I booked a horror film called 'Where the Devil Hides.' It's... you know, a horror film. But it was the first full-length movie I'd ever done, and it got me my visa, and I could start work.
— Alycia Debnam-Carey
My mom's a children's television writer, so I was involved and around from a very young age. When I was eight, I did my first film with Rachel Ward and Bryan Brown, who are a quite well-respected Australian producer-director duo, and that just changed my whole perspective on what I could do in life and be.
With any sort of minority, issues of ostracization or misrepresentation are clearly rampant. It's just so deeply rooted in our culture, and there are so many levels that it trickles down from.
Once electricity and petrol and facilities and food stop, society stops. It's crazy.
My whole philosophy has been to let the work speak for itself, because that's really what you want to show.
L.A. and America, in general, have this incredible hustle about them. There's this sense of momentum.
I did watch the whole run of 'The Walking Dead.'
You don't often get a choice in who your enemies are, who you're friends with, what your situation is, and the environment you're placed in. You just have to make do with what you have.
I was on Instagram or something, and I checked my tagged photos, and I realized that suddenly they were all LGBT artwork. I was like, 'Oh, my God!' I had no idea. It was the first time I realized I was a figure for that community.
I did go to a performing arts school, so that facilitated my creativity, though I ended up going in a more musical direction.
I hated L.A. when I first got here. Hated it.
Watch 'Fear the Walking Dead,' because we'd love your support, but I think 'The 100' is such a great show; it was a great show before I got there. It's only getting better, and I'm so lucky I got to be a part of it.
Usually with something like 'The 100,' because you're working so much and every day, and they'll change the drafts quite quickly, we'll go through maybe, like, 12 different versions of the same scene over a week. So there is no point in learning it on a Tuesday when on a Thursday it might be completely different.
I didn't do the 'Home And Away' thing.
'The 100' has such ferociously passionate fans.
'The Walking Dead' do such a great job with that world. It is real, but it's also otherworldly; it's strangely theatrical, and I suddenly did become quite invested in the whole zombie phenomenon.
I didn't know much about the 'Walking Dead' until after I booked the gig, and then I watched the first four seasons. I binge watched them in two weeks, and at that moment I realised, 'Oh, this is a much bigger thing than I thought it was.'
I think of how much I've learned from doing television, and it is so invaluable.
While working in a group is great, on-set especially, it means you just don't get to see the characters one-on-one.
Siblings are often very opposite.
I would love to do something with space. I'm obsessed with it. I just can't stop reading about it or watching videos about it or listening to TED Talks about it.
Comic-Con is my jam!
People are so passionate... Now that I have discovered Twitter, it's become so fun that people are really into this 'Clexa' thing, and there's such a great response to their relationship.
I've got good intuition.
When you're placed in a world where survival is the main focus, a lot of that other stuff, like wrongdoings in the past, become obsolete. You have to focus on the here and now.
At one point, I was thinking about going to the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, but then I realized it's actually not what I wanted to do.
Playing normal is hard - especially playing normal that's not you.
If one sibling does something, the other will fill the opposite role. I found, at least for my brother and I in real life, that seems to be a thing.
'The 100' gave me this platform I never expected. I didn't expect the character to become anything. I was originally only signed up to do six episodes, and then it just sort of become this whole story and journey, which was an amazing character, a great journey, so that has been incredible, and I didn't expect anything out of it.
I started to let go and seeing that there are no rules.
That doomsday idea is in everybody's subconscious.
The moment the world falls apart, you start forgetting history and wrongdoings in the past.
Going back to 'The 100' is something I definitely wanted to do because the show is so great, and I'm so grateful to be part of it.
It's funny because TV wasn't something that I wanted to do. I wanted to do movies. I'd said a lot of no's to a lot of shows previously because I couldn't fathom being on a show for such a long time and only doing one thing.
I went on YouTube and saw videos of Angelina Jolie on some talk show showing people switchblade tricks, and I was like, 'That's what I want to do.'
I'm not a person who's obsessed with scary movies or horror films or anything like that, so when I was watching the original 'Walking Dead,' I was kind of surprised at how into it I was getting.
I hadn't thought about that before, this passionate following, with fan fiction and artwork. At first it felt like an invasion of privacy, but then I realized it's nice that the character can be shared.
In L.A., it's not on the surface. Everything is in the cracks. The restaurant out front will look like this old, boring place, and you'll go inside, and it's this lush, beautifully designed restaurant.
That contagion idea is so relevant and shows how quickly civilization could self-destruct.
Human beings will justify anything.
It's funny, I often think about how, if we were all placed in an apocalyptic situation, you'd realize quickly how stupid, petty things just don't matter anymore. Who you love is who you love, and it doesn't matter.
I studied classical percussion for ten years.
That's bizarre to see, L.A., downtown, and to feel like you're the only person there.
I must say, I always - from experience, when I watch TV shows and I see characters leave without a proper explanation or leave with not enough time, I get irritated. I like it when there's a clean-cut reason or a defining moment where they have to go. Whether that's death or not, I think that's subjective.
Film is a lot different. You have the whole script in its entirety, and you have a couple of weeks to learn different scenes, really go over them and rehearse them so when you get to them they're more fleshed out. But TV shows are harder.
When I was younger, I could get that white-knuckle grip of holding on to an idea and not wanting to let it go.
Teen fandom is so potent. Any choice they make in pop culture forces the rest of the world to take notice.
At first, I was saying to my rep, 'I don't know if this is really my thing.' I get heart palpitations just watching basic comedy-horror stuff.
Having no expectations is a really good thing.
