Alexa Mansour, Nicolas Cantu, Hal Cumpston and Julia Ormond – The Walking Dead: World Beyond

By starrymag | December 5, 2021

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

 

Q) So, for all of you, I’m just curious, were you satisfied with the ending that your character got on the series?

JULIA ORMOND:

ALEXA MANSOUR:   Yeah.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   I was.

HAL CUMPSTON:   No, no.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   Oh, Hal, you always gotta be that guy.

ALEXA MANSOUR:   Hal, you’re always so negative.

HAL CUMPSTON:   I wanted more, but, you know, sometimes you don’t –

ALEXA MANSOUR:   You don’t always get what you want. You get what you need.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   True.

HAL CUMPSTON:   That’s a good line.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   Hal needed to get straightened out by the CRM. That’s what it is. He’s in the system now. You know, I thought my guy ended pretty well, with the lost arm. I’m still so jazzed about that. When we got to film that; [it] was like the little blue sleeve CGI stuff. That was so fun. That was like sci-fi zombie stuff. I was like, “Yeah, lost an arm. That’s apocalyptic. I love it.” That was great.

HAL CUMPSTON:   Oh, man. Me and you in the ball. Are you kidding me?

NICHOLAS CANTU:   Oh, that was incredible.

HAL CUMPSTON:   That was the last thing we shot.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   Yeah. That was so, so fun

ALEXA MANSOUR:   The ball?

NICHOLAS CANTU:   We entered the [globe]. I forget what the statute was called, but it was this globe. It was this globe and me and Hal.

HAL CUMPSTON:   Did you see that, Julia?

JULIA ORMOND:   I haven’t caught up with the ending, no.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   We hamster ball rolled over a bunch of empties. It was the best. It was so fun.

HAL CUMPSTON:   Yeah, that was the last thing we ever shot.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   Yeah, that was a great send off. So, I’m very happy with the way that Elton was left off with at the end of the series.

ALEXA MANSOUR:   Yeah, I was pretty stoked with my ending too, because Hope’s super smart, and Alexa is not. So, this was nice.

Q)  Julia, did you think Kublek got what she deserved? What are your thoughts?

JULIA ORMOND:   I don’t think they really resolved her getting what she deserved, but I think it left it sort of kind of open ended, and I think the stuff caught up with her that was kind of surfacing anyway for her.

Q)  That was such an epic globe scene for Nicolas and Hal. Talk about your thoughts when you first read the script about that particular scene and actually getting to film it?

NICHOLAS CANTU:   So, I found out about the scene before it was in any script from my stunt actor. He was like, “Hey.” Like, it was so cryptic. He just came up and he was like, “Hey, man. The next few episodes there may or may not be two guys in a giant metal cage running over some zombies, but you didn’t hear that for me.” Immediately I texted Hal. I’m like, “Dude, we’re going to be in a giant metal ball rolling over some zombies.”

HAL CUMPSTON:   Yeah, I had no idea, I couldn’t even understand when Nick was explaining it. I was like, “What are you saying? I’m so confused.”

NICHOLAS CANTU:   Then, we got the script, and it was for real, and ever since that came in, I felt like my mind was always on that. No matter what we were doing, I was like, “Oh, that day is gonna come soon. We’re gonna film that part.”

HAL CUMPSTON:   They made us stay back a few extra days.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   It was the last thing we did.

HAL CUMPSTON:   Then, when I realized it was for the ball, I was like, “That’s sick; that’s a good way to end it.” Having fun with Nick, just straight up fun. It’s insane. There’s this part in it that’s not even in the show where they shot us with these like blood guns.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   No, that was in there.

HAL CUMPSTON:   Like directly into our eyes. Is it?

QUESTION:   I did see Nicholas get a little blood on his eye when you were running them over.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   It was his hydraulic gun that they shot.

HAL CUMPSTON:   Yeah, it went directly into my fucking eye; I was blind.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   That was the last thing we ever did, and so we ended the whole series. They’re like, “That’s a wrap on Nick and Hal,” just both blind like, “Oh, thanks guys.” It was so fun.

HAL CUMPSTON:   It made me want to do a buddy cop movie or something with Nick; that stunt stuff was so fun.

Q) Well, I’ll put that out into the world and see if we can make it manifest.

HAL CUMPSTON:   Yeah, I am trying to get my own stuff funded. It’s hard to be given millions of dollars, apparently.

Q) Julia, what do you think she’s thinking in her jail cell when she’s laying there?

JULIA ORMOND:   I think when Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh) comes to her and calls her out on everything, it takes a while for it to catch up; it takes a while for her process it. I think, for me, what she was thinking in that moment was a kind of mix of, “Fuck everybody,” and “I’m up against the wall.” It’s sort of like her morality resurfaces from it. It’s like she switches a track in that moment, but it may well be too late, because now, she’s in prison. That and “Oh my god, everybody hates me. Who am I going to sit next to at lunch?”

Q) And Nicholas, you were Luke Skywalker territory there, buddy, losing that hand.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   Yeah, I got a little more than the hand.

Q) Yes, you did. Probably closer to Annakin, then.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   Yes, thank you for that. I’ll take it. When do I get my lightsaber?

Q) There you go. Thank you.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   Thanks. Seriously, man, give me my light saber.

Q) So, the questions I had, first for Hal, one of the things that stood out to me in the finale was Jadis’s comments to Silas in regard to him not being sure who he was as a person just yet but her knowing what he can become. I guess one of the things I appreciated about Silas’s character was his relationship with Iris. So, do you think this could be like an issue upcoming for how close Silas and Iris were throughout the season with Jadis kind of maybe implying that he might not be the same person when he meets up with Iris again? Do you think this could be something that can kind of sever the relationship between Silas and Iris (Aliyah Royale)?

HAL CUMPSTON:   Well, I mean, that’s all well and good, but guess who died? Percy (Ted Sutherland)! Maybe Silas has got another chance, come back a different man. I mean, he’s a lot more mature. He’s less of a liability, I feel, because before it was just getting almost a bit annoying…I mean, he’s more alive. I don’t even know exactly what you’re referring to with [Jadis] when she says that, but I get the general idea of the show and my character is that they’re saying, “You’ve got to be yourself, and now you can be yourself.” So, anyway, that’s not a rounded answer. I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore. [laughs]

Q) My question is for Alexa. With everything that has gone down, how do you think Hope feels about Mason (Will Meyers) right now, and how do you think Mason feels about Hope right now?

ALEXA MANSOUR:   I think Hope wants to rip Mason’s brain out of his head and then cook it up and feed it to the walkers. Mason was a little piece of – I don’t know if I can curse on here, so I’ll just say he was this little piece of crap.

HAL CUMPSTON:   You can curse.

ALEXA MANSOUR:   I can?

NICHOLAS CANTU:   Let it fly.

ALEXA MANSOUR:   Mason is a fucking piece of shit.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   Whoa!

HAL CUMPSTON:   Oh! You can print that.

ALEXA MANSOUR:  [laughs] I think that Mason definitely feels like Hope is like a bad person and that she’s part of the bad side or whatever, but Hope thinks the same thing about Mason. At the end of the day, they’re both just kids, but Mason’s definitely the bad one, one hundred percent. He should have died. So, that’s just me.

Q) You dropped an S bomb during the episode, and you flipped the bird as well. That’s not something –

HAL CUMPSTON:   An S bomb?

ALEXA MANSOUR:   Okay, full disclosure, I have not seen any of the episodes. I’ve dropped a lot of F bombs. Why are you laughing, Hal? What’s so funny?

HAL CUMPSTON:   You’re just, “Full discloser, I haven’t seen any of the episodes.” Do you think people reading [this] actually want to hear that? [laughs]

ALEXA MANSOUR:   Okay, maybe don’t print that part. I don’t know, but –

HAL CUMPSTON:   Don’t tell them you’re not watching it.

JULIA ORMOND:   I mean, there are different reasons why people don’t watch their own stuff.

HAL CUMPSTON:   True.

JULIA ORMOND:   There’s a difference between watching it and being in it, you know?

ALEXA MANSOUR:   Yeah, like, I don’t want to watch something that I’m in and I’m just judging myself all the time. But the F bomb, I do remember saying that and then being like, “Oh, I don’t know if we can actually use it.” So, we did a couple of different takes. It’s kind of cool if they did use it, because that’s me. So, take me as I am and love me for me. I guess they do. That’s always nice.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   I’m just like, “Yeah, I wish Elton got some of that.” That would have been sick.

HAL CUMPSTON:   I didn’t get any swear words the whole show.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   There’s a kill count, and then there’s a swear count for our show.

HAL CUMPSTON:   Yeah, I’m pretty low on both.

Q)  I know, Nick, you answered the first half of this for me before, but other people didn’t hear it, so you can answer too, but if the apocalypse were real and they were really zombies running around, how do each of you think that you would do as yourself, as the actor? And if you could take any character from any of the universe, any of the three shows, with you, who would it be and why?

NICHOLAS CANTU:   So, I already answered this, so I’m gonna deflect to someone else, because I answered this.

ALEXA MANSOUR:   Wait, could you repeat the question really quick? Because I got the first part of it.

Q) How would you do if there was a real zombie apocalypse? And who would you take with you to help you?

ALEXA MANSOUR:   As myself as Alexa?

Q) Yeah.

ALEXA MANSOUR:   Okay, well, probably not that good. I don’t think I would die. I think that the zombies would probably pity me a little bit, because I’m that weak. Who would I take with me? I would take – from any of the other shows?

Q) Yeah, from any of them.

ALEXA MANSOUR:   I would take Norman Reedus, because I feel like he would sit there and have a cigarette with me while the world’s burning down, and he’s got great aim, and he’s really cute.

JULIA ORMOND:   How do the zombies feel sorry for you?

NICHOLAS CANTU:   Yeah, I didn’t track that either.

ALEXA MANSOUR:   I don’t know. I feel like I could just I would start telling the zombies about what’s going on in my life.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   You would trauma jump on some empties?

ALEXA MANSOUR:   Trauma dump? [laughs] I’d be like, “You guys, my boyfriend literally just broke up with me!” – this did not happen, by the way. I don’t have a boyfriend, but you know, just like using them as –

HAL CUMPSTON:   Not yet.

ALEXA MANSOUR:   Not yet, but when I do get one, he will break up with me. [laughs] Do you see what I mean? I think I would just go on and on, and they’d just be like, “Fuck, get this girl away from me.”

NICHOLAS CANTU:   They’d be like, “we don’t want to eat her.”

ALEXA MANSOUR:   Yeah, we don’t wanna eat her.

NICHOLAS CANTU:   Too many bad vibes.

Q) What about you, Hal?

HAL CUMPSTON:   I think I’d do pretty well, to be honest. I wouldn’t mind it. I just had to do another three-day quarantine, because of a new strain. Like, honestly, if they keep coming out with new strains, I might encourage the idea of an apocalypse. You’re fucking mental if I have to quarantine one more time. Do you guys not agree?

JULIA ORMOND:   How are you doing with protocols, Hal?

HAL CUMPSTON:   With protocols, as in like keeping distance? I got to be honest, I mean, what better time to reveal that I am not following any rules then to the press? [laughs]

JULIA ORMOND:   Sometimes it’s a function of protocols and sometimes it’s a function of how much you have to move around for work, right?

HAL CUMPSTON:   Yeah, true. I mean, literally, no one else is quarantine. It’s just because Australia is really tough when you come in from a different place. Apparently, everyone is like happy to just stay here forever. Whereas me, I’ve got a twinkle in my eye and a chip on my shoulder, and I want to travel the world

Q) We heard from Nicholas about how their last day of filming was for the series. Alexa and Julia, could you talk about what your last days were like?

ALEXA MANSOUR:   My last day was awesome. We shot everything in blocks. So, I think my last scenes were from 209, or they were before Percy died, because my last scenes were with Percy, Iris, and [Nico]. It was great, because I love all those people, and it was kind of nice to bring Percy back to life for a couple of hours, but it was that scene when we were in the laboratory, and it was just nice to have everyone together, besides Hal and Nick, which kind of sucked, but it was a nice send off. Then, when you wrap the show and everyone starts clapping and everyone’s crying, it’s just a great moment

JULIA ORMOND:   My last scene was the arrest from Jadis, so, yeah, it was kind of a nice meaty scene  to end up with in the end, and I just remember that there was a bullfrog in the bushes that was bullfrog belching throughout the whole thing, and at first we couldn’t find it, then we had to scare it off, then it was –

HAL CUMPSTON:   Was its name Jeremiah?

JULIA ORMOND:   Say again?

HAL CUMPSTON:   Was his name Jerimiah?

JULIA ORMOND:   I remember the bullfrog, but it was that kind of thing where it’s always such a mixed thing where you have your last day, because it’s just a double edged sword of you’re kind of sad that it’s come to an end, but it’s also kind of satisfying and you’re like, “Yeah, I’m going home,” but it’s also kind of sad.

HAL CUMPSTON:   It’s probably different [for you]. You’re more used to it. In my head, I’m like, “I’m going to see these people again,” but in reality, I’m probably not.

JULIA ORMOND:   Yeah, you kind of you do prepare yourself, as an actor, for the fact that that moment’s coming, because I think there’s something about when you enter in something – As a younger actor it’s kind of like a second family kind of thing, and you’re sort of having fun and really sort of getting close to people. I used to be absolutely devastated as it all came to a close. I think I’m a bit boring as I’m older.

HAL CUMPSTON:   I wouldn’t say that.

JULIA ORMOND:   You didn’t know me when I was young, Hal.

HAL CUMPSTON:   No, no, I’m saying you’re not boring now.

JULIA ORMOND:   Thank you, babe. I appreciate it.

HAL CUMPSTON:   I think you’re very interesting.

JULIA ORMOND:   I am a bit kind of protective, I think, in terms of not having expectations that people are gonna have time. You have a different sense of reality in terms of just how all over the place people [are] and how nomadic people’s lives are. You know, when you’re back, someone else is away. It is quite hard, but –

HAL CUMPSTON:   It’s really weird like this. It’s a pretty odd job to keep doing it. It’s like you join a different school; it’s the first day of school and…you have like seven days, and just as you’re getting [to be] friends with people that you like, you spread apart.

JULIA ORMOND:   Yeah, yeah.

Q) Well, Hal, I have to say, you were brilliant in Nine Perfect Strangers.

HAL CUMPSTON:   Oh, thank you.

Q) That was an incredible role.

HAL CUMPSTON:   Yeah, that was awesome. They shot it in Australia during when there was no COVID happening. I think someone else was even in that role, but they had to get a certain amount of Australians in there for the quarter, I think, and I was able to steal it. What made it even juicier is that I know that every other boy from sixteen to twenty-five auditioned for it, but I got it. I got to go to Byron Bay and hang out, and it was so fun, and it was so easy. Acting with really good actors is like playing basketball with NBA players. It’s so easy and just really fun. So, thanks.

Q) For Alexa and Hal, and we’ll start with Alexa first. You both had intense scenes involving essentially a gun and maybe killing somebody. In one case you did. Talk about preparing for those kinds of scenes and then performing it. I would think you would be kind of drained a little bit emotionally after doing it.

HAL CUMPSTON:   You go first.

ALEXA MANSOUR:   Thank you.

HAL CUMPSTON:   You go first.

ALEXA MANSOUR:   I hate guns. I really don’t like them. So, doing scenes like that and having something in my hand that literally has the power to actually hurt somebody is terrifying, in my opinion. The first time I had to use a gun was for season one with that scene with Huck. I remember putting the gun down and shaking afterwards. Also like when you’re crying and doing all this kind of stuff and holding that kind of weapon, it is really draining. I don’t know about Hal or anybody else, but what I do seems like that I take from my personal experiences. So, it takes me a while to kind of wind down after doing a scene like that, to kind of get back to being happy and giddy and not thinking about whatever it is that was making me sad and mad.

HAL CUMPSTON:   Yeah, it’s pretty weird that you have to put yourself in a bad state like, because I don’t know what I’m doing. I just didn’t eat anything and just drank a bunch of coffee, and it was ridiculously hot. In that scene where I had to shoot Dennis. I didn’t do anything. I’d just drunk a bunch of coffees and just felt so sick…so then, when I had to do the scene and be all sad, it was a little bit easier to get to. I think I did pretty well. I got there. I’m always so nervous I’m just not going to get there.

Q)  My question is for Julia, it’s a quick two part question. So, even after the arrest, does Kublek believe that what she did is justified, that the CRM’s actions are justified. Secondly, on the other show, we saw how Negan went from a very hateable character to being a beloved character. So, now that there is an even bigger villain on the show, can you imagine, I mean, maybe in one of the future spin offs, or something else, Kublek having the same kind of character development?

JULIA ORMOND:   I think there’s something really critical that – and I haven’t seen how it cuts together, and sometimes they cut stuff, but I do remember that we have this line that she says, “I was a believer.” Not “I am,” “I was.” And I think that, for me, was a kind of lynchpin…The way that this story goes for her is you get the flashback; you get to understand what’s between this huge rift between her and Jennifer, and the breaking of her arm and letting her do that and the justice of dissociation that Elizabeth has in terms of the choices that she has to make. It’s really Jennifer that brings it back. So, losing her daughter and her demise and Jadis coming at her, it all kind of disintegrates at the same time kind of thing. So, I’m waffling a bit, but ask me the question again, sorry.

Q) Yeah, the second part is, let’s assume that there is some kind of a spin off or maybe a continuation of your story. Is it possible for you to go from the most despised character on the show to becoming – I mean, is there a possibility of a redemption arc, so to speak?

JULIA ORMOND:   Now I remember why I couldn’t remember the question. I think I was just shocked that you called me the most despised person on the show. I was still processing that one. So, I’ve always kind of loved Negan as a character. I’ve loved the way that he’s gone on that character arc of changing and having these moments of who does he protect and sort of the character arc that [he goes] on…Part of what I love about the writing in the show is that they open up the possibility of where does this character go? I think it’s quite clever, because, at any point, I sort of feel any character could go in any direction, and you really don’t know. But definitely where I felt Elizabeth ended up was in this place where she I think she is a competent soldier, because she’s got enough kind of separation from – she’s able to make the tough decisions, clearly, but I think she’s questioning whether or not she can make the moral decision around it. So, I think she’s definitely at a turning point when she’s in prison. The question is whether or not it’s too late. At the same time, she could be the hero of the whole piece all along. She could have been the one trying to turn things around; she could have been somebody who maybe was actually trying to bring them in. Maybe Jadis was right. I don’t know.

QUESTION:  This question is for Julia too. This is kind of what you’re talking about, but assuming she wasn’t pretending, can you just talk about how you connected to, I guess, the evil part of the character, because obviously, she’s done a lot of really, really bad things. How did you kind of get in that mindset and connect to that part of her since, obviously, you’re not like that?

JULIA ORMOND:   It was super hard, but the nugget that I think I kind of cracked is, I think, in my heart of hearts, I’m a pacifist, and I don’t believe in war. But at the same time, I have a lot of sympathy for – there are all sorts of people who in life go to war on behalf of the nation, and they go, and they do this crazy thing of putting their lives at risk on behalf of the nation. I’m also someone who’s looked at conflict resolution and looked at genocide and kind of made films about it and documented and all the rest of it. I think once I got to the point of, “Oh, this is a completely new world. A post-apocalyptic world means there are very few human beings left.” So, instead of having to just defend the boundary of your nation, or the ethics and value system of your nation around the world, in a war, your boundary is now we have to protect the human race. I think if you asked most of us how many – let’s say you had a veteran or whatever – actually, a veteran may have a different perspective, but if you were to ask most people, how many people were killed as veteran in this war or that war, they might be able to come up with a pretty accurate sort of number or not, depending on how much they’ve been tracking it, but it’s very, very hard for us to say, “This is the collateral damage.” We don’t even call them people; we call them “collateral damage.” There are so many more people killed in wars in terms of collateral damage. I kind of think that, for me, was the justification, that it’s not even a huge shift for soldiers who are defending something to shift into “We are now going to start committing genocide,” because as soon as you work out [that] there’re only limited resources, you switch to the patterns of behavior that you’ve seen throughout communities in The Walking Dead. One community is out to kill the others, because they understand that there are limited resources. So, the CRM has set out on this agenda to protect the human race, and that’s kind of why I think it’s exciting, because this ending that people have talked about [laughs] that I have seen in terms of The Walking Dead all over the world, it opens up; from what I can imagine, it ramps up the stakes in terms of they’re not the toughest or strongest, or is there some sort of international play as like how [this] works itself out. I wouldn’t be able to tell you whether or not Elizabeth – I had made a presumption that they were isolated enough to not believe that there was other entities around the world. That stuff can happen in TV too. It’s kind of like, “No, no, your character knew this all along!” Like, but I didn’t. [laughs]

 

 

*CONFERENCE CALL*