“The Walking Dead” is known for its infamous scenes — particularly this season, when one of Beth Greene’s captors at Grady Memorial Hospital got sexually suggestive with a lollipop.
“You see her first putting up with it, being intimidated by this guy, then getting to the point where she’s using it to her advantage and getting rid of him, getting back at him,” says Emily Kinney, who portrays Beth 💎on the mega-rated AMC series. “That was awesome.”
But it’s those scenes — where people turn on each other — that bother Kinney the most. As a longtime fan of the horror genre, the 29-year-old will take blood and 𒆙guts over the spoils of war any day.
“I’m finding the show getting harder for me to watch, because it’s starting to lean toward human beings and how we treat each other, rather than sca♑ry zombies🐲,” she says.
Kinney joined “The Walking Dead” in its second season as a mild-mannered teen who then somehow managed to fly under the radar for two seasons. It wasn’t until ༒last year’s midseason finale, when the prison was overrun by walkers, that Bet🍒h became as integral to the show’s fate as its longtime protagonists.
It was a move that surprised not ju💧st fans, but Kinney herself.
“I didn’t realize when I got the job that it would become a job I would haveꦕ for four yearsꦺ,” the Nebraska native admits. “I assumed it would have an end date that was a lot sooner.”
And as far as Kinney knows, there isn’t an end date🐽 iꦐn sight. In fact, she has the rare experience of not being tied down to her comic book character’s fate — because no equivalent character exists in the “Walking Dead” literature.
But with a filming hiatus from “Walking Dead” just around the corner, Kinney has her ey🌠es set on more than just slaying zombies☂.
Between✅ flying back and forth from her Upper West Side home to the show’s set in Atlanta, Kinney releas𝄹ed her debut album, “Expired Love,” earlier this year — and just recently finished recording the final song for her second album, due out next year.
She also started an unexpected modeling career after signing as the new face of Nikki Rich’s Spring 201📖5🐓 collection.
“I met Nikki at the iHeartRadio music festival in🐠 Las Vegas, and we really hit it off … She’s a really sweet person and a good designer with a good eye,” Kinney says.
She’s also keeping an eye out for new roles to pad her résumé. Kinne🌜y appeared as a cult member in an episode of Fox’s “The Following” earlier this year — and, citing “Scream” as one of her all-time favorite horror flicks, relished the chance to work with “The Following” director Kevin Williamson firsthan꧅d.
But she’s ready for a change. “I think it would be fun to do something funny for once, [and] not horror,” she admits.
And for those hoping to confirm the “Bethyl” love rumo♋rs between Beth ꦗand Daryl (Norman Reedus), Kinney’s keeping mum.
“It’s a to♋ugh world they’re living ꧟in, so I don’t know how much room there is for that,” she says.