Page 18 - Real Style August 2018

OH, EMILY
THE WALKING DEAD STAR IS OUT WITH A NEW ALBUM AND SHOW.
BY RODERICK THEDORFF
AT FIRST GLANCE, YOU MIGHT THINK THAT Emily Kinney is one of those actresses that might not get no- ticed. After all when she first appeared on The Walking Dead in season two as Beth Greene she wasn’t much more than a bit player on a big TV series. As the show progressed though her role slowly grew, and after two seasons of playing the part she finally became a series regular. Her character became an essential part of the team, but it was more than her zombie fighting skills that got her noticed. It was her ability to sing.
“Between Seasons 2 and 3, I had been playing little clubs in New York,” Kinney says. “A couple of writers came to one of my shows. They knew that I sang and could sing. I remember Glenn [The Walking Dead showrunner Glenn Mazzara] calling me and saying, ‘Hey, I thought that there would be this nice moment. Can you sing this Irish family song, around the campfire? I thought it would be a nice, quiet bonding moment,
with you and your family.’ I’m like ‘Oh yeah, that sounds awesome.’ So I sing that song in the third season, and then it sort of became a thing.”
Singing was as important aspect of Kinney’s character, because it helped Beth come out of her shy, introverted shell. “It became a way to sort of iden- tify that character,” Kinney said. “Since there were so many characters on The Walking Dead, I wasn’t always going to be featured. It’s a device to almost make you feel like you know that character and know where they are going to fit. It was great, because I like to sing.”
Very shortly after Kinney started ap- pearing on The Walking Dead in 2011, she released her first EP, Blue Tooth- brush. With honest, open lyrics delivered in Kinney’s signature sweet, soft voice, the EP made it clear she had a success- ful second career in music ahead of her. In 2015 Kinney released her first studio album, This Is War, which—despite the powerful title—was actually very whim-
18 Real Style August 2018
PHOTOS, RIGHT: LINDSEY BYRNES