'Walking Dead' star Lauren Cohan on season 7 finale: 'It's heartbreaking'

— -- Lauren Cohan, who has played farm girl-turned-fighter Maggie since season 2 of "The Walking Dead," isn't giving away any spoilers for the season 7 finale. But she does acknowledge that it will be "heartbreaking."

"You’re certainly in for a lot of emotion," she told HarpersBazaar.com in a new interview. "[It’s] incredibly bittersweet, beautiful and heartbreaking."

As any fan of the show knows, AMC's zombie apocalypse drama has always been heartbreaking -- evidenced in this season's premiere when two of the show's beloved cast members fell victim to Negan, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

As always, the cast held a traditional sendoff, or so called "death dinner," for their fallen cast members.

"It's funny when I stop to think about calling them death dinners. It's such a frequent part of our lingo that I forget how absurd it is, like spying on your own funeral," Cohan explained. "We've had some of our best nights together at them. There's always a lot of tears, but we also have bonfires and play games and get to tell the family member leaving how much we love them -- and, you know, completely embarrass them."

For Cohan, 35, saying goodbye to Steven Yeun, who played Maggie's husband, Glenn, was especially hard. The actress hinted that her character, who is now pregnant with Glenn's baby, will grow as a leader without him.

"I hate saying anything that implies, 'Oh yeah, in the middle of season eight when I'm still alive...,' because I really don't know if I will be," she said. "But as a viewer, I am excited to see that arc being realized."

In the show, men and women are treated as equals in the post-apocalypse world.

"I do consider our female characters -- and most of our men -- to be feminist," Cohan told the website. "The qualifications to survive the apocalypse, physically and emotionally, are demanding and naturally equalizing: knowing poisonous berries from nonpoisonous berries, being able to jump start a car, keeping your cool under pressure, having the Spidey-sense to stab a zombie in the brain just in time."

She added, "Our characters are defined by their merits, not their gender. It makes me proud when mothers tell us that their daughters look up to the women on our show."

Cohan believes the show has a message about all of humanity.

"I look at it all as selflessness versus selfishness. That conflict is representative of the world at any time. We’re always grasping to feel safe," she said. "Ultimately, some people feel safe through love or family or community, some people through exerting control ... they can't understand how much strength comes from being compassionate and lifting other people up."