America it has is a what a place. It is just the most absurd and the most incredible all at the same time. Hang out with me on the couch, Alicia Debnam Carey. Hello. Hi. Thanks for swinging by.

Thanks for having me.

I saw you were admiring our our star pillow.

I absolutely adore the star pillows.

You can make your own. You can make your own. Is that what you call them? Star pillows?

That's what I call them.

Did you pick out these faces? Are these like your top two pillows?

Uh, no. I have to admit, no, mine would mine would be might look a little different. That's so funny. But they are I think you can get them on the internet.

Have you had people come in and be like, "Oh, my face is on this."

Uh, yes. Yes. And then they sit on it and it gets and it gets like really awkward.

I'm sure it gets dirty pretty quickly. You play Alicia on Fear The Walking Dead. That's not confusing.

I know. I know. No, I started the whole thing. I feel like when I first I I when I first found out about this the show, the dummy sides, which you get um so that they're not released to the public or anything. Right. Uh information. Uh the character's called Ashley. So I just assume like, "Oh, it's fine. Like, you know, it's completely different." Right. And then when I read the the actual script, it was Alicia. And for some reason in my head, it didn't change anything for me. I was just like, "Oh, yeah. Like, that makes sense. And she seems like an Alicia."

It's spelled slightly differently.

Yeah. That makes all the difference.

That makes all the difference.

Yeah. And it's spelled different. But now I'm starting to do these promo runs. And everyone's like, "So that must be weird." And I'm like, "Oh God. Maybe it is weird." But no, it does feel different to me.

So on the set is the director like, "Alicia, real Alicia."

No, it makes it easy for everyone. Because they all have like, you know. Because often a lot of actors you get called by your character name. For me, it's just like, "I mean if if you don't know, then you're obviously not paying attention to the show."

Yeah. If you And if you don't know, Now you know. Okay. Uh Fear The Walking Dead broke records in its premiere. How are you handling the fan frenzy? Because people who follow Walking Dead are pretty hardcore already. And now you're on this companion show.

Yeah. Uh, to be honest, it's kind of been uh pretty calm at the moment. But I think, you know, the more episodes start airing, it might become a little bit more intense. It's I think people are still sussing it out. Just trying to figure out how invested they are in this new show. Because it is very different. It stands alone as its own thing. Um, which I'm really proud of. Uh, and um, yeah. I think people are trying to figure out how they feel about it. I I think it's going I mean, it's going really well, obviously. Um, but it's it's only just started, I think. Right. The whole I I have noticed, I've started getting, you know, different weird like crossovers in Instagram world of like

What is what do you mean? The Walking Dead, Fear The Walking Dead. And like, who's characters like this and blah blah blah. So that's been kind of cool. You know, it's it's an intense show. Things are starting to escalate quickly, as as we're seeing. Um, how do you take a break from from, you know, the zombies and and, you know, this idea that, you know, impending doom is coming.

Yeah. Well, I mean, on the show itself, like, it's actually quite a fun environment. And I think it has to be because we are shooting with, you know, like intense blood and and like zombies. And it's it's gruesome in many regards. And uh, it's actually then quite lighthearted onset. Because you are compensating to keep the energy up and and be silly. Uh, and running for your life becomes uh kind of a comedic adventure at times.

Were you a runner before?

Um, luckily, I've had some experience with stunts. Escaping zombies. But I have Escaping zombies is a very new thing.

Oh. Okay. All right.

Yes. But the running part I have had a lot of. Because I've done it seems like genre The genre that I keep being attracted to is it's somewhat post-apocalyptic.

I know. I know. Or like disaster. What what draws you to these roles and to these environments? You talked about like, "This is kind of the genre that you're that you're in now."

Yeah. I mean, I think it's also a very popular genre at the moment too. You know, it's a theme that's very relevant to our society right now. Uh, a lot of themes and movies and TV shows right now are post-apocalyptic and the destruction of civilization. And what we are doing to humanity and our environment. And so it is in this zeitgeist. And it is an important theme right now. Uh, and so it's hard to escape. It it permeates every kind of form of media, I find at the moment. Um, and it is relevant then to me because well, our world is going through a similar sort of change. And and a lot of that is, you know, from humans. And and so I think it's interesting to investigate.

Now, were you a fan of The Walking Dead before you signed on to the show?

Uh, I started watching it after I got the role. Because I was like, "Research." Okay. Which was really just an excuse for me to like binge watch alone on TV.

There you go. Yeah. But then I was super into it by the time that I I. That's a good excuse. I mean, I have no excuse. Which of us have no excuse for that. So, we can call it an excuse.

That's what I've been going with.

You've been living in the States uh for four years now. You're originally from Sydney. How do you like it? How do you like it?

You know, I I love it now. America, it has is a what a place. It is just the most absurd and the most incredible all at the same time.

Oh. What's what's the most absurd thing you've seen since you've moved here?

Oh, you know what was great? I was driving from the airport last like the other week. And it was a cab driver and me. And we both were looking out the right side window. And there was West Hollywood Jesus, which is this homeless man that dresses up as Jesus. Okay. And he just walks around West Hollywood. And we both just looked out the window. And we were like, "Yeah, you just don't get that anywhere else."

Like, what's your favorite part about being here?

Um, the the hustle.

The hustle. Interesting.

Yeah. Sydney's very laid back. Sydney's beautiful. It's fresh. It's clean. It's very um, organic. That sounds very yogi of me. But it's whereas America, especially LA, there's this grind. And you can really find inspiration. And and you can get you're driven by certain things. And I remember whenever I go back to Sydney, I'm always like, "Wow, it's just a big country town." And it's not. Like, it's a huge city with like 5 million people. But it's just the the scale of everything in LA. And you do feel that drive.

Well, since you've been here for for a little bit, uh, I wanted to test your um memory of some Australian slang.

Oh gosh. Here we go.

So, I mean, I don't even know if these are real. I just found them on the internet. So, it could be. How is it going to be? Did you did you use Urban Dictionary?

Uh, maybe. Maybe. I tried to keep it clean.

Okay. All right. A bludger.

A bludger. Yeah. Okay. What's that? So like, if you're bludging, it's like bludging uh, like a bludger. Just uh

Sounds violent.

It's actually not. Okay. It's like you're What's the like American word for it? Like, um, dropkick. Like, like you're You don't have that either. That's Australian too. Like, you're like, you don't care. You're lazy. You kind of don't try. You're like a Yeah. Like, what's the in school term of it? A slacker.

Yes. Slacker. There you go. Okay. This is I feel like we're having an exchange. Okay. We're having an exchange here. This is good. This is good. Okay. Yes. Yes. It says lazy person. That's what it says. All right. Um, what's a budgie smuggler?

Oh, budgie smuggler. So, that's like uh This is my favorite one. You know Do you guys have Speedos?

Uh, we have Speedos.

So, it's a Speedo. For guys, you know, when they go like swimming in their little like budgie smugglers.

Okay. All right. So, that thing that people wear and you know that they're tourists, basically.

Yes. Here. Okay. That's what it is.

Nice. A dunny.

A dunny is a toilet outdoors. Okay. It sounds so much cuter. Like, because

We have bonnie. Wait, a toilet out. From a romantic perspective on the dunny. A toilet outdoors. Yeah. Okay. Oh.

Well, a dunny is the toilet. But then you I think it was originally an outdoor toilet.

Okay. So, like an outhouse. Bathroom. An outhouse.

An outhouse. Okay. There you go.

Have you Is that right? Have have uh I just have toilet here. I didn't know it was specific like geographically specific. But I think it used to be. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We have one more. If someone lives This is a good one. If someone lives in whoop whoop.

Oh, yeah. Out at whoop. What does that mean? Whoop whoop is just like anywhere that is not known.

Like, or a major city of some kind. Okay. So, if someone's like, "Oh, I live in like, you know, Woolloomooloo." No. Not Woolloomooloo. That's where like they actually have a place. But like, you know, I live out Like, he lives out whoop whoop. Like, he lives in the middle of nowhere.

Okay. Okay. Got it. All right. So like, in the in the sticks is where we would say in in America. Yeah. Nice. Nice. So any other essential Australian slang that we need to know. My favorite is deadset. Like, dead like, deadset. So if it's like, you know, "Oh, um." Like, I'm deadset on Yeah. Like, going to Australia and practicing all the new things that I just learned. Yeah. Like, "Oh, did that really happen? Deadset." Totally. That's not how we use it here. I heard that too. You guys use it differently. But deadset So what does that mean? Like, it's like for for sure, like, absolutely deadset. Like, Okay. Totally. I've deadset on I've deadset on power walking my way through the zombie apocalypse with Alicia Debnam Carey. And your aerodynamic.

In our aerodynamic helmets and our walking poles.

Dead set. Yeah. And it would be good. Dead dead set. Did I do that right? I don't I don't know. Um, It sounds kind of Kiwi actually.

Oh. Well, I tried.

No, you were close. Yes. Yeah. It's like the same like. It's like the closest country you could get to us. Yeah. There you go. I mean, you can like take a ferry over there, right? Is that how it works? No. I'm kidding. I know that's not how it works. Um, Alicia, it's been so nice having you hanging out. And how do you say uh goodbye in Australia? Is there like a slang word for See you later. See you later. Cuz g'day is like hello. But Okay.

See, I don't know if that's not it's not very exciting, is it? I'm sorry. So maybe we should use a American one.

Peace out, right?

Sure. Peace out.

Peace out.