VIDEO : The Surprisingly Real Event Danai Gurira Draws On For Her Part In TWD

The Walking Dead may be losing some of its biggest stars in season nine with the departure of Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohan, but at least fans can still hold onto Danai Gurira. She's played the samurai sword wielding Michonne on the zombie apocalypse show since its third season in 2012. According to Uproxx, Gurira plays her part with a scary authenticity, which she bases on the research she did on the female survivors of the Liberian war. As she explained to PBS?s Breaking Big, to her, The Walking Dead felt like a war zone. Once the zombies are taken out of the story, it's simply a study in the collapse of a society. And Michonne, like many Liberian women, turned herself into a weapon of war.