The Walking Dead season 7 actor defends co-star from body-shamers: 'Chill the F out'
'I’m going to bully you into stop bullying'
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Your support makes all the difference.A recent episode of The Walking Dead caught up with character Tara (Alanna Masterson) for the first time since the latter stages of season six.
The reason why the actor had been absent for so long wasn't a planned move by the writers, but a consequence of actor Alanna Masterson being pregnant in real life.
Following the airing of the season's sixth episode 'Swear' on 27 November, Masterson found herself the victim of online abuse regarding her weight - something her co-star Josh McDermitt (Eugene Porter) has spoken out against in a new interview.
McDermitt said:
“She just had a kid. That’s why she hasn’t been in the first six episodes because she was recovering from pregnancy and then people are talking trash about her appearance, and it’s like, screw you.
“I’m going to bully you into stop bullying. That’s what I feel like we need to do. I don’t know how this is gonna work, but we have to stop bullying each other and calling people out for their appearance.
“People need to chill the F out with the crap that they’re putting on the internet. It’s very disturbing because we are people, everyone. And I’m not talking about actors. I’m talking about anyone on the internet. I mean, I just read something on CNN the other day where a teenage girl committed suicide who was cyberbullied. This is bullshit. This should never happen.”-
This week's episode will serve as the midseason finale, a trailer of which you can view here. Catch up on the five major talking points of last week's episode, 'Sing Me a Song,' below:
Earlier this week, Robert Kirkman - author of the series' comic book counterpart - revealed why the word 'zombie' is never used in the series.
The Walking Dead airs in the US this Sunday - it'll air in the UK the following evening at 9pm on FOX.
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