give the kids what they came for, you know. This is such a great episode emotionally. There was so much great character work in it, so it was also fun to do a big, splashy, gooey walker gag.
This episode had a lot of juicy moments between June and John Sr. and Dwight and Sherry. How did you approach shooting such emotional scenes?
Well, you know, I love directing. I love all aspects of it but working with actors is a special delight because I am one. And that’s really the take of the day, getting to go in and do the emotional work with actors. I just had a team of extraordinary performers this episode, all really at the peak of their craft. So, it was a real joy, honestly, to work with them, to find the emotional beats and make sure that it resonated for them as performers first because if it feels real for them, it will feel real for us as viewers.
And this was an important episode because we were saying goodbye to John. So, it was really important to me to give that whole part, which is such a huge chunk of this episode, just real weight and real value and just emotional resonance. But luckily, I had great actors that just made it all look effortless. Then I just got to kind of roll the camera and get out of the way. I really wanted to make sure I gave the audience an opportunity to say goodbye to John as well. That episode was really a moment to mourn him as an audience as well.
As your first time shooting in The Walking Dead universe, was there one thing that really surprised you about the process?
No, nothing surprising. The craft of filmmaking and, by association, television making is something that I’ve been a part of for a long time. I guess what was exciting was how good and how well oiled and cohesive and professional the crew was. They are just so good at what they do -- so, not surprising, so much as delightful. It was just a delightful process, a really creative process, really transformative to just bring in ideas. Being a director is not being a dictator; it’s more of a cheerleader or coach, so you’re just trying to elevate everybody’s great ideas and make sure they get to execute at a high level and that there is a unified vision. But you also want to respect how good they are at their jobs and give them the space to create and bring new, cool ideas.
So, it was lovely to work with all these people. My main regret at the end of every episode of TV is that it can’t be longer. So, we just made a lot of really good TV. It just doesn’t always all get to make it into the episode. But everything you see up there is just the product of a group of really talented professionals.
We touched on a couple of scenes, but is there one you’re most proud of?
Well, the eulogy scene is especially lovely. Also, the scene where June is at Tank Town and that goes from being kind of this lovely emotional moment between her and Dwight where she’s admitting how much pain she’s into a big shootout with those walkers that get drawn by the guns. A lot happens in that scene that was really fun to shoot. We got to blow up a window and the gunfire. I love stunts. I love working with actors, but I also love blowing things up, so that was a really fun one. There’s a really cool drone shot in that one where, originally, the End is the Beginning was going to be a little bit smaller, but we decided to do something really grand and imposing. So, yeah, that was a fun scene to shoot.
Fear the Walking Dead stars Lennie James, Rubén Blades, Colman Domingo, Danay Garcia, Maggie Grace, Garret Dillahunt, Jenna Elfman, Alexa Nisenson, Karen David, Austin Amelio, Mo Collins, Zoe Colletti and Christine Evangelista. New episodes air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on AMC.