I don’t think it’s a weird request to want to be eaten by zombies. Like, in real life, maybe not - having someone bite their rotten teeth into your pink intestines might be extremely painful and traumatic, and would most likely lead to your death - but in make-believe, YES PLEASE, BABY!
Spoilers ahead (but only from like season 2, so chill out, Christ)
So, being on The Walking Dead and getting to have a scene where a horde of the undead rip your goddamn head off and drink the blood out of your eyes - well that’s a right laugh, isn’t it? Forever saved for gory posterity - a trophy that not many people can lay claim to.
Which is why Jeffrey DeMunn, who played Dale, specifically asked for it. He originally went out in season 2 of the show, but lasted a lot longer in the comics - so why did he request to get his guts chomped so early?
Well, it was all down to original creator Frank Darabont’s firing by AMC back in 2011 (the fallout of which is still going on to this day). DeMunn had a long friendship with Frank and had appeared in his projects before, including The Blob and The Shawshank Redemption, so was understandably miffed when he got the boot from the show. He told Cleveland.com:
“Dale’s death was my decision. I was furious about how Frank was pushed out of the show. I spent a week not being able to take a full breath. And then I realised, ‘Oh, I can quit.’
“So I called them and said, ‘It’s a zombie show. Kill me. I don’t want to do this anymore.’ It was an immense relief to me.”
And then he got his stomach pulled open by a rank goggle-eyed shit-head and then blasted in the skull by Daryl - what a way to go. I’m jealous. In make-believe land, anyway. Would not be jealous in real life, as I mentioned before. Would rather go in my sleep, thanks.
God we have a laugh on this website, don’t we?
(Image: AMC)
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