Well, Andrew Lincoln took the expression a little too seriously during his tenure as cop turned zombie-killing badass Rick Grimes on AMC’s The Walking Dead. After all, quality footwear is an absolute necessity in the zombie apocalypse.
According to Matthew K. Manning’s 2021 book The Art of AMC’s The Walking Dead Universe, Lincoln was so committed to the role, that he never took off Rick’s cowboy boots—even when he wasn’t on-camera.
Why Andrew Lincoln was always wearing out Rick Grimes’ boots on The Walking Dead
“It proved to be a little tricky because we only had the one pair,” revealed executive producer Denise Huth. “This was season one on a cable show. Nobody was thinking about what’s going to happen 10 years from now when we’d need multiple of these boots.”
The shoes, which had already been used when they were purchased by the production, required continuous upkeep from costume designer Eulyn C. Hufkie. Despite the fact that he could don other footwear for shots that only showed his upper half, producer Jolly Dale recalled how Lincoln “insisted on wearing” the boots at all times.
“Unless it was scripted that he was barefoot,” Huth added, “there was no such thing as casual Rick.”
Andrew Lincoln’s exit from AMC’s The Walking Dead
Wanting to spend more time with his family, Lincoln retired from the main show in its ninth season. To explain the character’s sudden exit, the writers had an injured Rick whisked off by the mysterious CRM (Civic Republic Military), which had been a lingering question mark in the periphery of The Walking Dead‘s 11-season run.
Rick subsequently made a brief appearance in the show’s final episode to set up his official return in the Rick and Michonne limited series, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live (the original plan was to produce a Rick Grimes movie trilogy). Lincoln lovingly referenced his footwear when the project was announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2022, proclaiming: “I personally can’t wait to get my cowboy boots back on and get the gang back together.”
The Ones Who Live was one of several spinoffs centered around major players with more story left to tell. The others included The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon—which brought Norman Reedus’s stoic hero to France—and The Walking Dead: Dead City, which made unlikely allies out of Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) for an adventure across an undead Manhattan.
Dead City and Daryl Dixon have been renewed for third and fourth seasons respectively, with the latter set to conclude after season four.
