An Interview with Michael E. Satrazemis, Executive Producer & the Director of the Series Finale of ‘Fear the Walking Dead’

Executive Producer/Director Michael E. Satrazemis on the Set of ‘Fear the Walking Dead’. (Photo Courtesy of Seth F. Johnson/AMC.)

Michael E. Satrazemis is nothing short of Walking Dead Royalty. For not only has he directed countless episodes of The Walking Dead, and Tales of the Walking Dead, but he has also served as an Executive Producer on Fear the Walking Dead, and he directed a bevy of episodes of the show, including its series finale. And we here at NTG had the distinct honor of sitting down with Michael, to discuss ‘The Road Ahead’.
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John Betancourt: What does it mean to you to shepherd this series off the airwaves?

Michael E. Satrazemis: It was just something that I wanted to do, something that was important to me. I did the 10 seasons of The Walking Dead, the very last season, I had to process the end of the most amazing and special ride that I've ever been on and a family that you know, that was created over that long from afar. I was doing Tales of The Walking Dead and then Fear at the same time, so I had no time to do any of it. It was very important to finish this one up. Also, ‘cause I'm just very proud of how karmically when I came in at season four, we were taking, you know, Madison away, and bringing everyone else in and then getting to finish it, and with bringing Kim back and getting to have the… you know, the proper experience with Kim. We're not like, you know, “Here's how I'm gonna do your death and it's gonna be beautiful. And I promise you, I'm gonna make this you know, epic and, and mighty.” And, you know, she was such a pro when I met her. It was brief, we only made it the half of season four.

So getting to have her back, you know, having to say goodbye to Lennie, you know, who's my brother, and family and then having the show kind of shift karmically to, to the OG’s and finish the story up like, it's, you know, it was an honor to get to direct that last one, it was not something that was possible for anyone else to do. I would have killed them before… I mean, I don't know, I didn't kill anyone. (Laughter) But you know what I mean? Like it was it was special. And it was important. Also, it's a group of individuals, you know, there's 300 of us that have been creating together, these guys are my friends and my family, and I wanted to be there the last day, I wanted to be there through that last episode and just try to honor everybody for what they've given all of the time. And you know, and all of the effort and make sure that we stay really grounded in that story and try to nail it.

John Betancourt: How did the return of Alycia Debnam-Carey as Alicia come to fruition?

Michael E. Satrazemis: I don't know. Just called her. You know, “Hey, what if we got to hang out again? And you work for like, a couple days? I promise I'll buy you dinner.: You know, I mean, like, that was that was my side of the conversation, you know? And she was like, “Yeah, I want to go see everybody,” you know, so it was… to tell you the truth… it was more important than I thought to the end because, you know, everyone was really processing the end. It was hard. You know, it's like… for the actors they’re processing the death of a character that they will never play again, you know, I mean, it's crazy, you know? I mean, and to get a “hello” you know, a “Hey! Hello!” with somebody at the very end was off setting and, you know, I mean, it was just, you know, Alycia’s a bright light. She's a very special person. And to get her in, it really did give us some really fun moments and fun days, and kept me from running around going like, “We're n gonna ignore the end! No one's talking about it! No one's thinking about it! We're just gonna shoot! We're gonna live in the present second! And that's it! We're gonna celebrate each other! Let's go!” I was a cheerleader for half of the end episode, but you know, I was just trying to keep everybody locked in that moment where we just, you know, looked each other in the eyes and just and lived in that present second of creation, together.

John Betancourt: Which leads me right to my next question. I mean, this is a final episode. It's a big deal. What kind of challenges did you run into as a director and assembling something that was just so epic in scope?

Michael E. Satrazemis: There, you just said it, epic in scope. You're trying to squeeze… you know, all of these things, you know, I mean, like there's the giant set piece… just getting the walkers off the barge, just parking the barge, let alone you know, I mean, and that's a fragment. It's 30 seconds of screen time. You know, how realizing that it was gonna rain intermittently through the day, getting rain towers, you know, to just dump you know, we had to make the gut call. We’re going to lose half our day and you pick which one, you want the non-raining part? Or the raining part? Or we let it rain for hours and flood the fort. You know, doing all of the nighttime slow-motion stuff with you know, the hordes of walkers, it's just big, big epic stuff over on the dock with Colman when they're going through that fight scene into the container. Just, it was all big. It's meant to be, that part was easy. And, you know, the part that, that there's not another episode is after that, was also… it's just leave it all out there. And you know, I think the fear, fear is a very big driving force. Not the show, just actual fear, you know, you're not going to leave anything behind on the last episode of a series, you're going to just storm the castle as a 300-person crew, and everybody committed and bought into it. So, there were a million challenges. To try to do it, it was relentless, but also, you know, it feels big. And again, it was the end, you know, so we just... we had to.

John Betancourt: So, in looking at the end, I’m curious now… as to what the last days on set were like. Especially since you mentioned a need to emotionally process such things.

Michael E. Satrazemis: Yeah, the very last day was just the walkers falling off the barge. And we did that by, by design, just to, to have a day where we weren't trapped into very emotional content, you know, to where it might go sideways. And just also it was like, kind of fun day, you know, we all just stood there and, and set up shots and they all fell off and splashed. And we set up another shot, and we got to talk a lot in between, you know, together and, and process everything. The last day… it was beautiful, and a lot a lot of people stood around and spoke, we wrapped, and we were still hanging out as a complete crew and talking maybe for an hour and a half. Nobody left, we just laughed, and it was just… it was very, very, very beautiful. And, you know, it felt special. And right before that we were on the highway with Alicia and got to kind of you know, end with the end. But it was just parking a barge and throwing some walkers into the into the water you know, which was kind of was a way to kind of celebrate, it was always going to be cool no matter what. It's a barge, and water, with walkers dumping off of it, you know. So that felt like a bit of a cake day, a little reward day where we could really spend time with each other and talk about you know, about everything and just be together.

John Betancourt: I think it is safe to say, that not only do audiences take something away lesson wise from stories they love, but the people that work on them as well. What did you take away from Fear the Walking Dead?

Michael E. Satrazemis: I took Fear the Walking Dead as a challenge. I had never been a producer/director, nor had I been a part of a kind of a reinvention of a show. I knew that, you know, I was representing the one side and then I would be kind of the only boots on the ground in what could potentially be a hostile arena. Which it wasn't, I prepared for anything, but I took that job because I didn't know if I could do any of that and I knew it was kind of stacked up against me and sometimes you need to do things for yourself personally. Just to see what you're made of, to kind of define yourself to yourself. And what it turned out to be was like a… never say never experience. You know, I mean, to be honest, and I don't care you know, when Fear first came out, all of us on The Walking Dead were like “Why would they dare do another show? And never! Y'all never go over there!” You know, everyone acts like that and, it has changed me profoundly, it's expanded me as a creator, as a human being, gave me opportunities to then go do Tales. It also allowed me to, to realize the importance of the producing part.

Producing was always one level removed from what I love to do. I love being in that present. Second. I love touching that, I love whispering two words to somebody while you're still rolling and walk back out and just watch it transform… a lie becoming the perfect truth. It's fucking beautiful man, it's, it's my religion, it's everything I ever want to be. And I always was like producing this, like, you got to sit back behind that other person, and then whisper in their ear and it's not, you know, the producing portion. I could build an atmosphere and a culture and, and a work ethic and then bring a happiness and a vibe to everything and watch it thrive and challenge people and watch them blow your mind and let everyone be involved in the creative process on a level that you just watch everyone… it's just… beautiful. And then it also takes care of the director part of me by setting things up that way. But um, I don't know if that's even an answer or just a long diatribe, but it has been so special. Not only have I worked with another family and, and friends, but I’ve expanded to where I never thought I could be and, and challenged myself in a way that you know… that I got to define myself to myself.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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