"I think anytime you're doing something that works, the very next thing you should do is something totally different "
-Sarah Wayne Callies, SDCC, 2017
"Women are, by and large, in our storytelling defined by our ability to be faithful to our husbands and saintly to our children. "
-Sarah Wayne Callies, SDCC, 2017, on "devious" Katie
Sarah Wayne Callies is an American actress who portrays Katie Bowman in the USA network series Colony[2]
Also known for[]
Most notably Callies played Lori Grimes, the wife of the main protagonist Rick Grimes, in the first three seasons of the AMC series The Walking Dead.
On Playing Katie Bowman[]
You based her on Joan of Arc? The Joan of Arc?[]
"This is going to sound a little crazy — Joan of Arc. I realized – sounds kind of, I mean, it started as a bit of joke, which is that Katie is from New Orleans, which is why the bar is what it is. And another term for a bartender is a barmaid. And so the Maid of Orleans is what they used to call Joan of Arc.
So it started as like I just had this weird brain fart and I emailed Ryan and Carlton and I was like clearly you based this character on Joan of Arc. And they laughed and we thought it was weird. And then I was like, let me just go watch a movie about Joan of Arc. And I went in the back and I reread Saint Joan. And I do think there’s something interesting to the idea that Katie, like Joan, is a true believer. And Katie, like Joan, runs face first into that role where your ideology meets the reality of trying to mount a resistance.
And so in that sense, I think they both go in, you know, giving that they’re doing quote unquote “The Lord’s work” like I am doing the moral, ethical, right thing, and I have no qualms about that. I might be afraid, but I won’t let my fear stop me from trying to do the right thing. And then all of a sudden, these are women neck deep in politics and ethics for which they’re not equipped.
And they have to catch up very quickly. So, you know, it did start as (stuff) that there was something that I found actually very cool about it. Juan Campanella also had us watch a movie called The Battle of Algiers that immediately became one of the best films I’ve ever seen. And there was a lot in that film about femininity as a tool of war, which is why I put Katie in dresses and try to kind of articulate a femininity in her characterization. "
-Sarah Wayne Callies[3]
Something to think about[]
"Nelson McCormick, who directed episode six, came to me at a certain point during the filming and he said, "I don't think your husband should watch this episode." I said, "Why?" He said, "No man wants to know his wife can lie this well." And that gave me something to think about. "
-Sarah Wayne Callies
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Her character Sara, on Prison Break (2005) was written out of the show's third season because of her pregnancy. Sara was killed off, but was brought back for the fourth season. It was explained that Sara's "death" was staged.
- She is still close friends with her Prison Break (2005) co-star, Wentworth Miller.
- She speaks Hawaiian.
- She has taken up low-flying trapeze....
- Her maternal grandfather was a Hungarian Jewish immigrant. She also has German and Czech ancestry.