Ezekiel Sutton (Khary Payton) crosses paths with the Princess (Paola Lázaro) as he journeys into the city with Eugene (Josh McDermitt) and Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura) in the Season 10 episode, “The Tower.” Princess isn’t looking for any trouble, but she is ready to obliterate the three strangers with her machine gun if their intentions turn out to be nefarious. Ezekiel diffuses the tense situation when he speaks of admiring Juanita’s zombie decorations, which she fashioned to give the walkers more personality. But, in real life, Payton and Lázaro became fast friends — decorative walker displays not included.
“So that when it comes to us in a scene together, it’s the blending away of Ezekiel and Princess to being Khary and Paola,” Payton said in an interview on the AMC Talk blog. “I feel like there’s this very thin line between when we’re just us and when we’re playing those characters. And yeah, once again, it’s crazy how quickly it happened with Paola, and it was just like, ‘Oh, this is a friend for life. Here you go!’ Almost immediately. Yeah, she’s amazing.”
Payton and Lázaro’s rapport can clearly be seen in their social media posts (per Twitter). One of their best online entries was a short video of the friends letting off some steam courtesy of a little grind-it-out impromptu dancing (via YouTube). The show may be over, but these two seem poised to be friends for life.
