The 'Fear the Walking Dead' actress opens up to ETonline about returning to the short-lived HBO drama.
Kim Dickens has been a staple on TV for over a decade, with standout roles in everything from Friday Night Lights and House of Cards, to Lost and Sons of Anarchy. And while she plays Madison Clark in AMC’s new hit series, Fear the Walking Dead, no role is more memorable than when Dickens played madam and hostess Joanie Stubbs on HBO’s Deadwood.
The show, which was canceled after three seasons, has earned a cult following, with many fans still lamenting that it was “gone too soon” 10 years after it went off the air. While there have been reports of a film adaptation, nothing was ever confirmed until January of this year, when HBO programming
president Michael Lombardo told TVLine that he gave the green light to creator David Milch to write a script.
“David has our commitment that we are going to do it,” Lombardo said. “He pitched what he thought generally the storyline would be -- and knowing David, that could change. But it’s going to happen.”
While it’s definitely still early in the process, Dickens tells ETonline she’s ready to return to the role that helped make her famous.
“I would be more than happy to reprise Joanie Stubbs,” Dickens says of her character, who brought a glimmer of fashion, style and beauty to the 1870s-set town of Deadwood, North Dakota, when Stubbs arrived with Cy Tolliver (Powers Boothe) to set up a rival brothel, The Bella Union. “It was sort of a life-changing experience for all of us in a way.”
“There was something magical about it,” she adds.
To make the transition easier, Dickens still owns Stubbs’ signature accessory. “I have my top hat,” she says, revealing that she was given the prop once it was known the series was coming to an end. “Dust it off and I’m ready to go.”
Though, Dickens is first to admit that she only knows what she’s been told by the series’ former cast and crew.
“As of Thursday, that's what I was hearing,” the 50-year-old actress says, revealing that Deadwood is next on Milch’s to-do list after he finishes working a HBO project about the fictional Mississippi county, Yoknapatawpha County, created by William Faulkner. “His intention is to start on Deadwood after that.”
While fans wait, they can catch Dickens on AMC’s prequel series to The Walking Dead, which returns for season two on April 10 with 15 episodes. Of the new season, she promises plenty of surprises.
But the expanded series also meant less time the actress could commit to playing political reporter Kate Baldwin on the latest season of House of Cards. “I think they had an intended story and then I wasn't able to get as much time, so I think it got a little truncated,” she says. “But I hope to go back.”
A special edition of the first season of Fear the Walking Dead is available on Blu-ray and DVD on Tuesday, March 22 and season two returns to AMC on April 10.
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