The Walking Dead: Lauren Cohan on which scene made her want to quit on Inside the Actors Studio

The Walking Dead has been home to no shortage of gruesome, powerful, and even tough-to-stomach imagery. While the finished project may be a dark affair, actually bringing those scenes to life can be just as troublesome for the actors on set. And one scene was even enough to make Lauren Cohan consider leaving.

Appearing on an upcoming episode of Inside the Actors Studio alongside fellow cast members, creator Robert Kirkman, and producer Scott M. Gimple, Cohan, who plays Maggie on TWD, opened up about the emotional ramifications of a certain gruesome scene.

The Walking Dead spoilers ahead.

In season 3, Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) decides to have a C-section to ensure her child can be born, even though Maggie tells her she won’t survive the surgery. Lori continues on and, as Maggie indicates, dies as a result, leading to a scene with Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) that birthed a hundred memes.

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But the tragedy of the sequence hit Cohan hard, as she explains her initial reaction to what was soon to be filmed.

“I went to Steven [Yeun]’s door and I said, ‘I have to leave the show. I don’t think I can do it.’ It affects you so deeply to the core to touch on, to dive into so much of this material,” she said.

As Cohan explained, however, it was the very extent to which the show was willing to go in its exploration of human emotion that made her stay.

“And then I realized that’s why I have to do it, because the outcome of that, as heinous and as sleeplessly that affected me … we watch to feel and to — hopefully — honestly portray something. And bad stuff happens, and what’s the point in not getting real about it.”

Watch Cohan speak at length about the revelation below. Inside the Actors Studio‘s The Walking Dead episode airs Feb. 11 on Bravo. The Walking Dead returns on Feb. 14 to AMC.