Actor Chandler Riggs of “The Walking Dead” chatted with #Powerjournalist Markos Papadatos about his short film “Biohazard.”
How was ‘Biohazard’ for you?
It was amazing, man. It was such a wild experience. The most fulfilling part of this whole process has been seeing the reception so far and watching people’s reactions.
I’ve been watching all the reaction videos on YouTube, and it’s so awesome to see people watching the short film.
It’s so much fun watching people wonder whether we’re going to include these moments they’re so excited about, and then seeing us actually do them. It’s awesome.
Would you like to someday work with director Zach Cregger?
I would have loved to have worked with Zach Cregger. It would have been a dream opportunity. Hopefully, I’ll get to work with him in the future because he’s an amazing filmmaker.
We actually took a lot of inspiration from Weapons for this Resident Evil 7: Biohazard project, so I’d absolutely love to work with him at some point. That would be awesome.
How does it feel to be part of the digital age?
It’s awesome. Everyone so far has been loving it, and it’s great to have a platform where we can put things like this out into the world. It’s amazing, and I feel very fortunate.
What motivates you every day as an actor and filmmaker?
I think it’s being able to meet people at conventions who have seen the projects I’ve worked on. It’s always the most fulfilling thing when someone tells me that watching my character helped them through something they were going through in life. That’s the coolest thing in the world.
Getting to be part of something like The Walking Dead, or creating a short film like this that gets people excited and gives them a distraction from their day-to-day lives, is the coolest thing ever. That’s all I can ask for.
What was ‘The Walking Dead’ like for you?
It was great. It was the coolest way to grow up, and I loved every day on the show. We had the best cast and crew.
I spent eight years on that show while trying to balance school and work at the same time, but I loved every second of it. It was amazing.
What advice would you give to young and emerging actors?
In my opinion, starting with theater is always the best way to go. It allows you to get your feet wet through local community theater productions.
You’re not competing against 2,000 people like you might be with self-tape auditions, so you’re competing in a smaller pool and have a better chance of landing a substantial role that you can really sink your teeth into and gain valuable experience from.
It’s also about collaboration. Every part of this industry involves collaboration, but theater especially emphasizes that.
So, getting involved in theater and remaining persistent are key. As an actor and filmmaker, you face so much rejection, whether it’s auditioning or pitching projects but at the end of the day, all it takes is one “yes.”
What’s the title of the current chapter of your life?
I feel like I’m in this interesting in-between phase. I grew up on a show like The Walking Dead, and now I’m trying to find more opportunities to work.
I’ve reached a point where I have to create opportunities for myself so I can get on set and keep working, and that’s fine. I’m just happy to be collaborating with cool, creative people.
It’s a strange transitional phase as I move into whatever comes next.
What would you like to say to your fans?
Just thank you! Thank you for watching, supporting, sharing, and enjoying the things I’m putting together. It has been so awesome, and I’ve been put in such a fortunate position in my life. I feel very lucky.
What does success mean to you?
I think success means different things to different people, but for me, it comes down to fulfillment. If you can finish a project or an experience feeling fulfilled, knowing you did your job and did it well, that’s the most important thing.
It doesn’t matter as much to me whether the project is considered successful by everyone else. What matters more is whether I’m proud of the work I did on set, or the work I put in that day editing or doing whatever else needed to be done. That’s success to me.
What was it like working with Stephanie Szostak in ‘A Million Little Things’?
Oh, my gosh! Stephanie Szostak was so much fun to work with on A Million Little Things. I wish I’d had the chance to talk to her more recently, but she was absolutely the best.
It was interesting coming into a show as a newcomer when everyone else had already established a family dynamic. They were a well-oiled machine, and I was the new guy coming in for a little while. But everyone was so welcoming, kind, and generous.
Stephanie was an especially giving actress. It was awesome to work with her!
What’s the one thing you want people to take away from ‘Biohazard’?
Hopefully, they’ll want more from the franchise in general. We made this as a love letter to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, and hopefully, it can also serve as a launching pad for whatever my first feature film ends up being.
I hope fans want more from the franchise and want to see adaptations that stay closer to the games. As a fan myself, I wanted to see an awesome, faithful live-action adaptation that truly captured the games, because I felt like that hadn’t really been done before.
Hopefully, fans will want more of that.
What was it like to know RJ Mitte?
I had gotten to know him over the years at conventions. I wouldn’t say we were super close, but we had spent time together and gone out for drinks a handful of times.
We were actually starting to discuss doing speaking events together at colleges. The idea was to have a The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad reunion of sorts, where the two of us would visit colleges and talk about growing up on a television set. We both had that unique shared experience.
I was really looking forward to it, so I was absolutely heartbroken by the news and by the fact that we won’t have the opportunity to do that together.
I’m also close with their family, and our families are friends, too. They’re a wonderful family, so the whole situation is just heartbreaking.
To learn more about Chandler Riggs, follow him on Instagram.
