What Do We Know About Beth On 'TWD'?

Calling all Walking Dead fans: It’s finally time to see where our favorite teen apocalypse survivor, The Walking Dead darling Beth Green, has been since being captured by the creepy cross car. We’ve been waiting for months to see where Beth has been hiding, watching interviews with Emily Kinney trying to get her to open up about her character's whereabouts. After watching Kinney on the show, I realized that the 29-year-old actress actually has many similarities to her on-screen persona, even though she’s well past her adolescent years. Although, now that Beth has had to fend for herself, producer Gale Anne Hurd said in her Reddit AMA that Beth’s had to grow up very quickly.

And that growth is about to be front and center The Walking Dead Episode "Slabtown" will largely focus on Beth and the fact that she’s been apparently in a hospital all this time. Kinney has been amazing about keeping quiet regarding Beth’s whereabouts and instead giving us insight into Beth’s personality and how she can relate. Maybe this season we will get to see Beth start realizing that she can’t go through the apocalypse singing songs and playing with babies. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to see Beth blow some zombie heads off and reunite with the group. However, I don’t want her to reunite with them if it means a romance for Beth and Daryl. She’s like 16 years old, people.

Emily and Beth may be very different in age, but she’s been telling everyone how similar they actually are.

They both bring music to our ears

I bet you didn’t know that Kinney has a CD. Music is a major part of her life and she talks about it in almost every interview she does. Beth's singing moments were actually written in for Kinney. She told Spin magazine:

Between seasons two and three, [then-showrunner] Glen Mazzara, called and said 'I know that you can sing.' He really felt like having this little song around the campfire was both a good break from the zombies and the violence, and also kind of a way to show our family connection. And then it just kind of became a part of Beth, that singing was something important to her.

Kinney even told AMC that Beth seeps into her personal music that she makes on the side:

And I do feel like, because I’ve never played a character for so long, that it can't help but seep its way into things. It’s like, maybe this is why a particular idea keeps coming up for me, because this is something that we keep dealing with on the show!

Nebraska is like the farm

Originally from Nebraska, Kinney grew up in the same environment Beth did. In the same AMC interview, Kinney says:

I did grow up in a place that was really close to what Hershel’s farm is like, in this little town called North Bend, Nebraska. It’s surrounded by farmland with a little over 1,000 people ... My parents love living in small towns. They love the lifestyle, getting to know their neighbors and being close to family.

Even Emily’s family sounds a bit like the good ol’ Greenes. Since Emily is quite a bit older she’s experienced much more than a farm though: she is a New York native, which would probably be the worst place to be when the zombie apocalypse breaks out.

Sisters fuel the actress & her character

They both have sisters and they both rely on their sisters for most things. And personally, I would much rather see a Maggie/Beth reunion over a Daryl/Beth reunion. Kinney explained her sister bond to AMC:

I’m the middle child and I have a really great older sister. I definitely related to that dynamic. Lauren and I became like that on set: We’d talk about boys and clothes and hang out.

Kinney also told Glamoholic that after a tough day on set she will call her sisters, Sara and Katy to chat. "They are super cool."

Death on the show hits them both pretty hard

Everyone around Beth is dropping like flies and it’s only natural that she would have a breakdown when they beheaded her father Hershel. (By the way, RIP Hershel.) Kinney feels distraught over Walking Dead deaths too though. In the same interview with Glamoholic, Kinney talks about how down she gets when a cast member dies:

I get very emotionally involved in playing Beth, particularly because the cast is very close and when we lose a character on the show it means I am also going to lose seeing that person on the set all the time. It makes me really sad. After a really sad, busy episode, sometimes I have to take a couple days to chill out.

But They Have Very Different Taste In Men

While Beth seems to have a thing for older men (ahem, Daryl), Kinney's crushes are way more age-appropriate. In the Glamaholic interview, she dished:

Aaron Paul and Adam Driver are totally my style, but I think they are both married. Leo DiCaprio of course…but that's more of a 'I think you are such a great actor' kind of crush. Also, all the guys from that band Eve 6 are super hot. This could go on for a while, talking about boys I have crushes on…

Personally, I prefer Kinney's take on crushing to Beth's unhealthy, Daryl-focused view.

Images: Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC; Gene Page/AMC (2); Matthew Welch/AMC; Getty