Khary Payton, Eleanor Matsuura, Josh McDermitt & Callan McAuliffe – The Walking Dead

By starrymag | August 22, 2021

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q) Eugene has come so far since we first met him. How did you change or alter your portrayal of him to go from meek to leader?

Josh: I didn’t know where he would end up when I first came on. I was just trying to play the truth of who I felt like this guy was and just take it script to script. And if there were moments where I could change something about him based on what was going on inside of him, I would take that opportunity. And having conversations with Scott Gimple and even Michael Cudlitz throughout the show, we were always talking about our characters and what they were going through. And if there were ways to help them grow this might be a good opportunity or this speech affected him in this way, or this scene effects this person and how can you make the changes and adjustments. I think that he’s certainly gained more confidence throughout his time on the show and that, in itself, changes your physical behavior between someone who has confidence and someone who lacks confidence. The physicality of that is different. So, I think we definitely saw some changes there. And his emotional spectrum has always been this big [gestures to a small amount] and maybe now it’s this big [gestures a little bigger than the previous amount]. So, it’s been fun to push and explore where he has been able to change. The writers have done a wonderful job at just giving us somewhere to go instead of locking us in to one area where we’re set in our portrayals. That would become boring. What really drew me into the show to begin with, you see even Daryl – who we saw him as back in Season 1 – and who he ends up becoming, even by Season 2 and Season 3 and the changes that he continues to go through. That’s really what I loved about the show – that no one was stagnant. Even now, we’re Season 11 and I’m still looking for ways how can we change, how can we grow and how can we do different things within the portrayal of who this guy is.

Q) Is he feeling guilty for bringing his friends out to meet Stephanie only to be caged in boxcars? What is his current mindset?

Josh: Yeah, I think he’s definitely second guessing the decisions that he has made. He might have been blinded by love a little bit – the connection he made with Stephanie on the radio. It’s like, “Oh crap! Did I make the wrong decision here?” I mean, obviously, he’s not just there for her – although, that’s a huge component of why he’s there. These communities are sort of at war and they are falling, and they need resources, and they need help. The choices that he makes has huge consequences for everyone else and he’s starting to second guess that and say, “Did I make the wrong choice? Are people going to die?” He certainly doesn’t want that, but we’re starting to see how that affects him mentally and emotionally and I think we’ll see continue to see that.

Q) Is it bittersweet to have this long goodbye for your characters that you’ve inhabited for so long and so fully?

Khary: Better than a short goodbye. I think we’ve all lived on this show when we’ve had the opportunity to get a phone call and given a couple of weeks to pack your bags. I think if you think about the alternative, this ain’t such a bad way to go. We get a lot of questions about mourning the end. But it is a long end. This is a nice long victory lap, I would say. This is the longest season that we’ve ever shot and we’re going to be shooting well into next year. I think if we started crying now, boy, we’d be spent by the time we got done. I’m still in the process of enjoying telling the story. I feel like there is so much that has been given to us as artists, actors and crew, filmmakers alike. And I feel like there is so much that is going to be given to the audience as well. There is just so much to chew on and so much to live through. So, right now, I’m genuinely excited about the active storytelling. Maybe when we get a little bit closer to finishing the actual shooting, it’ll start to sink in for me. But, honestly, we’re surrounded by wonderful storytellers and they are really giving us some really cool things to use to give to our characters. So, I’m not ready to be on the goodbye aspect of it yet. I’m ready to be about it.

Eleanor: I just want to say that it’s so funny talking about this being the final season. I have said this before, but the trailer that you saw at Comic Con – bear in mind that was released when we were probably not even a third of the way through our filming. So, all of that stuff that was packed into the Comic Con trailer, it is just the beginning of what we are shooting. At the moment we’re right in the middle of it. So, even though there is so much talk about being the final season and it being the end, it really does feel like a long way off. It really does feel like we’ve got so much more to do. My personal wish is for there not to be a big drawn-out goodbye. That’s just my personal preference. What I would love is to finish the show and then fast forward to Comic Con 2022 and I want the entire cast to be there in person. Like, as lovely as it is to see you all on Zoom, I want to see people again. I want us all to celebrate and I want that to be the goodbye. That’s just my personal wish.

Josh: In terms of the long goodbye, it is weird to think that this is it. And in a weird way I’m starting to pare down the things I have in my home down here in Georgia and that sort of thing. But then also going, “Oh, we’re shooting into next year.” But at the same time, I think that as soon as production wraps we’re not letting go of our characters. We can’t just turn off that quickly. I think we’ll still find discoveries and growth within those characters even after the scripts stop coming out. So, it is going to be a weird transition coming off of a show that has been going on for so long and playing a character that has been going on for so long. It is an interesting thing, but it’s certainly always in the front of my mind thinking about it. As I’m driving around Georgia I’m going, “This is winding down. It’s hot and muggy. Thank God this is winding down. Oh, that’s beautiful! It’s too bad this is winding down.” I’m always thinking about it. It’s sad, but we’ve made some great friendships and relationships here. And I want to echo our AMC publicity – the whole cast needs to be at the final Comic Con. We need to make that happen.

Q) One of the things about “The Walking Dead” that I love is that it is a show that it is a series that forces you to think about the decisions that you make and how it will impact your survival. Not only your survival but your ability to live with your decisions and decide that you’ve done the right thing. There is a lot of introspection that happens in these first two episodes for all of the characters and for your four characters especially. I’m wondering, in analyzing where your characters are, would you consider your characters doing anything differently or are they exactly where they need to be – did they make their decisions with no regrets?

Khary: Ezekiel should have told Rick to get the hell on. “I’m doing just fine without you. Bye!” He should have answered the gates of the kingdom like the first dude in The Wizard of Oz – just open the little door like, “No thank you. We don’t need any. Bye!” I think The Kingdom would have been much better off. [laughs] Somebody else answer this seriously because I can’t! [laughs]

Callan: I was thinking…I have often wondered what Alden would have gotten up to if he’d never joined up with The Saviors and never become Negan as it were. I think that journey, I’m sure he considers a misstep when he retraces the timeline of his life. It’s a testament to the fact that missteps of that kind can sometimes lead to very positive places and the vacuum that they leave is often filled in with something better. While it’s interesting to think about the different things that he could have done, I like to think that it’s all lead to having met these people. In sort of a meta way, my having met the cast and crew. So, I’m glad he didn’t make any different decisions along the way.

Q) We’re heading into the show’s final season. What about your experiences will you take with you to future roles?

Eleanor: Oh my God. Well, I don’t know about you guys…I can’t believe we’ve gotten this far without talking about Georgia and the weather. I feel like that comes up in every single question when we’re talking about the show. I honestly feel like there is something truly, truly liberating about joining a show like this. My first scene that I ever did I was covered in mud from head to toe and was shoved out into a field probably on the hottest day of the year. Certainly, the hottest day I’d ever experienced in my life! And I was in the middle of a zombie attack. It was the first scene where our group enters the show. There is no glamor about it. It was just raw, and the sweat was the sweat. There was no need to put makeup on. It was an incredibly bonding experience. It was the first time I’d ever met the rest of my group and worked with my group and it really kind of imitates – art meets life. It’s like you’re thrown in the deep end, and you’ve all got to make it work and rely on each other. I feel like those experiences are hard to replicate, but they’ve definitely changed me because if I’ve done that I genuinely feel like I can do pretty much anything. I’ll go and do another job now and I can’t believe they are putting makeup on me or I get to sit in a nice warm chair. I’m like, “Thank you so much!” It’s like once you’ve done “The Walking Dead” camp – I don’t know about you guys, but I sort of feel like I can handle pretty much anything.

Callan: I’m excited to see if I ever manage to recover the old Californian accent that I used to do when I first moved to the US. All the years of being in Georgia and kind of once every month or so stepping in to say a couple of Alden lines in the Speak Easy Presenter or Wartime announcer voice that it has suddenly spiraled into. So, I’m curious to see where I go in future roles.

Khary: Callan is some sort of time traveler, I’m sure. I feel like he’s just stepped in to so many places that he has – every vowel is from another continent.

Callan: I did just do an Irish audition so that may have bled in a little more than usual today.

Josh: That’s the thing with Callan. We give him so much crap for his accent and that’s the one thing I’m going to miss about working with Callan when the show finally ends – who am I going to make fun of?

[Everyone laughs]

Josh: Really, what I take to my next job is I have to find my new Callan.

Callan: It’s because I don’t clapback as often as I nearly ought to. Everyone gets a free pass. I’m too giving. I’m too benevolent.

Eleanor: You are from a different time. So cute.

Josh: I want to kind of echo what Eleanor was saying just about how difficult this show is to shoot. When you actually do go work on a different show, especially ones that shoot on a stage or something, you’re just like, “Whoa. Whoa, this is how the other side lives? This is crazy.” It does become easier, but I think it just heightens your abilities and your craft because you’ve gone through (as she puts it) “The Walking Dead” bootcamp. It allows you to not have to think about, “Am I about to get eaten by a snake now?” Or can I just deliver this monologue and not worry about it? That’s something that is really cool and exciting. Then, of course, the Callan effect.

Eleanor: I just want to quickly add on (because I feel like it’s worth saying). Particularly for women, we’re very used to having sort of all the things put on us in the chair – you get the hair and the makeup. It’s very liberating to not have to run that gauntlet every day. I’m pretty sure most of the women in particular on the show would agree with me because we’ve had conversations about it. They say that’s the thing that they miss the most when they’re not on this job. They miss the freedom that gives them to just get on with the work.

Callan: For me, I’m normally in the chair longer because they’re usually putting dirt and all kinds of stuff on my face, which I think makes me a better actor.

Khary: I already miss when my storyline calls for me to be on set less because I enjoy the comradery that comes with swimming in the muck and the dirt with our incredible crew that sits out in it every day.

Callan: Nothing makes friends like mutual discomfort.

Khary: I remember there was a guy who was going to take over the greens job. I think he worked a day. He worked a day. He was like, “No. It’s too much. It’s too much.” And you know, maybe it is. Maybe it is. It probably is. This might be one of those situations that we look back later – like child labor laws. But there is nothing like that to literally bond people together. I love the way that Eleanor talks about the makeup, and everything is the last layer you put on. You put on the weather. You put on the rain, the sweat and the grime and that truly finishes off the look before you get to go out and play. Not only will it be different, but I will genuinely miss the so called “discomfort” because it’s like taking a long hike up a mountain. Driving up there just isn’t the same. There is something about putting on your boots, walking up that mountain and looking over. And it makes that vista that much sweeter. I’m going to absolutely miss the walk up the mountain.

Josh: There was an actor (and I won’t say who because I think we’re trying to avoid spoilers) the other day who said to me, “How do we do this? How do we get to the emotional place when it’s like ninety-five degrees and ninety-five percent humidity?” I’m like, “I don’t know. You just figure it out, man. I don’t know.” But it’s just like, everybody that comes in, they have to take their cues from the other cast. I think that’s what some of us who were fortunate to work with Andrew Lincoln saw. He wasn’t complaining about it. I think if people were complaining about it so much. And we all complain about it, but it’s more about, “This sucks, but we’re doing it.” If we had a diva as the lead of our show the rest of us would have had the green light to be the diva as well. The fact that he wasn’t made the next person not and the next person not. It trickles down in the greatest way to where we’re now Season 11 and we have a new actor coming in asking, “How do we do it?” I’m like, “We just do it. We just have to figure it out.” That’s like the secret to the show, in a sense. People are just finding a way and it’s truly special. We have that bond. We truly have that bond. It becomes another character or as Khary says, “We put on the weather as well.”