"I didn’t really have time to think about whether I thought it was going to be big, I was just so happy with the show and being on the show and the people that I work with. It’s funny you sort of come out of our little vacuum of filming and you realize how popular it is. It’s popularity makes sense to me because it’s such a loving environment and I would hope that would perpetuate in the world, in life. But no, I never anticipated it being that big."

Lauren Cohan, who stars as Maggie Greene on AMC's The Walking Dead cleaned up well for the December cover of Women's Health Magazine and speaks openly about the show, filming in Georgia and the actors who inspire her.

Lauren has always gravitated towards supernatural things but never thought that would be her claim-to-fame genre, so to speak. She says that working on The Walking Dead has been a "rare and special experience" and now she feels empowered to tackle anything. Hey, if you've ever seen her fight a "walker" this girl can do anything! Lauren wants to emulate Kevin Kline and Tilda Swinton. She elaborates about Swinton to say, "Tilda Swinton I’ve always just thought is so brave and so inspiring – trailblazing. She doesn’t follow any rules and it doesn’t seem that she adheres to anything in life but what her heart and soul tell her to do. I think that’s just always what I’d like to check in with every day -- that that’s how I’m conducting myself and conducting my life."

Lauren shares a different and interesting perspective about the show: "We have dealt with things every single day on this show that make the rest of life seem really, really calm and I think going through a processing that gives me a real appreciation for when things are normal. I’ve always been a fan of old fashioned things and something about The Walking Dead, even as we progress further and further into the show, it becomes a period drama because where it comes to clothes fashion and even weaponry, we have to have a cut off of 3 years ago. We’re shooting a period drama that’s locked in a very recent but specific time."

Photos:Tom Schirmacher

Pilates, ballet and dancing are a big part of Lauren's fitness regiment. And from the looks of these photos, it's working! She says that the "Georgia heat and zombies" help her stay grounded. Well, I live in Atlanta and while I've never encountered any zombies, or walkers or biters, thank goodness, I can attest to the heat! HOT.

Pick up an issue of December's Women's Health for the complete article.

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