Things didn’t end well for Andrea after she tried to broker peace between Rick and the Governor on The Walking Dead , but in real life actress Laurie Holden is a survivor and a hero, after helping rescue 55 sex slaves in Colombia. Holden went undercover at a fake bachelor party in Cartagena as part of a sting operation organized by Operation Underground Railroad. Having done similar work in Vietnam and Cambodia, Holden was asked to help add some realism to the party scenario. “We pretended we were having a big bachelor party, so my role was the girlfriend of one of the rich Americans, so I kind of had to sell them and the traffickers on the idea that I was a party girl, that I was there to have a good time with the guys,” she tells CBC News.
Holden’s job was to keep the girls in the room calm. Some were as young as 12. “When you’ve been sexually abused, no matter how wonderful they are, there is a fear of a man. I think having myself and this other lovely woman, Krista, who is a cross-fit trainer, we were like the motherly figures who were able to comfort them.” Holden wore a disguise in case she was recognized from her work on The Walking Dead. “I had a pretty good disguise — I had a wig and glasses.” The sting operation was filmed and shown on ABC’s Nightline.
