Photograph by Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC
As Rosita on The Walking Dead, Christian Serratos is known for her long pigtails, military cap, and army-green short shorts, but in reality, you’re more likely to catch her in vintage dresses—not too far off from the glam retro looks she wore in our September issue. We chatted with the actress about the show’s next season, her style, and her favorite spots in Atlanta.
Just judging from the Comic Con trailer, it looks like season 6 of The Walking Dead will be completely insane.
Totally. I think what’s really fun about this show is that we’re always trying to outdo ourselves. We just want to give people more things to be excited about or nervous about.
What will be new for Rosita?
I think you see her come into her role in this group. It takes a while in the world [they] live in now to acclimate to new people. We’ll see Rosita kind of take her stances in the group. There are going be some really, really cool moments.
Rosita’s relationship with Abraham is so unorthodox. Do you think they’re well-matched as a couple? They complement each other in an interesting way.
I think that’s why they are together. They’re both very logical for the most part, logical as much as you can be in this world. I think they both saw that relationships aren’t based on butterflies in your stomach anymore. Relationships in this world are based on who you bode well with and who’s going to help you stay alive. There’s a lot more to think about in choosing a partner. They had the natural chemistry, then they realized they were similar in mentality. That was attractive to both of them, being very type A. It will be interesting to see what comes with that relationship this season.
In the comics, Rosita starts dating Eugene. Will we see this plot on the show?
I think anything that happens in the comic books is a cool possibility, so I wouldn’t say that it’s never going to happen. It may have already happened. That’s something that people are going to have to wait and find out about.
The Walking Dead cast is so tight-knit. Any good stories from the set?
I have so many. The last thing that happened that was pretty funny was that me and Josh (McDermitt, who plays Eugene) were roughhousing right before a very action-packed take. And I was punching him, and as a joke I was like “Alright, now you gotta get me.” And he laid into me. Everyone on set was just dying laughing, but I handled it like a champ. And I made him feel like shit for that for a long time. I milked it.
Judging from the photos you post on Instagram, it seems like you, Josh, and Michael Cudlitz (Abraham) are really close.
We have our own bond because we came into the show together not knowing anybody, not knowing what kind of environment we were walking into. So before we even started filming, [we] really bonded, and it’s still that way. We’re all close, but there’s definitely a special bond that Michael and Josh and I share.
Photograph by Caroline C. Kilgore
What was your favorite look from our Terminus photo shoot?
Hard to say. I wore this really cute Valentino checkered-print dress, and that one was really fun. I think that one might have been my favorite. I wanted to take every article of clothing home with me.
How do you dress day-to-day?
I don’t have any gray area—I only have two looks: One of them is worker boots, baseball cap, bandanna—total grunge, and then I have this side that’s super girly, and I tend to only wear vintage dresses and kind of more 40s-style, 50s-style pieces. There’s nothing in between.
Where do you find the pieces that make up your look?
For my vintage pieces, I’ll go to flea markets, I’ll go on Etsy, and stuff like that. When it comes to grungier stuff I wear, I don’t really know. It seems to just appear in my house.
You and your mother collaborate on a jewelry line, Kisshy. What inspires the pieces you create?
My mom’s been a jewelry designer since I was born, so I kind of just followed in her footsteps. She taught me at a young age what she was doing. We took a lot of inspiration from the 60s; we have a lot of Swarovski crystals and semi-precious stones. It started with making rosaries for communion. But it’s always changing. We did this line that felt very comic-booky. We took inspiration from Wonder Woman’s cuffs. The black cuffs I wore in the photoshoot—those are the Wonder Woman-style bracelets.
You live in Atlanta full-time. What are some of your favorite spots?
Krog Street Market is a biggie for me. The Optimist is really cool—they have good cocktails. For me, it’s the whole thing—I need a delicious plate of food, but I also need a really good cocktail.
One last question—do you ever get zombie nightmares?
Before I started working on the show, [when I] knew there was a possibility I might be working on it and I might move to Atlanta, I binged-watched seasons one through three. I started daydreaming that there were walkers everywhere, and I had zombie nightmares. And then when I started working on the show and I saw how it worked and everything, it went away.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Check out the Terminus fashion shoot with Serratos from our September 2015 issue.
