Tonight, the eighth and final season of Fear the Walking Dead premieres on AMC. After Madison (Kim Dickens) and Morgan (Lennie James)’s attempted rescue of Baby Mo didn’t go as planned, they and the other characters are brought to the island and living under the rules of PADRE.

Recently, cast members Jenna Elfman, who plays June, Christine Evangelista, who plays Sherry, and Karen David, who plays Grace, talked to the press about the upcoming final season, where SciFi Vision asked about how their characters’ journeys surprised them through the series. For all three of them, it was the characters’ reactions to the pain and hardships they’d faced.

“For me, I think I was most surprised at the courage that would burst out of her,” Elfman told the site, “this bravery and wild courage from so many moments, that she would spring forward out of all of this pain into very strong swings of integrity and courage, or even lashing out at different times…I think it was always like a good corollary to the pain when you lose a child and what that does to you, and the efforts at not being a victim, the thrust [of] trying to pull yourself outward and be more dangerous to your environment than your environment has imploded you into your own health. So, those sort of push and pulls from the pain and back into the world always stimulated and surprised me, and I was always pleasantly surprised.”

“I think the grappling of pain was always very surprising to me and very interesting the way all the characters throughout the universe do it,” said Evangelista. “With Sherry, this idea of detaching herself in order to leave and be on her own and process and to yet every time emerge in a new way in this in this new form…[O]ften she sort of leaves to isolate herself in ways and then rebuild herself back up again, but with every turn, always choosing or having a strong sense of morality and what's right.”

For David, she is surprised that Grace has survived after all the loss. “I don't know how one even goes beyond that [loss],” the actress told SciFi Vision. “…I think that's one thing that's amazed me is how she's still able to keep going, because it can't get any worse than that. Everything went, her soul. Everything went when she lost her child. So, to move beyond that, I've just been amazed at how she's been able to just somehow find a way to pick up and then see her embrace and come to life as if she's been reborn, to have this opportunity and chance to be a mother again to Mo…to see her open up her heart slowly in season seven to baby Mo, and to see where that's brought her and Morgan up to this point now in this final season, and to see her embrace this family, embrace motherhood, really living each moment and making each moment count is just something I'm just so in awe and so proud of her to be able to do.”

Read the full transcript and watch the season premiere tonight on AMC.

QUESTION: A theme this season is family and how it impacts your characters in one way or another. What your feelings are about that theme and how it plays into this season?

CHRISTINE EVANGELISTA: I think that's accurate. I think what really drives both Sherry and Dwight at the beginning of the season is the idea of family and how to protect your family, to build a life for your family and what sacrifices are you willing to make in order to preserve your family. I think that continues throughout the season for them, in the sense that the family that they want to make also within their friends and their community and how we must really all rely on each other and protect and be loyal, and loving. I think that the idea of family is very strong throughout the season and how our family is often even used against us at the same time.

KAREN DAVID: I think exactly what Christine is saying can be applied to Morgan and Grace. This is an opportunity for Grace to have the family that she's always wanted, especially after losing her baby. And now to be given that blessing and that opportunity to be a mother again and to co-parent with Morgan, this is everything she she's wanted. And to be able to do that and as a mother and as a parent and coparenting, the sacrifices that you make for your child, the sacrifices you make for your family to make sure that they are safe and thriving against the unknown challenges that come their way in this new whole backdrop of PADRE is something that's really prevalent and on Grace's mind constantly.

JENNA ELFMAN: What's great too, is what is family, defining that for oneself. And that it can come in so many beautiful forms and when you are in an environment that's like you have to accept things in as family, because you really can't do it on your own. It's a lie. It just violates natural law to think you can go through this alone. And I love that through the loss of family and where we then can find ways to plug in that loss with new forms of family and what that means. And defining that is just been really, I think, a really lovely exploration this season.

QUESTION: How would you describe your cast and your writers on the show?

CHRISTINE EVANGELISTA: This is the hardest, most passionate group of people I have ever worked with, and I [can] say that wholeheartedly. It is not for the faint of heart, this genre of show, this type of show, and having the show on for as long as it has been really requires the writers to constantly step up their game. I could say that the actors and the crew on the show truly work so hard and everyday show up and give it their all in very difficult, very difficult circumstances. And nobody ever complains; it's truly remarkable. The amount of people that complain on various other shows, and I could say, across the board on The Walking Dead, the whole world, both shows that I've had the privilege to be on, that is a universal theme. I very much miss our cast and crew and working with them.

JENNA ELFMAN: I would say like everything, the lady said everything. For sure committed. Very committed. You can give the writers a question, and they're always absolutely wanting to help answer any questions, help adjust something if you need, like very committed. The actors all show up caring, passionate, wanting to tell, want it to feel right, committed, just very committed to the process of trying to tell a great story. And the crew, like Christine said, it's incredibly inspiring. To watch the competence level of every individual and their commitment to bringing their competence is contagious. It makes everyone want to continue to bring their best. That level of commitment, none of the actors none of the crew were like sitting around going, “Screw this. Like whatever. Yeah, what?” No one's phoning it in; everyone's on their game, and that's really, really cool.

KAREN DAVID: I think it's so true when they say it takes a village, because it really does, and this has been a village of some of the kindest and most wonderful human beings I've ever worked with both in the cast and crew. And as both Christine and Jenna said, the care, the attention to every detail and just everyone cheering each other on and bringing out the best in each other and working together so beautifully and cohesively as a family, that doesn't happen every day. You can see it in every detail in the set and every detail of the camera filters or whatever. Everyone's there, and everyone's got each other's back, and that's made my time on this show so enjoyable, and so bittersweet too, because it kind of ruins [your] life a bit. [laughs] You know, having the opportunity to do scenes with these ladies and having Morgan - Lennie James - as a scene partner absolutely has ruined me! Ruined me. But one thing that I know, and I think is my comfort, is that I carry a bit of each and every one of these people, cast and crew in my heart. I've graduated from the TWD universe, and I take that with me very proudly into whatever comes next, and it fills my heart with so much joy. It makes me teary eyed, you know, but but good tears, happy tears, of this incredible experience that the cast and crew all creators, our writers in the writers room, that have given us these incredible stories to tell things that I've never done before as an actress and I'm just so incredibly grateful for.

QUESTION: What are you each going to miss the most about working on this show?

CHRISTINE EVANGELISTA: I'm so grateful to have [worked] on an action-drama series. I really love the physicality of the show and how it really pushes [us] to limits I didn't even know that I was able to go to. I really love the physical nature - aside from all the people that I work with who I will miss truly, truly miss. I really love the physical element of the show. I think I definitely miss that part.

JENNA ELFMAN: Yeah, I felt I came away from completing the season feeling like I was a bodybuilder even after. Like I had so many new muscles that were in prime shape because of how many aspects are involved in telling the story from our job, like Christine said, with the action, props, just maintaining the awareness of the mythology, the elements that we are in, the deep layers of story and character transitions, and connecting all of that on a personal level, maintaining it throughout the days, weeks, months. I didn't realize how much June lived in me, even when we would be on hiatuses, but I knew another season was coming up. I would have about maybe two months of kind of a break from her before the scripts came in. This season just I started reading the scripts, and my husband took the dogs for a walk. This is about a year ago or maybe around June last year. He came back, and I was like, “Okay, time to work. The scripts are coming in.” And I sat with the script for like an hour while he was taking the dogs for a walk and he came back and I started making lunch, and we had a great day. It was all fine. And he was like, “Are we good? Are we okay?” I was like, “What are you talking about?” He's like, “Your whole face like, did I upset you? Am I in trouble? Did I do something?” And I was like, “I don't know what you're talking about.” I was like, “Oh my god, I started working on June.” I didn't realize how much she was inside of me until we wrapped the series, and I conscientiously and ceremoniously mentally sent June off to a vacation cabana. I had to actually send her away, lovingly. I didn't need to say goodbye or anything, but I had to say, “You go you're going over there now.” And I felt this tremendous shift in my mental state, in my own new mental universe and spiritual universe that lightened up quite dramatically.

CHRISTINE EVANGELISTA: I saw that! I could definitely testify when I saw you like however whatever a month or two later, it was like you looked visibly lighter. Like lighter. I was like, “Whoah.” You looked different. You felt different to me.

JENNA ELFMAN: Yeah, I felt like my whole kinesiology changed. It was crazy. So, I think I'm going to miss that phenomena that occurs to me.  I'll not miss it and I'll miss it. I'm enjoying feeling lighter. But yeah, just how consuming that gives a tangible sensation. That's very stimulating.

KAREN DAVID: I can totally relate to all of that on so many levels with Grace. I mean before coming into The Walking Dead universe, I was doing Galavant and singing musicals, dancing with horses and doing Once Upon a Time and all of that, which was very different. And what excited me, besides the fact that I could actually be only 15 minutes in the hair and makeup chair and just have dirt and blood and gore -

CHRISTINE EVANGELISTA: It was pretty great actually.
 
It felt so great. I can't tell you it was like, “What?! 15 minutes?!”

CHRISTINE EVANGELISTA: That is so liberating for a female actress, you have no idea.

KAREN DAVID: If this is the job that if you're going to detox and breakout, fantastic, because the worse you looked, the better. It just added more to your character, which was great. I didn't freak out at all. I'd be like, “Yeah, bring it on” They could cover it up make it look like that, even better. There're so many things which the girls were talking about, but also, as Jenna said too, there is this energy that when you step into the shoes of your character, it's there. It's palpable, and the same for Grace, too.  She's had a very painful journey and a very, very sad life, and to take that on, it's it is a lot. But as Jenna said, it is this magical phenomena that lives within you. And for me, the hardest bit was when we finished filming. It was breathing her out, which was really, really tough for me, because she's been a part of my life for five years. And I was sent, two weeks ago, I received Grace's boots, and I didn't know. They were in the box, and I opened this box, not knowing what they were, and they were Grace's boots. And I cried. I just burst into tears. I burst into tears of relief. I burst into tears with gratitude and of all the things that playing her has taught me and what being on the show has meant for me. It's just such a mixed bag, I think, because I just wasn't expecting it, and it was right there. And just all the feels just are so palpable and so alive, that are still alive in me, and being so forever connected to Grace, forever connected to cast and crew and the writers and creators. It's here in my heart, and it lives, and it breathes. But it's also taking that time, as Jenna said, to let her go, and I'm still doing that. I have, and it's still a continuation that, you know, she's there. But my husband said well - because we’d just come off the back of, and the girls know this; I think everyone knows this. I've survived a two year remodel, and we were still married, and we still like each other, which is great. So, we have the boots, and I have to find a place in my office now to hang these boots, because there's so much just looking at these boots that are so symbolic of my time with everyone and with this character that I'm so deeply and forever grateful for.

SCIFI VISION: Your character's journey, from the beginning until now, what about either something they've done or just something about them in general has surprised you the most, thinking back?

JENNA ELFMAN: For me, I think I was most surprised at the courage that would burst out of her, this bravery and wild courage from so many moments, that she would spring forward out of all of this pain into very strong swings of integrity and courage, or even lashing out at different times. It really surprised me playing it. It would surprise me when it came out of me, and I think it was always like a good corollary to the pain when you lose a child and what that does to you, and the efforts at not being a victim, the thrust [of] trying to pull yourself outward and be more dangerous to your environment than your environment has imploded you into your own health. So, those sort of push and pulls from the pain and back into the world always stimulated and surprised me, and I was always pleasantly surprised.

CHRISTINE EVANGELISTA: I think the grappling of pain was always very surprising to me and very interesting the way all the characters throughout the universe do it. With Sherry, this idea of detaching herself in order to leave and be on her own and process and to yet every time emerge in a new way in this in this new form. That surprised me also, and it kind of really taught me a lot too. But also, just the constant evolution [of] how one gets to that point, and that oftentimes, as we've seen with Sherry, often she sort of leaves to isolate herself in ways and then rebuild herself back up again, but with every turn, always choosing or having a strong sense of morality and what's right. I think that pleasantly surprised me, but I think her strength throughout the entire time I've been playing with her has always been inspiring and surprising. I would say that.

KAREN DAVID: For Grace, I'm just amazed that she's still around. I mean, after [episode] 6.12, and even going back to when you first meet Grace, everything in her life is about loss - loss of people that she cared about back at the nuclear plant that she felt so responsible for, losing a baby daddy, losing her child. I don't know how one even goes beyond that. And I took a lot from my aunt and my uncle's experience when they lost their two boys, and as a parent, how you just have to find some way to continue living, for their other children, for themselves, and that constant battle that they had to go through every day. And to infuse that into Grace's journey and path, I think that's one thing that's amazed me is how she's still able to keep going, because it can't get any worse than that. Everything went, her soul. Everything went when she lost her child. So, to move beyond that, I've just been amazed at how she's been able to just somehow find a way to pick up and then see her embrace and come to life as if she's been reborn, to have this opportunity and chance to be a mother again to Mo. You know, we see the struggle that she goes through of wanting to deny herself that and feel that she doesn't deserve it or she can't, and then to see her open up her heart slowly in season seven to baby Mo, and to see where that's brought her and Morgan up to this point now in this final season, and to see her embrace this family, embrace motherhood, really living each moment and making each moment count is just something I'm just so in awe and so proud of her to be able to do. And that's all I've ever wanted for Grace, is to find these moments, even if they're brief moments, just to find those moments of levity, to find those moments of lightness, because she really deserves that.

QUESTION: Karen, the trailer got everyone talking right when Grace says to Morgan, “Rick Grimes gave you the gun for a reason." That's what everybody's talking about. That came as a curveball. Could you shed some kind of light on what your feeling was when you were asked to say that line and how much you can tell us about it?

KAREN DAVID: Well, without giving anything away... [laughs] I think these moments where Morgan opens up to Grace and talks about his past and what led him up to this point, I think the those are moments that Grace truly deeply appreciates, because Morgan has been through such visceral pain, and it's been very difficult for him to open up to anyone or even for him to deal with his pain, the pain of his past. So, when these Easter eggs happen, these moments that happen, I think it's not only fun for the fans to see, but it's also really big for Grace and for Morgan's relationship together, because it really helps her understand more about what he's been through and explains a lot of things. They've been together for a very long time now. I, as Karen, knew how big that moment was too, and I love when Jenna was talking about this before,  just about how we tie in TWD universe. It's like everything is this accumulation and everything is coming together, joining these dots from our past and how they lead up to where we are now, in our journeys as characters, I think is such a wonderful gift, too. Grace knows the impact and the friendship that Morgan and Rick did have. She knows the impact that's had on Morgan and what that means. So, to be included now in these moments where he talks about this process was very meaningful for her.

QUESTION: What have you personally taken away from your time working on this series?

KAREN DAVID: Oh, gosh. Where do I start? I'm at a point still now as the final season is about to air, so I am overwhelmed with many emotions. For me, besides playing a character that I've never played before, it's all about the people too for me. I'll never stop talking about our cast and crew and the sense of family. We've been through a lot together, especially during the pandemic, and how that brought us all together. We were in this little bubble, and if there was any bubble that I was put in, I'm so glad it was this one. Never have I ever been so grateful to be able to create and to do something that I love to do with people that I love during a very tumultuous time. That is one thing that will stay with me moving forwards in my journey. Christine said it, too. We've done so much together. We've gone through so much. We've been through the elements, and I do feel that I've graduated from this school of this TWD universe. So, I feel like I've been through so much physically as well in this universe that I feel - it is probably dangerous - I do feel a little bit invincible, but I feel thicker skinned, and I'm just excited to whatever is coming and the possibilities, but it's the people that will stay with me. It's the family. It's stories of being in the transport cars and going into work each day and just talking about our weekends and talking about the week ahead. And it's moments. I think it's embracing those moments, and we've had so many beautiful moments together, and I miss them. I miss them, and it ruins you a little bit each time, but I'm so grateful. Like I said, I'm grateful for those moments, because they make up the fabric of who I am now moving forward. I have a bit of Jenna Elfman in me, and that's an amazing thing. I have a bit of Christine Evangelista and a bit of Lennie James and Colman Domingo, all of them in me. I have each of these people now in me that that are now forming who I am, and I'm so proud of that. I miss it dearly, but I'm just grateful for the time that we had and to be able to tell these stories. The sets alone, I've had so many pinch-me moments where I'm just like, “Oh my God, this is like a glorious movie set.” It's just so incredible what our village, our team of people and family, have been able to create and come up together that will stay with me.

JENNA ELFMAN: My takeaway is, someone once told me, “You don't need confidence first in order to do something. You gain the confidence from having gone through all the things in order to accomplish it - the learning curve, embarrassment, the humiliation, the pain and the triumph. Then, you come away with some confidence because you now have that experience in your back pocket as a reference point.” And I feel like in every regard. I'd never been on this kind of show; I'd never been on a big group cast like this before. There're a lot of new moments and new experiences for me. I went through many dynamics of learning curves in every regard. So, I think my sort of takeaway in every aspect is a new level of confidence from having gone through all of all of those dynamics.

CHRISTINE EVANGELISTA: I think that's really beautifully said, and that definitely resonates with me. My takeaway is just it's truly as cheesy as it sounds, but a true sense of gratitude to have been on a show eight years ago and be able to reprise a character in a new light, in a new way, in this other transformation. So, she's been able to grow as I've been able to grow, and as she's been growing, I've been learning from her. But this show has, I think, pushed me to limits and truly thrown me into this pool of either you sink or swim, and through that you come out stronger, wiser and more confident. I just have a real sense of gratitude and also a real sense of gratitude for the professionalism that I've learned working on the show. Going back to I remember first meeting Andrew Lincoln, my first day ever on set, and there's a level of passion and commitment and professionalism that the show has taught me that I'm very, very grateful to have learned and been a part of as an actress, because that will carry me and sustain me throughout all of my future jobs. But I'm very grateful to be a part of this wild world because, it really teaches you so much, and yeah, it's definitely an incredible show for an actor to be a part of.